Kieran Trippier has criticised former Newcastle United manager Steve Bruce over his training methods at the club during their terrible run of form at the start of the season.
Speaking on the True Geordie Podcast, the right-back revealed that Newcastle players had told him how training was conducted under Bruce, and that the methods used and the number of days off given to the squad likely led to their poor results earlier in the campaign.
Newcastle looked nailed on to go down under Bruce in the first half of the season, with the northeast side looking hopeless as the Magpies didn’t win a game at all under Bruce, who was sacked in late October shortly after PIF’s takeover of the club.
Since then, though, Eddie Howe has turned the club on its head, with Newcastle unbeaten in the Premier League in 2022 with the Magpies sitting pretty in 14th in the standings and five points off the relegation zone.
Indeed, Howe’s impact and the signings of Trippier and Dan Burn have transformed Newcastle, and for the England right-back, what he heard from players who played under Bruce was a club that looked set to go down.
Trippier said: “Some players told me about the training and how they weren’t going through a good patch, and sometimes that doesn’t help as players. The way you train is the way you play, so obviously if you’re having a lot of days off, you’re not training right and you’re not going to perform.“
Trippier’s comments show how far Howe has pushed Newcastle from Bruce
Many Newcastle fans questioned the decision to hire Howe following the sacking of Bruce, yet in just a few short months, the choice has been regarded by the majority as the right call by the club, with the English coach bringing a sense of hope to the northeast.
The former AFC Bournemouth manager’s methods in training have made a massive difference for Newcastle’s players, who were seemingly being underused in training by Bruce during the first half of the season.
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