Christian Atsu has revealed that everyone at Newcastle United are behind manager Steve Bruce this season.
The Ghanaian international believed the formation adopted by Bruce in the 1-0 victory over Tottenham on Sunday worked very well, with the new boss creating a good atmosphere between the player since arriving.
The £30,000-a-wk winger [Spotrac] claimed to the Shields Gazette that the formations used by Bruce have worked and they will continue to get better, with all the players really understanding his methods.
“We’re a very good team,” he said.
“This is going to change a lot of things for the players and the fans. The season is a long season, so we just need to carry on. Any formation that he wants to play, we are behind him. We’re going to give everything.”
“I can say, gradually, we’re really understanding his gameplan. We’re very organised and always behind him. This is going to change the atmosphere.”
This was after Michael Chopra claimed to talkSPORT that certain Newcastle players had told him that they don’t work on shape in training, leading them to not knowing their jobs on a matchday.
OPINION
This will surely clear many things up given the hectic week at Newcastle United after their defeat to Norwich City. Many instantly had written the Magpies off after the dismal showing at Carrow Road, but Bruce delivered the perfect response by guiding his side to victory over Tottenham. The manager held his nerve as well, changing formation, but more importantly sticking with that plan even after Allan Saint-Maximin was forced from the field through injury. It would have been easy for Bruce to throw on an extra man in the heart of midfield, but instead, he replaced the winger with Atsu, who came on and was superb. Atsu has repaid that faith in him by backing Bruce massively, giving him the ultimate credit that the entire squad are behind him, and that what they are working on is clearly paying off – surely putting to bed any questionable rumours about how the squad train. Bruce must not rest on one win though and push on to try and build on that success.
