Graeme Souness reveals whether or not he actually likes watching Newcastle United now

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Hearing Graeme Souness talk about Newcastle United can be painful at times. 

Souness, of course, endured a largely poor two-year stint in charge of Newcastle United between 2004 and 2006, which proved the last job in his long managerial career. 

Such was the difficulty he endured at St James’ Park, Souness has been critical of Newcastle since and admitted he found it a “very difficult” place to work.  

In October, the Scotsman said: “I worked at Newcastle for two years and found it a very difficult place. I think there’s a general frustration born out of them not being successful.”

Strangely enough, however, the 71-year-old has now paid a rather big compliment to Eddie Howe’s current side. 

• READ MORE: Newcastle United confirm Eddie Howe return

Graeme Souness sends Newcastle United a big compliment

The former Newcastle United manager was the subject of an interview in The Daily Telegraph. 

During it, Souness was critical about some of the styles of play he sees coaches employing in the modern game.

Of former Burnley boss Vincent Kompany (now at Bayern Munich of course), he said: “’I’m mystified by these young coaches obsessed with rolling it out from the back. What Vincent Kompany was doing last year [at Burnley]. There was only one outcome, he was going to get relegated.” 

When asked which teams he enjoyed watching, however, Souness said: “I still like to watch Liverpool and Newcastle and my local side Bournemouth. That’s because they don’t play all their football on the halfway line.”

Pep Guardiola’s comments on Newcastle United style of play

Indeed, Souness isn’t the only big-name figure in football to enjoy watching Newcastle play.

Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola has been impressed with Newcastle this season. 

In January, Guardiola said: “Today modern football is the way Bournemouth, Newcastle, Brighton and Liverpool play.” 

As per WhoScored data, Newcastle are tenth for average possession this season (50.3%). Still, they are above six of the teams who enjoy much more of the ball than them on average (Chelsea, Brighton, Aston Villa, Tottenham, Manchester United and Fulham).  

Liverpool had much more possession in the Carabao Cup final too (65.6% to 34.4%) but Newcastle still looked largely in control at Wembley until the closing stages on their way to a first major domestic trophy in 70 years. 

At their best, Newcastle are devastating and while having good players helps, Howe’s system is certainly bringing the best out of them.