Jamaal Lascelles and Tino Livramento agree 29-year-old Newcastle player is the toughest to face in training

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Jamaal Lascelles and Tino Livramento have both agreed that there is one Newcastle United player who is the hardest to beat in training.

In a 1v1 drill you’d expect that the toughest to beat would be a star of the team like Kieran Trippier or Sven Botman, but apparently not.

The Newcastle pair took part in a teammates quiz on YouTube and both agreed that Emil Krafth is the player who they find it difficult to beat in training.

Newcastle duo give shocking answer about training

It’s not a criticism of Krafth who has proven in his five years at the club that he is a very competent Premier League defender, he’s just not the first name you would think of when asked to pick out the club’s best 1v1 defender.

Perhaps that explains why Eddie Howe was so keen to keep him around in January when clubs like Malmo had approached the right-back, but instead he chose to stay at St James’ Park despite the lack of playing time.

Krafth is in a tough position with both Trippier and Livramento ahead of him, so he’s very unlikely to ever play, and yet he continues to be a model professional for the younger players and always supportive off the pitch.

With Newcastle’s defensive record currently struggling, perhaps Howe may even try Krafth out more often in a bid to improve things and put a bit of motivation into the other players.

Krafth has shown a lot of loyalty to Newcastle

There were a number of times when Krafth could have left the club in search of more regular first-team minutes, and yet he’s willingly stuck around to support the team and the manager.

The Swedish international was actually in a good run of form, probably his best at the club, before suffering an ACL injury which kept him out for the whole of last season.

However, the £5m signing worked hard to get back for the team and made a brilliant return in the Carabao Cup by keeping a clean sheet at Old Trafford and helping to record an emphatic 3-0 victory.

It will be interesting to see how the head coach uses the 29-year-old in what’s left of the current season and what the future holds for Krafth given his lack of first-team minutes.