Newcastle star Jamaal Lascelles feels Eddie Howe has made his job ‘so much easier’

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Jamaal Lascelles feels Eddie Howe has made his job as Newcastle United captain ‘so much easier’ by establishing a leadership group at St James’ Park, via quotes by Chronicle Live.

The skipper admits he has struggled to keep a united dressing room over his years with the armband on Tyneside. But he now believes the squad is offering a unified front after Howe sought to add proven talents who would also offer leadership in the January transfer sales.

Kieran Trippier, Dan Burn, Chris Wood and Matt Targett all added to what the boss already had available at United. Now, Newcastle boast what Lascelles feels is akin to the group of leaders the top sides have sought to establish for numerous years, but the club has lacked.

Trippier, for one, has certainly stood out as one of the Magpies’ new leaders since a £12m move from Atletico Madrid. He has already taken the armband in a match, as well, but also suffered a foot injury that required surgery after scoring in the 1-0 victory over Aston Villa.

Howe awarded Trippier the captaincy at home to Steven Gerrard’s side with Lascelles out through illness. He has since only played twice, starting once, in the Premier League, with Jonjo Shelvey on four occasions and Fabian Schar taking the armband in the other games.

Lascelles feels Eddie Howe made his job as Newcastle captain ‘so much easier’

But Lascelles’ importance for Newcastle extends off the pitch, and he feels Howe’s activity in the transfer window has made his on-and-off the field requirements less of an ordeal.

“It’s just made my job so much easier,” he said. “There have been times here, years here, where I’ve found it difficult trying to keep the dressing room together, keep relationships, keep things positive.

“When you’ve got five, six or seven players all doing that, it just makes my job so much easier. A lot of the stuff I do isn’t necessarily on the pitch at St James’, it’s on the training ground. You look at the bigger teams back in the day, they’d have a group of players.

“You look at Man U, they’d have a group of players, lieutenants, I guess. I think we’ve got that at the minute, like a leadership group. I think that’s a real good thing for the team. I think the new players have added to what was already here. The manager was smart.”

Lascelles will hope to return to the line-up when Howe takes Newcastle to Tottenham this Sunday. Victory in north London can take the Toon 12 points clear of the drop zone, should Watford fail to take a point against Liverpool and Burnley also against Manchester City.