What Eddie Howe told players in Newcastle training session video

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Newcastle United have released their latest training video on their official YouTube channel.

Videos of highlights from the session are becoming the norm, as fans get a taste of what Eddie Howe is doing with the players on the training ground.

The mood in the camp should be great following Saturday’s win over Burnley, giving Newcastle their first three points of the season.

Players will have confidence again, and they have nothing to fear ahead of Sunday’s trip to Leicester.

But Howe had a clear message for his team as they were put through their paces.

Possession is key for Newcastle in training video

The six-minute long video was published on Newcastle’s YouTube channel on Wednesday afternoon.

At the three minute 38 seconds mark, Howe can be heard telling the players ‘we’re panicking’. Amongst some inaudible dialogue, he tells them to ‘relax’.

“That’s where I think you’ve got to slow the ball down and play with control and quality,” he says.

This highlights how important quality of possession now is for Newcastle. And it was a major problem during Steve Bruce’s reign.

We were never able to dominate possession or keep the ball for long spells. It was often passed around with no urgency until we were put under pressure. Then it moved like a hot potato and we rarely held on to it.

That’s what Howe is trying to drill out of the players. Control is something we rarely have in Premier League games, but the 44-year-old is trying to change that.

The better we get in possession, the more we can dictate the game. While we are decent on the counterattack, a lot of our breaks used to come from waiting for the opposition to make a mistake.

As Howe says, we can’t afford to panic when in possession. The more composed we are, the more likely we are to beat teams’ high press.

Newcastle are a work in progress under Howe, but the early signs are good.