Newcastle players are not being drilled properly on the training pitch since Steve Bruce was appointed manager, former player Michael Chopra has claimed.

Chopra joined the Alan Brazil Sports Breakfast on Tuesday morning and revealed the insider information he’s been told from senior players at St James’ Park.

Newcastle are without a win so far this season, losing their Premier League opener at home to Arsenal before being beaten 3-1 at Norwich last weekend.

Getty Images - Getty 2 Bruce returned to his former club Norwich on Saturday and saw his Newcastle side easily defeated

There were promising signs in the opening weekend defeat by the Gunners, but Newcastle’s performance at Carrow Road was worrying in terms of the Magpies’ hopes of survival.

They were dominated by Norwich, who had 63 per cent of the possession and eight shots on target to Newcastle’s three, and there are fears among fans that the Tyneside club have moved backwards since the end of last season.

According to Chopra, this regression may be explained by Bruce’s lack of work on the training pitch compared to Rafa Benitez’s methods.

He said: “I’ve spoken to some senior players at the club – I won’t mention their names – and under Benitez everything was drilled into them on the training pitch: the team shape, how they were going to play – every day.

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“Bruce has come in, and some of the players don’t know their jobs – they are not really working on their shape.

“At Newcastle for two or three years those players have overachieved under Benitez, but I don’t think some of the players are good enough for the Premier League. So they need coaching.

“They need coaching – they are not good enough.”

Chopra also had a damning assessment of Saturday’s performance at Norwich.

“The attitude from the players was disgusting,” the former striker maintained.

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“Once the first goal went in some of them dropped their heads and you’re expecting to go to Norwich and at least to try get a point – or three points. They are a newly-promoted team who have come into the Premier League and you’d expect Newcastle to be doing better than how they did.”

Despite hearing negative things about Bruce’s training methods, Chopra admits he feels sorry for the Toon boss – and believes the club’s supporters have NOT turned on him as of yet.

“I feel sorry for Bruce because he’s a Geordie,” Chopra finished.

“A lot of Newcastle fans want a Geordie as a manager but it’s a difficult time because he’s coming to replace Benitez.

Getty Images - Getty 2 Teemu Pukki netted a hat-trick to stun Newcastle at Carrow Road

“People say the fans aren’t behind him, but once he got the job you’ve got 47,000 fans turning up for the first game and 2,000 fans going to Norwich.

“I think they are backing Bruce as much as they can.

“Newcastle fans don’t want to see their club relegated – they don’t want them to fail.

“There’s a big problem with Ashley but I believe fans are getting behind Bruce at this moment in time.”

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