Florian Lejeune has admitted it was a 'shame' that he did not get to work with Eddie Howe at Newcastle United because he would have really 'struck a chord' with the Magpies head coach.
Howe and his staff have not only transformed once leaky Newcastle into the meanest defence in the Premier League; they have also turned the back four a more proactive unit. Rather than sitting back and looking to hit teams on the counter-attack, as Newcastle did in a previous era, Howe's defenders have been positioned higher up the pitch and Kieran Trippier, Fabian Schar, Sven Botman and Dan Burn are among those players who regularly have the most touches in games.
Schar has perhaps benefited most from this shift in approach as the sole survivor from the Ashley era in Howe's strongest defensive line-up. Schar had been out in the cold before Howe's arrival - failing to play in any of the previous nine games - but the Switzerland international was one of the first names on the team sheet from the get-go under the Magpies head coach.
