Who solves Eddie Howe's problems? Kieran Trippier

Kieran Trippier helps Eddie Howe troubleshoot on and off the field. Photo: Action Images via Reuters/Craig Brough

For Thousands of people who love to play fantasy football, Kieran Trippier is the must-have defender this season, scoring hundreds of points in the Premier League's toughest defense while also serving as the most creative right-back in the country.

But for Newcastle United, Trippier is so much more. In team play, the England international has been captain, leader and soon to become a club legend. At the age of 32, the former Manchester City, Burnley, Tottenham Hotspur and Atlético Madrid full-back was a «truly transformative» player and is already considered one of the best players in his black and white stripes.

Trippier will play his former club Spurs this weekend, knowing that a victory at Newcastle will strengthen their grip on reaching the top four and qualifying for next season's Champions League.

Telegraph Sport looks at the reasons why Trippier was so important to the Magpies and their rapid rise to Champions League contenders. .

Signing a statement of intent

When Trippier returned to England from Atlético Madrid in January 2022, he became the first England international to sign for Newcastle since Michael Owen in 2005. It was a serious statement of intent from the new owners. Not only that, given that it was Howe who convinced the player to join, it also confirmed their belief that the manager, who had only won one game in his Newcastle career to that point, had the personality and charisma to work with established players in big club.

Trippier's signing in January 2022 was the catalyst for other players to take the plunge and join Premier League. Lower club. Photo: Serena Taylor/Newcastle United via Getty Images

It was an important signing as Howe was in desperate need of an upgrade at the right-back. There was no one better on the market than Trippier, but that too was symbolic.

If one of Europe's best full-backs was willing to join Newcastle to help them avoid relegation problems, why not others decisive step?

Without Trippier, it is unlikely, for example, that a Brazilian international like Bruno Guimarães would also be confident enough in the project launched by Newcastle's new owner to sign a contract later that month.

First among equals in the leaderboard group

As one member of the Newcastle coaching staff put it. “Kieran is a cunning old character who is very experienced and has an uncanny knack for knowing what to say and when. It's rare to find a player with such an instinctive understanding of how to get the message across to teammates. If there is a problem, he will quite often solve it before the manager gets involved.”

Although Jamal Lascelles remains the club's captain — and a very good one — Trippier wears the armband on the pitch. He is the de facto chairman of a leadership group that includes Lascelles, Callum Wilson, Nick Pope, Dan Byrne and Matt Ritchie.

If Lascelles, a player who could have had a good boxing career had he not played in football is the muscle needed to keep others in check, Trippier is the brain.

There were unfortunate players. of the season (they always are) and there were a few arguments and fights common to all clubs, but it stayed in the house because the leadership team can run the dressing room so effectively.

Trippier was integral to creating this kind of self-sustaining , a self-controlled code of conduct in the locker room. He reports to Howe when he feels it's necessary and the manager had to intervene and punish some players for disciplinary reasons, but none of it was serious and no one caused any major infractions.

When Allan Saint-Maximin was frustrated at not immediately returning to the starting XI on his return from injury earlier in the year, it was Trippier who spent an hour with the Frenchman explaining to him why he needed to be patient. It worked, Saint-Maximin is a Newcastle independent talent, artist and temperament, but he succumbed to the team ethic favored by Trippier and Howe.

Trippier became Eddie Howe's lieutenant on the field. Photo: Stew Forster/Newcastle United via Getty Images

Sources at the Telegraph Sport club have said that when Howe has problems with certain players or even a group, he will first challenge Trippier to a one-on-one meeting before dealing with by an individual or by a team. meeting.

This allows the captain to know what the manager is going to do and what the consequences might be, so he can deal with it from the player's point of view. Rarely in recent years has a player been as respected as Trippier is at St. James' Park.

Offensive weapons

That's one of the reasons he's so beloved on fantasy football teams, but even that doesn't reflect the fact that how important Trippier is in terms of attack.

With the bulkier Dan Burn playing on the left side of the back four, Newcastle's ability to generate overload on the right is critical. Trippier's presence helps explain why Miguel Almiron was more effective under Howe than under former managers Raf Benitez and Steve Bruce. Trippier's linking performance, and in particular his ability to send tight passes to the Paraguay national team, has become a powerful weapon.

And that's before we get to Trippier's crossing accuracy and set-pieces. delivery. The veteran has an almost David Beckham style, able to hit the ball with his right foot with a lean and turn.

2204 Kieran Tuppler

It's a well-rehearsed machine with midfielder Sean Longstaff missing hard in a 3-0 win against Aston Villa last weekend. Almiron's speed and stamina are also vital to maintaining balance in a defensive game, even when Trippier is out of position on a transition.

Master of the Dark Arts

This is a phrase that Howe has opposed, mainly because he is annoyed by rival managers using him as a stick to beat Newcastle while putting pressure on officials, sowing the seeds that his team is less than scrupulous in their methods.< /p>

But call it what you will, this Newcastle team has a steel edge and sharp elbows. They are tough and experienced and know how to slow down the game in their favor and when to speed it up. They are slippery and difficult. You might even go so far as to say that they knew all the tricks in the book to manipulate the game in their favor. Trippier was a very proud teacher.

Trippier graduated from the Atlético University of the Dark Arts. Photo: David S. Bustamante/Socrates/Getty Images

It's no coincidence that Newcastle have learned to beat opposing teams and their managers with the arrival of Trippier. After spending 2.5 years at Atlético Madrid studying with the great football wizard of the dark arts Diego Simeone, he returned to England with useful new skills. position in three years in Spain than in four years at the Spurs, Trippier was taught to run the game for his team.

For far too long in England we have clung to the outdated idea of ​​the code of the gentleman in football. This, too, was always on the verge of delirium. Trippier is the embodiment of Howe's new mantra: «We're not here to be popular, we're not here to lose well or to be liked by other teams, we're here to win…»

Trippier is his lieutenant on the field and, when asked about the dark arts, usually smiles. One thing is certain: Newcastle are no longer a soft touch, physically or mentally, with Trippier in the ranks.