John Anderson urges Eddie Howe to change up his coaching staff at Newcastle

This season, Newcastle United have struggled to replicate the playstyle that made them so successful under Eddie Howe in recent years.

Since Eddie Howe took over at Newcastle, he has managed to bring back the feeling of The Entertainers by playing high-intensity attacking football. It was a call back to the days of the 'we just need to score one more than them' mentality that made Kevin Keegan's team so fun to watch.

However, it just hasn't clicked for the Magpies this season. The team looks jaded and completely bereft of ideas.

On Sunday, Eddie Howe admitted in his post-match press conference following another game in which his side threw away a lead to lose all three points that the players didn't take on board his tactics.

Something has to change

If it has got to the point where the players feel they know best, then that's a problem. However, former Newcastle defender John Anderson doesn't believe it's necessarily a problem with the manager himself.

Anderson, speaking to BBC Radio Newcastle (via The Chronicle), believes it's time for Howe to change things up with his coaching staff, and uses Sir Alex Ferguson as the golden example of why.

"Players become stale doing the same things week in, week out.

"Sir Alex Ferguson was very set in his ways and old-school, but he knew the game was moving forward, so every couple of years he would bring someone in with fresh ideas to keep players evolving.

"I think he [manager Eddie Howe] needs to bring somebody in with newer ideas and that's nothing against his training regime - just players like something different.

"You look at Eddie Howe's backroom staff and they've all been with him for an awful lot of years. They were all with him at Bournemouth.

"I just think sometimes you need a fresh pair of eyes as well. They all see things in a similar fashion. A fresh pair of eyes might see things a little differently."Freshening up not just the playing side of it, but the coaching side of it as well, may well help."

A new coach could be what's needed

Howe has added set-piece coaches in recent seasons, but perhaps it's time for a more hands-on change, someone who can come in and shake up the day-to-day.

If the players are zoning out when he's delivering tactics during a game, that could suggest that they feel that they know what he wants already and aren't taking in any new information.

One criticism we always have of Eddie Howe is that he seems pretty stubborn, though, so whether he'd want someone else to come in and mess with his system, we're not so sure, but if he truly wants to be successful, he's got to start thinking outside of the box.