Michael Chopra reveals what 'senior' Newcastle United players have told him

Bruce’s side were convincingly beaten 3-1 by newly-promoted Premier League side Norwich City at Carrow Road on Saturday.

And former United striker Chopra 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.

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

“At Newcastle, for two or three years those players, have over-achieved 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’re not good enough.”

On the performance against Norwich, Chopra told talkSPORT: “The attitude from the players was disgusting.

“Once the first goal went in, some of them dropped their heads. 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.”

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