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Opinion

Excellent Jonjo Shelvey interview as he talks about playing with ‘no fear’

7 years ago
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Jonjo Shelvey has been reflecting on another job well done.

The Newcastle midfielder produced a man of the match performance to take Brentford apart, his exceptional range of passing proving far too much for the visitors.

Playing out on the St James Park pitch, Jonjo Shelvey says that anybody should be able to hit those passes….

“You have got so much time and space on the ball and if you’ve got enough confidence and you’ve got no fear, then you should be able to hit those passes.”

Shelvey was still playing for England (against France and Spain) as recently as last November and when he first arrived at Newcastle, the midfielder turned in a brilliant display as high flying West Ham were beaten 2-1.

At that point it looked as though Jonjo Shelvey would be the man to lead Newcastle to safety and on a personal level, ensure his place in the England squad for France.

We all know how that one turned out…

It doesn’t take a genius to work out that Shelvey is very much a confidence player and when he is in the kind of form he is showing this season, is clearly a very talented Premier League player.

Rafa Benitez felt he couldn’t rely on the midfielder and left him out of the relegation run-in last season but now he looks the key player in Rafa Benitez’ promotion plans.

Not getting ahead of myself…but if/when Newcastle go up, Jonjo Shelvey is one of a small group of players who are definitely Premier League ones, so there would be a massive reliance on him to continue this type of form back in the top tier.

Looking at the recent England performances, is there really a better central midfield player than Jonjo Shelvey at this moment in time?

Jonjo Shelvey talking to the official club website:

“I’m really enjoying my football. I think it doesn’t matter where you play, in terms of position or anything like that, you just want to be on the pitch playing games, that’s the main thing.

“Luckily, the gaffer’s shown a lot of faith in me to put me in and I feel like I’m repaying him and the fans with the performances.

“Since I’ve come here I’ve not really had the consistency in my game and I feel that this season it’s really picked up, long may it continue.

“It’s nice to get that run of games where you’re playing week-in, week-out, and you know that you’ve got the ability to go out and if you turn up, then there’s more chance than not that you’re going to be one of the better players on the pitch.

“I think that’s a motivational thing as well as a physical thing but I feel I’m in the best shape I’ve ever been in, so it was only a matter of time before I started putting the performances together.

“I gave one pass away at the end when I had a little bit of cramp but on a pitch like that you shouldn’t really be giving the ball away.

“You have got so much time and space on the ball and if you’ve got enough confidence and you’ve got no fear, then you should be able to hit those passes.

“It’s been a long wait between the last game (Rotherham) and this game, so it was important just to go out and get the three points. It’s obviously always nice to assist Dwight with some goals because he’s always moaning about not getting enough service!

“But it doesn’t matter who scores or anything like that, it just matter that we get the three points.

“I think in games like that when you’re on top, you need to score quickly and then it settles everyone around the stadium. You can go on and dominate the game and I think we did that.

“There was a little scare in the second half but I felt we dealt with it, came out of it and killed the game off.

“It was from a set-piece, so we’ll obviously look at that. The gaffer will analyse it and help us put it right, but after that I still thought we were pretty much in control. We fully deserved the three points today.

“It was important to get another win, and obviously it’s going to be another busy period we’ve got coming up, so fingers crossed we can go on a run, and hopefully win on Tuesday.

“As a footballer, you want the next games to come thick and fast. You’d rather play a game than train, to be honest – it might sound bad, but that’s what you do. You’re a footballer, so you want to be playing football matches.

“It’s more exciting for the fans, because they get to come and see you play. The good thing about this club is we always take tremendous support wherever we go, and it gives you a real belief going into the away games as well.”

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