During his latest piece for the Telegraph, Luke Edwards has revealed that Jonjo Shelvey is still playing with a ‘long-standing thigh problem’.
As a result, Edwards claims that there are now ‘serious question marks’ over his ‘mobility’ in the middle of the park, suggesting his fitness issues are now starting to catch up with him – and it showed on Saturday.
This comes after the Newcastle midfield – which contained Shelvey – was badly over run last weekend, with Jonjo often treading water and failing to track runs as Brighton completely dominated.
He’s never been the most mobile of players and isn’t known for coming out on top when it comes distance covered, but he was all over the shop on Saturday – both on and off the ball.
Here’s a snippet form Luke Edwards’ piece for the Telegraph, highlighting the ongoing concerns surrounding Shelvey’s fitness levels:
“Newcastle’s midfield was over run in the first half against Brighton and there are serious question marks surrounding Jonjo Shelvey’s mobility as he is playing with a long-standing thigh problem.”
Shelvey has gone the extra mile over the last few pre-season’s, returning early to train in a bid to impress both Benitez and Bruce, but his career really has stagnated since our promotion back to the Premier League.
His fitness concerns are an issue, but I believe it’s becoming more and more clear that he just doesn’t fit into a Premier League side that sees so little of the ball.
He shone in the Championship as we were generally on top in games, had the lions share of possession and he had options ahead of him to pick out, but in a defensive side that sees players spend most of their time chasing the ball and tracking runners, he just doesn’t fit in.
Shelvey is not a bad player at all and has no shortage of ability, but I struggle to see where he fits in – and Saturday’s display suggests he’s either not up for the fight or not up to it physically.
Come on Olly – we didn’t need Luke Edwards to tell us this.
What we need is for people to stop slagging the guy off when he’s doing his best to hold the fort while Longstaff recovers.
It was blatantly obvious that Shelvey was carrying an injury .
So congratulations for putting out an article by your new ace reporter demanding he be sold , when he’s actually putting his career at risk just to give us a chance of picking up points against the lower teams. The plan was obviously to have Shelvey to fill in against Brighton to give Longstaff a chance to be fit for Leicester, Man U and Chelsea, where with a fit midfielder we might have a chance to get points against struggling prem superstars.
Brrrian(Quote)