As reported by the Chronicle, Rafa Benitez has been full of praise for midfielder Jonjo Shelvey, following his terrific return against Birmingham City.
After the match, Benitez said: “In terms of his match-fitness, he needed to play and I think it will be positive for him.
“Hopefully he will show in the next games how important he is for us because today, we saw his quality, we saw his passing and if he can do the same in the league games, he can make the others play and he can make the difference too.”
“It’s always important to have numbers in terms of players around, but especially someone like him, who has quality.
“He can pass the ball and he can make the others play, so I think it’s another big boost for us as a team to see Jonjo controlling and dictating the tempo of the game.
“He was training really well. It’s not the same match-fitness, he’s been around less than 15 days, it’s not too long and he was training well, he was working hard in the training session so in terms of his fitness, he’s fine.”
