Newcastle United assistant Paco Moreno has heaped praise on Jonjo Shelvey, claiming the midfielder is ‘one of the best’ technical players he has ever worked with – quite a compliment given he has worked at some of Europe’s top clubs!
Moreno – who filled in for the absent Benitez during Sunday’s win at Swansea – said the following about the 25-year old midfielder when speaking to The Chronicle:
“He’s one of the best we have worked with technically.
“We have worked some very good players too.
“He has those attributes and he is a very good player technically, but also with other things.
“In general we know that his level is good.
“He knows he has to improve, but knows exactly what he needs to do to achieve that.”
This is high praise indeed from Moreno, especially when you consider he has been Benitez’s assistant at huge clubs like Real Madrid, Inter Milan, Liverpool, Chelsea and Napoli – meaning he’ll have worked with some of the worlds very best.
Paco then went on to discuss what sort of shape the midfielder is in after missing our last four competitive games following his red card against Tottenham on the opening day:
“Jonjo is a good player for us, there is no doubt about that.
“We can see him doing well in training and he’s glad to be back from suspension to play games.
“Hopefully, we can play him soon, we’ll see what happens but he’s in good shape.”
As Moreno alludes to, there is little doubting Jonjo’s ability, they key is his temperament.
Time will tell if he will return to the side, after being an unused substitute at Swansea, but hopefully he has learnt his lesson after yet another moment of madness against Tottenham last month.
