“It’s not easy” – Benitez comments indicate that Newcastle ace is in for a tough few weeks

At points during his Newcastle tenure, Jonjo Shelvey has been one of the club’s best players. He’s got an incredible knack of producing magic with the ball at his feet, whilst his determination and aggression have helped see the Magpies over the line on more than one occasion. 

However, at present, he’s in a tough spot. He’s hardly featured in 2019 due to injury, and a recent comment from Rafael Benitez indicates that the Englishman will continue to find it hard over the coming weeks.

As per the Chronicle, after confirming Shelvey’s current availability, Benitez said: “Obviously Jonjo will need to improve his match fitness – but match fitness you can improve playing games, so it’s not easy at the moment.”

Shelvey’s in a really tough spot, because he’s lacking match fitness, but because of the fine form of Newcastle’s current crop of midfielders, he’s not really getting a chance to help improve that.

As a result, it seems likely that, for the next few weeks at least, the Englishman will struggle for minutes. Newcastle are still in a fight in the Premier League, and so they can’t afford to drop a player that’s doing well just to give Shelvey a chance to prove himself.

He’s just going to have to keep working and proving his worth in training. That’s the only way to show Benitez that he’s ready. At present, he’s not been able to do that.

Thoughts?