22 year-old Jamaal Lascelles headed Newcastle in front after 40 minutes on Saturday and also was extremely solid in defense for us.
He was our Man of the Match with around 45% of the vote followed by Andros Townsend with 34% of the vote and Vurnon Anita was next in line with 6% of the vote.
So Jamaal and Andros were our two big stars in the great 3-0 win against Swansea.
That’s Jamaal Lascelles number 15 in the net after scoring on Saturday
But Jamaal was a big star at the Southampton game last week in the dressing room, both at half time and full time, and he called out the other players for not having enough heart or passion to play for Newcastle.
Rafa Benitez has since praised the former Nottingham Forest center-back for doing that and showing some leadership in that dressing room.
And Jamaal followed up those words with actions and he looked an accomplished young player yesterday who will only get better under the expert tutelage of Rafa Benitez.
Andros will also get a lot better with Rafa coaching him.
Jamaal has said he was extremely pleased with the reaction of the players yesterday, after last week’s dressing room antics, when Rafa purposely let the players have it out with each other to clear the air and have a few home truths aired in that stale dressing room.
This is what our young rising star had to say after the game yesterday:
“In this changing room, we need a character because I think we have lacked it – I said it last week, I think we have lacked it a little bit this season.”
“I’m young, but I don’t think that matters. I don’t care about experience or anything like that – if you can talk, you can talk, so do it.”
“But it’s had a big reaction on the other players and that’s exactly what we needed, so I am really pleased with them.”
It says something about a 22 year-old when he is an example to older and more experienced players in the dressing room – this lad is a leader.
If we do survive then some specific players will be thanked by the fans and it looks like one of those at the head of the queue could be Jamaal Lascelles, who has a chance to really make his mark in these last five vital games of the season.
Now Jamaal has to have one of his very best games on Tuesday night against Manchester City – the best team big money can buy.
Comments welcome.
NUFC News 24/7 
19 comments so far
Harley
Apr 17, 2016 at 10:18 PM
Comment #1Looks like it’s taken Benitez a few games to get them sorted. If only he’d been appointed earlier.
I fear it’s all too late. We had to beat Sunderland and draw with Norwich. Something that could have happened had we got Benitez after the Chelsea game.
stuart no9
Apr 17, 2016 at 10:23 PM
Comment #2stuart no9 // Apr 15, 2016 at 10:14 AM
stuart no9 // Apr 11, 2016 at 10:34 AM
we are not down yet ,
3 poinrts v swansea
1 point v city
1 point v liverpool
3 points v palace
3 v villa
3 v spurs coz leicester have won the title,
another 14 points will be enough to keep us up
AND raffa stays
Of course we can still do it
Average_Contents
Apr 17, 2016 at 10:28 PM
Comment #3Well fcuking said.
Imagine curly hair saying something like that. Me neither.
The bottler only speaks when he’s wheeled out and made to do it and even then it’s only in writing the fcuking shithouse.
He’s as bad as the regime in my eyes.
BeeGuy
Apr 17, 2016 at 10:31 PM
Comment #4On Tuesday night we see if the club has some belief back. Swans were on vacation, but NUFC was hungry to get the 50/50 balls. That made a huge difference, as before those were conceded to the opponent.
If they look good Tuesday, I’ll stick with them to the last match.
jimmysmith
Apr 17, 2016 at 10:36 PM
Comment #5Wow, no leadership until this kid emerged? That is another damning inditement of Carr’s recruitment of players, if so. Although in fairness you would have expected experienced players like Sissoko, Collocini, Widjnaldum, Janmaat, Tiote, Colback, De Jong and Cisse to have more back bone. The far less experienced Dummett, Lascelles, and Mitrovic appear to have stronger natural characters, and I suppose that is as a grave a circumstance as the lack of top notch and seasoned lb, cb, and cf.
beermonkey
Apr 17, 2016 at 10:38 PM
Comment #6average
it seems lachelles isnt afraid to speak his mind
i wonder if old mclaren didnt like that and maybe thats why he was never played him
last year while onloan he was dropped for a while i think pearce said he was giving it the big i am after he signed for us
i wonder if it was something else its not hard to fall out with pearce
Tsunki
Apr 17, 2016 at 10:42 PM
Comment #7Wot you thought colo wrote his own material? Pfffft.
Average_Contents
Apr 17, 2016 at 10:56 PM
Comment #8Beer
Leadership? Not at nufc. No Sir. Obey or pay the price. Reminds me of a certain someone’s mantra.
Bye bye Nolan. Bye bye Barton. Bye bye Carroll. Bye bye Harper. Bye bye anybody with anything to say. Poor laschelles will be getting reprimanded as we speak 😉
Hopefully rafa will encourage it. The patsies before him certainly didn’t and never rocked poor little mikeys boat.
Tsunki
Far from it.
Anything from the club as we all know is spun and weaved beforehand then released for general consumption which generally gets lapped up.
beefman13
Apr 17, 2016 at 10:57 PM
Comment #9Problem with us are the french, season after season we are in this situation, the gooners can’t see the job through because to many french men also, Graham Carr has to be binned, hes making a fortune out of this club, just fed up with the bollocks he is bringing in.
beermonkey
Apr 17, 2016 at 11:01 PM
Comment #10average
i would say rafa has encouraged second week in a row he has spoken to the press if rafa didnt like it he wouldnt have gone out this week
its nice to hear some honesty with a bit of passion not some scripted pr sh1t the capt normally reads
stuart no9
Apr 17, 2016 at 11:28 PM
Comment #11was at the game for the first time in 3 years on saturday, managed to get my old seat back in the milburn stand and boy was it good to be back,
As for the game – cisse is so frustrating to watch , hopeless as ever , off side , didnt track back, didnt press the keeper when he should have and it took colback to show him how to do it as cisse trotted off to the half way line , ok it could have cost us as he was out of position when the ball wsas pumped forward , but some one had to show cisse his job.
Not happy with the starting 11 but i can see why rafa done it, the only thing that i thought rafa done wrong was wait till the 80th minuteto bring mitro on for cisse.
Cisse should never play in a benitez team ever again, he dosnt understand his type of football.
Newcastle for much of the game never looked like a side trying to avoid the drop but that was down to benitez tactics and his insistance on zonal marking.
Toon Tang
Apr 17, 2016 at 11:29 PM
Comment #12Shearer on MOTD2 then hahaha funny as fcuk
Toon Tang
Apr 17, 2016 at 11:30 PM
Comment #13“If I was a Newcastle fan” 😀
Toon Tang
Apr 17, 2016 at 11:38 PM
Comment #14Lascelles giving his older team mates grief with no come back is like that 20 year old lad at work thats 15 year younger than you but you know and everyone else knows he’s hard as fcuk so you don’t mess with him in case he bops you in front of everyone and you look a reet tit coz you got sparked clean out by the youngest lad there.
stuart no9
Apr 17, 2016 at 11:39 PM
Comment #15bringing on mitro and going 2-5-3 produced 2 well worked goals at the right time, however rafas tactics and formation can be successful but i think we need better players, intelligent players who understand his methods.
We chanced our luck at time and swansea had 3 clear chances where they could have scored, but the fact rafa allows the opponents to press upto the half way line before closing them down can be a bit freightening to watch, if it works – great, if it dosnt keep your eyes shut and and hope for the best
Toon Tang
Apr 17, 2016 at 11:41 PM
Comment #16Thats never happened to me by the way…
The overrated Frenchman
Apr 17, 2016 at 11:45 PM
Comment #17It’s kind of interesting that it’s Lascelles who is seemingly the strongest voice in the clubhouse. You’d expect it to be Shelvey. More experienced, made captain, seems to be a mouthy type, at least on the field. Maybe he doesn’t take that personality off the pitch.
mindshaft
Apr 17, 2016 at 11:48 PM
Comment #18By all accounts Sissoko is verbal in the dressing room albeit only to the French players .. so that would be himself and errrr no one else who starts
mindshaft
Apr 17, 2016 at 11:50 PM
Comment #19Still not convinced in Shelvey – looks great when his passes come off but tends to give the ball back to opposition a lot and don’t think he’s captain materiel at all