Rafa Benitez has just completed his press conference for the important game at home tomorrow against Bristol City – one we should win and have to win to keep on track for promotion in May.
If we can win this game it will be six wins and two draws in the last eight league games and we then face Brighton, Huddersfield and Reading away in a short 8 days starting this Tuesday night.
Those are currently the 2nd, 3rd and 4th placed teams in the Championship – well would you believe it!
The very good news from Rafa is that Dwight Gable will not be out for four weeks it will be less than that and he says the tests on him have come back positive and he’s doing well.
Rafa Benitez at his press conference
The other good news is that our only other injured player apart from Gayle is Rolando Aarons and he is not back in training.
Rafa’s comments are now being reported on the Newcastle United Twitter account and on Chronicle Live.
Here are some of Rafa’s comments:
“No timescale on Gayle but he’s doing well. It won’t be too long. Tests have been positive.”
“We have done tests and everything is fine – it will be less than 4 weeks – w have to treat him and make sure he will be comfortable.”
“He’s not training but on the tests we have had they are quite positive.” “It’s a question of his confidence.”
“To lose your top scorer is not ideal – you miss something.” “But when Mitrovic or Murphy have played, they have done really well.”
“There are a lot of games and a lot of points to play for and we have to carry on.”
“I am confident that the team is doing well and has the right mentality, and I hope they can show this on the pitch tomorrow.”
“In these games it is not about how good you are on paper – it is about how good you are on the pitch.”
“If we do well in the next 4 games it’s a massive advantage.” “If we can’t do what we want, we are still in a good position.”
We had hoped last Monday that Dwight had come off as a precaution and that he hadn’t further damaged the hamstring – it now looks like that could be true – so that’s terrific news from the manager.
A huge 90% think we can win this game tomorrow – so it will be huge let-down is we don’t win this game.
Comments welcome.
8 comments so far
Belfast
Feb 24, 2017 at 1:25 PM
Comment #1Belfast // Feb 24, 2017 at 1:24 PM
Some of these pundits and their faux outrage though – pain in the arse. Apparently his relationship with his own coaching staff had broken down as well as the players. Obviously there was big problems when even his own coaching staff have fallen out with him.
I’m sure Leicester are really gutted that they’ll not be getting a standing ovation from the likes of Carragher, Merson and Lineker for sticking with a manager who almost certainly would have relegated them.
Belfast
Feb 24, 2017 at 1:28 PM
Comment #2Merson thinks they need to appoint fat Sam hehe
Mister Tuff
Feb 24, 2017 at 1:33 PM
Comment #3ww – fair point if it is Chelsea youngsters who cannot break into the first team/first team squad due to better players being there already.
But they, for me, would have to have exceptional promise.
Which gets me to Atsu – canny little player, neat and tidy – Premier League standard – unfortunately not.
firebug666
Feb 24, 2017 at 1:43 PM
Comment #4“He’s not training but on the tests we have had they are quite positive.” “It’s a question of his confidence.”
If his confidence is low give him a run out with the reserves, allowing him to build his confidence back up. We all know a new baby can be a bit tiring having to get up through the night, but most of us had to do it and then go to work too.
Time for Gayle to man up, and start doing his day job too.
mindshaft
Feb 24, 2017 at 6:04 PM
Comment #5Clearly Ranieri can take credit for winning the premier league – he didn’t tinker with the team and set them up to play on the counter attack – they had a lot of luck with injuries etc but you just have to look where they were previous season to understand Ranieri impact –
sadly losing Kante was a huge loss along with Mahrez and a whole bunch of players who seem to be playing at 50% this season on massively inflated wages and a bit more tinkering by Ranieri this season has seen them slide into relegation trouble – blame lies with both the players and manager and you sadly can’t sack the players so adios Ranieri
Moonraker15
Feb 24, 2017 at 10:44 PM
Comment #6Mindshaft
Re Ranieri sacking; yes he did a great job but he wasn’t responsible for turning things around. Actually Nigel Pearson had already
done that in a great run the previous season to avoid relegation, so it was his team when suddenly sacked for internal club issues! Ranieri took over a very accomplished team and the rest is history!
Sav
Feb 24, 2017 at 11:36 PM
Comment #7Good to know Aarons is back in training. Hope it all goes well for the lad this time. He must be fearful that another failure could be curtains for his career.
dannitoon
Feb 25, 2017 at 7:21 AM
Comment #8Why arent replies posted in the write place…. you know… under the post its related too…