Rafa Benitez: No rift between myself and Newcastle’s Jamaal Lascelles

Rafa Benitez played down suggestions of a rift between himself and Newcastle skipper Jamaal Lascelles.

The 24-year-old was left out of the side that lost 2-1 to Chelsea on Sunday with reports suggesting the captain had taken issue with the decision to play him on the right of the back three. 

He will miss Wednesday night’s Carabao Cup trip to Nottingham Forest with an ankle injury, but Benitez insists there is no problem between the pair. 

Captain Jamaal Lascelles sat out Newcastle’s 2-1 defeat by Chelsea on Sunday afternoon

‘I was talking with him before the game, because he came to support the team,’ he said. After the game when he was leaving, I saw him.

‘I was talking with him this morning maybe three or four times because his partner is having a baby in a few days and we don’t know when. I am asking him all the time.’

Asked if everything was OK between the pair, he replied: ‘Yes, fine.’  

Benitez once again launched a passionate defence of the tactics he employed in Sunday’s 2-1 Premier League defeat by Chelsea.

The Magpies had only 19 per cent of the possession at St James’ Park as Benitez – as he had done against the Premier League’s big guns last season – adopted an ultra-defensive approach.

Manager Rafa Benitez insists there is no problem with the defender despite leaving him out

Television pundit Jamie Redknapp suggested his players would be ’embarrassed’, but Benitez said: ‘Obviously we were watching the game and I was really pleased with the performance of the players in defence, how hard they worked, how well they did a lot of things that we were practising during the training sessions.

‘We did the same last year and we finished 10th, so that is the main thing for me.

‘Do we have to improve in transition and in attack? Yes, but we were really good in defence and doing that with this team, we finished 10th. We did really well.’