Newcastle captain Jamaal Lascelles has vehemently defended his goalkeeper Matz Sels after the Belgian deleted his Twitter account because of the online abuse he received.
Some Twitter trolls were unhappy at Sels’ inability to come for the corner which led to Aaron Tshibola’s 88th minute equaliser for Aston Villa on Saturday but Lascelles believes that every goal conceded by the Magpies should be a collective responsibility. He told the Evening Chronicle:
“Nobody was to blame, he’s kept clean sheets this season and has been excellent. He wasn’t at fault for the goal as there were a build-up of mistakes before that. Nobody is on his back and we will take it as a team. Whenever a goal is conceded we won’t point fingers at individuals. We will look at it as a team and look at it collectively and how we could have stopped it even getting to that position.”
Manager Rafa Benitez also defended the goalkeeper against criticism with the Spaniard saying at his press conference yesterday that the Belgium international will continue to focus on improving his game with the goalkeeping coach and learning from any mistakes he makes. He would not be drawn however on whether reserve keeper Karl Darlow would play saying that the decision would be made before the match today. Darlow is currently the club’s number two goalkeeper with Rob Elliot still recovering from a long term knee injury.
