Newcastle manager Rafa Benitez believes the Magpies must show more composure in and around their own box to ensure they can hold on to leads if they fail to make the most of their chances.
Benitez’s side looked to be in control of the match against Aston Villa but they failed to finish off the game after they went 1-0 up through a Tommy Elphick own goal. The Spaniard is quoted by the Northern Echo as saying that if they do fail to convert chances, they must at least be able to handle the pressure at the other end of the field:
“We had a lot of chances, so many clear chances that we could finish the game, but in the second half we have to defend a little better,” he commented. There were too many situations where the ball was around our box and we need to improve our defending as a team when we’re under that pressure. We made some mistakes when defending, so the key for me is that we need to be more consistent. We have to keep calm and work hard to do that.”
Newcastle conceded an 88th minute equaliser from a corner that that was headed in off the post by substitute Aaron Tshibola. Magpies goalkeeper Matz Sels did not come for the cross and was left in no man’s land as Tshibola put the ball in at the far post. Criticism of Sels on Twitter led to the Belgian deleting his account on the social media platform yesterday.
