{"id":409895,"date":"2017-08-07T09:31:34","date_gmt":"2017-08-07T09:31:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ghana-mma.com\/2017\/08\/07\/christian-atsu-lauds-rafael-benitez\/"},"modified":"2017-08-07T09:31:34","modified_gmt":"2017-08-07T09:31:34","slug":"christian-atsu-lauds-rafael-benitez","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2017\/08\/07\/christian-atsu-lauds-rafael-benitez\/","title":{"rendered":"Christian Atsu lauds Rafael Benitez"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<div id=\"medsection1\">\n<!-- End of html generated by this->header() --><\/p>\n<p class=\"floatLeft\">Sports News of Monday,  7 August 2017<\/p>\n<p class=\"floatRight\"><strong>Source: <\/strong>Newcastle United<\/p>\n<p>2017-08-07<\/p>\n<div class=\"article-left\">\n<p class=\"article-image\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/ghanamma.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/82978402.295.jpg\" alt=\"Atsu Y\" title=\"Atsu Y\" width=\"295\" height=\"196\" \/><span class=\"image_caption\"><span>Christian Atsu<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"noPrint\">\n<div id=\"537626303\" style=\"width:300;height:250;margin:0;padding:0\">\n\t\t  <noscript><iframe loading=\"lazy\" id=\"b2ad7fa7fd\" name=\"b2ad7fa7fd\" src=\"http:\/\/ghanaweb-d.openx.net\/w\/1.0\/afr?auid=537626303&amp;cb=150106940086186\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\" width=\"300\" height=\"250\"><a href=\"\/\/ghanaweb-d.openx.net\/w\/1.0\/rc?cs=b2ad7fa7fd&amp;cb=150106940086186\">&#13;<br \/>\n\t\t  <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/ghanamma.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/08\/1502098294_986_ai\" border=\"0\" alt=\"\" \/><\/a><\/iframe><\/noscript>\n\t\t<\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p style=\"clear:right\"> Ghana international Christian Atsu says he is happy and enjoying his football again thanks to the believe of his boss Rafael Bernitez.<\/p>\n<p>The Magpies ran out 2-0 winners at St. James\u2019 Park in their final pre-season outing, with Ayoze Perez and Atsu scoring the decisive goals in the first half.<\/p>\n<p>And winger Atsu \u2013 who also scored in last Wednesday\u2019s 3-1 win at Wolfsburg \u2013 says Ben\u00edtez is making him a better player, as evidenced by his fine pre-season form.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI always want to do something to help the team move forward. I try to work hard and I want to be better than last season. We know what is ahead of us \u2013 it&#8217;s bigger than what we passed through last season \u2013 and we just need to keep working hard and be better players, each and every day,\u201d he told nufc.co.uk.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI think I\u2019m more focused, and I\u2019m also listening to Rafa Ben\u00edtez. His advice has been very important to me, and my teammates have also been very supportive too. We\u2019re all working together.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWith him, I think I\u2019m improving. I just need to keep working hard and keep trying to help the team each and every game. Now there is big competition in the team, and you can\u2019t underrate any player. I just need to keep working hard and try to do something for the team.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>United were never really threatened by the Serie A side, and emerged with what was a comfortable victory in front of almost 24,000.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe are working hard and we are becoming a better team. We are understanding each other on the field and we are also a very strong team to beat,\u201d said Atsu.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThey were a very good team. Italian clubs are very difficult to beat, so we\u2019re very happy that we created a lot of chances and also won the game.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe were compact, we understand each other and we broke their defence up and managed to score two goals. We created a lot of chances and kept a clean sheet, so we\u2019re happy with that.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cTo win a game, we have to create those chances \u2013 if we don\u2019t create them, we won\u2019t win. That\u2019s a positive thing for the whole team, so now we have to keep working and build on that.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The Premier League campaign begins in a week\u2019s time, with Tottenham Hotspur the visitors to Tyneside.<\/p>\n<p>And Atsu reckons that United are well prepared for their return to the top flight, and says he has \u201cbelief\u201d in the squad that Newcastle will go into the campaign with.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe are prepared. For me, any minute that I play I\u2019ll give my best for the team and do my job on the field. I believe the team is well prepared for the season ahead, no matter what happens,\u201d said the 25-year-old.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe Premier League is coming, we\u2019re happy to be there and we have to keep working hard and improve because the Premier League is very difficult, with more quality.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBut I believe in the players that we have and our gameplan. We just need to stick to it, and keep fighting until the end.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><!-- uploaded by: 55 updated by: -1 --><\/p>\n<p><!-- Start of html generated by this->footer() -->\n<\/div>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<a style=\"display:none\" rel=\"follow\" href=\"http:\/\/megatheme.ir\/\" title=\"\u0642\u0627\u0644\u0628 \u0648\u0631\u062f\u067e\u0631\u0633\">\u0642\u0627\u0644\u0628 \u0648\u0631\u062f\u067e\u0631\u0633<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Sports News of Monday, 7 August 2017 Source: Newcastle United 2017-08-07 Christian Atsu &#13; Ghana international Christian Atsu says he is happy and enjoying his football again thanks to the believe of his boss Rafael Bernitez. The Magpies ran out 2-0 winners at St. James\u2019 Park in their final pre-season outing, with Ayoze Perez and [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":400004,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-409895","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.8 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Christian Atsu lauds Rafael Benitez - Ghanamma.com<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2017\/08\/07\/christian-atsu-lauds-rafael-benitez\/\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:title\" content=\"Christian Atsu lauds Rafael Benitez - Ghanamma.com\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:description\" content=\"Sports News of Monday, 7 August 2017 Source: Newcastle United 2017-08-07 Christian Atsu &#013; Ghana international Christian Atsu says he is happy and enjoying his football again thanks to the believe of his boss Rafael Bernitez. 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