{"id":450704,"date":"2017-12-29T02:00:29","date_gmt":"2017-12-29T02:00:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ghana-mma.com\/2017\/12\/29\/benitez-explains-atsus-substitute-role-against-manchester-city\/"},"modified":"2017-12-29T02:00:29","modified_gmt":"2017-12-29T02:00:29","slug":"benitez-explains-atsus-substitute-role-against-manchester-city","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2017\/12\/29\/benitez-explains-atsus-substitute-role-against-manchester-city\/","title":{"rendered":"Benitez explains Atsu&#8217;s substitute role against Manchester City"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<div id=\"medsection1\">\n<!-- End of html generated by this->header() --><\/p>\n<p class=\"floatLeft\">Sports News of Friday, 29 December 2017<\/p>\n<p class=\"floatRight\"><strong>Source: <\/strong>Goal.com <\/p>\n<p>2017-12-29<\/p>\n<div class=\"article-left\">\n<p class=\"article-image\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/ghanamma.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/65860893.295.jpg\" alt=\"Atsubenitez\" title=\"Atsubenitez\" width=\"295\" height=\"167\" \/><span class=\"image_caption\"><span>The Newcastle boss says the idea was to have players with pace and play on the counter-attack<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"noPrint\">\n<div id=\"537626303\" style=\"width:300;height:250;margin:0;padding:0\">\n<p>\t\t  <noscript><iframe loading=\"lazy\" id=\"b2ad7fa7fd\" name=\"b2ad7fa7fd\" src=\"http:\/\/ghanaweb-d.openx.net\/w\/1.0\/afr?auid=537626303&amp;cb=151125813921649\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\" width=\"300\" height=\"250\"><a href=\"\/\/ghanaweb-d.openx.net\/w\/1.0\/rc?cs=b2ad7fa7fd&amp;cb=151125813921649\"><\/p>\n<p>\t\t  <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/ghanamma.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/1514512829_123_ai\" border=\"0\" alt=\"\" \/><\/a><\/iframe><\/noscript><\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p style=\"clear:right\">Newcastle United manager Rafa Benitez has rejected suggestions that Ghana midfielder Christian Atsu did not start in their 1-0 defeat to Manchester City on Wednesday due to fixtures ahead of New Year\u2019s Day.<\/p>\n<p>Benitez made five changes to the squad that won 3-2 away against West Ham United on Saturday with the Atsu, Mikel Merino and Henri Saivet making way for Rolando Aarons, Jonjo Shelvey and Jacob Murphy.<\/p>\n<p>Atsu came on for Rolando on 71st minute against City, with Newcastle being unable to overturn Raheem Sterling&#8217;s first-half strike, as the hosts record four defeats in their last five games.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNo, [I didn&#8217;t bench Atsu because of those games.] It was to bring the best players possible for getting something in this game. We cannot forget we have a couple of games in the next few days,&#8221; Benitez.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe idea was to have players with pace and play on the counter-attack and then try to create something, which we did in the first half with Rolando and the second half a couple of chances. <\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We were very close. We\u2019re not resting anyone. I was trying to win this game with the players I thought were the best,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n<p>Newcastle sit 15th on the log with 18 points and will play Brighton and Hove Albion on December 30 at home, before traveling to Britannia to face Stoke City on New Year\u2019s Day.<\/p>\n<div class=\"related_articles\" style=\"width: 100%;\">\n<div style=\"clear: both; font-size: 90%; background-color: #eeeaea; padding: 5px; width: 60%; margin-top: 10px;\">\n<table width=\"100%\" border=\"0\" cellpadding=\"0\" cellspacing=\"0\">\n<tr>\n<td style=\"border:0; padding:0\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/ghanamma.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/53372278.jpg\" style=\"padding-right:2px;\" \/><\/td>\n<td style=\"border:0; padding:0;width:100%; vertical-align:middle; font-size:11px;\">Courtesy of Goal.com &#8211; the world&#8217;s largest football website.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n<p><strong>Comments:<\/strong><br \/>\nThis article has no comments yet, be the first to comment\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><!-- uploaded by: 38 updated by: 38 --><\/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 Friday, 29 December 2017 Source: Goal.com 2017-12-29 The Newcastle boss says the idea was to have players with pace and play on the counter-attack Newcastle United manager Rafa Benitez has rejected suggestions that Ghana midfielder Christian Atsu did not start in their 1-0 defeat to Manchester City on Wednesday due to fixtures [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":439106,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-450704","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.7 - 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