There were a lot of lessons to be learned from the opening day defeat against Fulham and one of those is the lack of creativity in central midfield. On Friday, we set up with Jack Colback and Isaac Hayden in the centre of the park, but neither had the ability to take the ball from the defence and create from deep. This caused a blockage to the final third and Newcastle ended up playing long ball football, which was never going to work with the players we had on the pitch.
He is still young and could add consistency to his game under the right coach. Benitez is a world class manager and should be able to help Shelvey reach his potential. If he can become more disciplined off the ball, he can be an asset in this league and that must start on Saturday. We need to have more creativity on the pitch and Shelvey is the man to provide it. He has dominated matches during his time in the Premier League and as such, should be able to do the same in the second tier. If he adds consistency and discipline to his game, we will have a fine playmaker on our hands.