Moussa Sissoko said Rafael Benítez has breathed new life into Newcastle United and is on course to lead one of the Premier League’s most memorable escapes from relegation.
Accomplishing this feat by leapfrogging Norwich City and Sunderland will involve winning awkward fixtures – starting with Tuesday night’s match with Manchester City at St James’ Park.
Victory would lift the Magpies out of the bottom three for the first time since February but Sissoko feels the 3-0 home win against Swansea City had the potential to spark a dramatic revival.
“The belief is returning,” said the midfielder, made captain by Benítez on Saturday when he was also deployed in his favourite No10 position. “We can stay up. If we beat City we’ll be level on points with Norwich. It won’t be easy, especially against City, but we have to give everything. We need to believe because we’re good enough to do it.
“We’ve beaten big teams before. We’ve beaten Liverpool and Tottenham already this season. Manchester City are one of England’s best sides but we’re in front of our own fans and we’ll give everything.”
Sissoko’s renaissance after months of underachievement arguably served as the catalyst responsible for undoing Swansea and Benítez – still to confirm whether the player will retain the captaincy against City – is suitably delighted.
“Moussa Sissoko has a lot of influence with our French-speaking players and with the rest of the players he’s strong,” said Newcastle’s manager, who celebrated his first win in five attempts since succeeding Steve McClaren. “He’s always one of the best in training and he can help me with the French players.
“I can talk a little bit of French but when I want to say something important, he translates. And the others follow him. He can be a leader. It was really important for the team he scored a goal and played as well as he did against Swansea.”
The intriguing thing about this sudden transformation is that the powerful midfielder had been so disappointing that Benítez was well aware of the school of thought that advocated he should be dropped. Under McClaren Sissoko was regarded as the antithesis of a committed, consistent leader.
“I knew that,” said Benítez, who started Jonjo Shelvey on the bench against Swansea. “When I came a lot of people were giving me information about Sissoko and I had that conversation with him. But when I managed Chelsea I knew he was one of the players who was very dangerous when we played Newcastle so I tried to bring him back and give him confidence.
“The first day I took training, watching his face, I could see he was believing. He was thinking: ‘I can do well.’ Before he did not have much confidence. That can happen; it’s not a question of who’s in charge. Now he’s doing well. He’s a good example to the other players.”
Benítez believes City will have one eye on their Champions League semi-final with Real Madrid next Tuesday. “In the back of your head you’re thinking about the semi-final,” he said. “You don’t want to pick up an injury. I think their players will be thinking about that – hopefully a lot of them. In the back of their heads, for sure, will be the fear that they pick up an injury and cannot play in the semi-final. But the main thing is that, if we believe, we can beat anyone.”
