Ghana international, Christian Atsu, has reiterated that he is impressed over his contribution to his club during their pre-season games.
Although the former Chelsea star has had just over an hour of playing time across Newcastle’s first three pre-season games combined but the winger is confident his hard work over the off-season and last season was beginning to pay off.
“I’m very happy during pre-season because I can feel the work I was doing last season and during the summer are paying off now since I joined up with the team,” he said.
“I did a lot of work during the summer. I had ten days off and then I came back to work in the gym in Newcastle with one of our physios. I stayed in Newcastle during the off-season.
Atsu said instead of taking all the off-season holiday like other players do, he rather spent his days at the gym working hard just to keep fit ahead of the season and be better than his two previous seasons.
“I know a lot of players go away during the summer but for me this is my work and it’s a big pre-season. I have to be better because I know this will be a big season for me. I need to work to be better than I have been in the two previous seasons I’ve been with Newcastle. I wanted to make sure I was ready as soon as we came back for pre-season” Atsu told he told chroniclelive.co.uk
“In modern football, you need to defend as a winger, especially in the English Premier League. You have to be able to attack and defend, everybody is running and if somebody says you are not doing the right thing the manager is going to change you. I have to improve my fitness to be able to do the defensive side of the game,” the Black Stars winger stated.