Newcastle United defender and captain Jamaal Lascelles has revealed that he held a chat with goalkeeper Martin Dubravka to clear the air after tearing into the Slovakian international against Wolves.
The Magpies saw two points slip through their grasp as Willy Boly netted an injury time equaliser, Dubravka failing to catch a ball before the defender headed home and Lascelles was pictured afterwards engaging in a heated exchange with his teammate.
Speaking at a warm weather training camp, Lascelles admitted he felt he crossed the line and talked to the goalkeeper to apologise.
He told Sky Sports: “They scored at that minute but when I looked back at it, it was as clear as anything that it was a foul. So I apologised to him and I shouldn’t really be doing that to him. I hold my hands up but at the same time I’ve got a job to do.
“I haven’t got the armband because I’m technically the best or gifted. It’s because I’m honest and I’m hard-working. I won’t change in that aspect. Things happen. Last time we played Wolves I let my man score from about two yards out.
“People make mistakes, everybody makes mistakes. Since he’s been here, how many saves has he made? He has been an outstanding player for us. We can’t look at him and say we dropped two points because of him at all. One, it was a foul and two, he’s been unreal for us and hopefully he carries on to do so.”
Opinion
When you look at who have been the most consistent top performers for Newcastle this season, Dubravka is definitely up there. He has saved the Magpies time and again with his performances between the sticks and it is such a shame he has had a run of errors creeping into his game. To be fair to the shot stopper he was impeded by Boly against Wolves and you can imagine that when VAR comes into action in the Premier League such situations will be awarded in favour of the goalkeeper. As captain it is Lascelles’ prerogative to try and motivate his teammates and seeing as he wears his heart on his sleeve, it was not the worst thing to see him tearing into Dubravka. What is even better is to hear that he has reflected on the situation and taken action to talk to his teammate. It shows great maturity and respect from the defender and it is quite clear why Rafael Benitez chose to hand him the armband in his first full season at St James’ Park.