United will not get caught cold despite changes to training
Chief Sports Writer RAFA Benitez feels that this week’s big freeze has actually helped focus the minds of his players ahead of the daunting prospect of getting a result at Anfield tonight. The Magpies have had to rejig their schedule due to the severe winter conditions, with some indoor sessions taking place at the club’s Benton training ground. There was an afternoon session outdoors yesterday after ground staff cleared the pitch. Players were pictured enjoying the wintry conditions with the odd snowball fight in between sessions. And Benitez believes the change in weather has even woken his players up a little after they threw a 2-0 lead away at AFC Bournemouth. Speaking ahead of the game, Benitez said: “It’s been fine. I think the change in the weather has been good. “It means we’ve been awake. “You go to the Canary Isles and it’s 25 degrees every day.
“When I was in Tenerife you didn’t even know when it was Christmas.
“I was joking with Ayoze Perez about it because it was 25 degrees.
“They’d change the flowers and you’d think, ‘Oh, it’s Christmas time.’
“But it’s been fine (this week) and it’s not a problem.”
Benitez stood up to the icy conditions this week, even donning a pair of shorts while others wrapped up to protect themselves from the cold.
The United manager said: “It was just to check the pitch. We have had the indoor pitch, the players have trained well and it’s fine.
“Obviously, if you have good weather you can train much better.
“It was a pity we didn’t have the pitch and we trained on the grass before the game.
“We tried to maximise the time we had. We watched videos and focused on what we had to do.
“After that, we tried to do the same things in the indoor pitch.
“The new synthetic pitches are much better so it’s not like years ago but it’s still different to natural grass.
“We have to be careful but that’s all.”
Newcastle still planned to travel to Merseyside by air as the bad weather seemed to offer some respite yesterday afternoon.
Benitez said: “We have the flight and we are checking the weather. It seems fine.”
With the Spaniard preparing to return to his old club Liverpool he was more focused on trying to stop Jurgen Klopp’s Premier League high-flyers.
The ex-Kop chief said: “Liverpool are a great team and they are at the top of the table with the others because of that.
“So it’s just to be sure we are strong enough both mentally and physically to compete against them.”