Newcastle United defender DeAndre Yedlin has heaped praise on his manager Rafa Benitez.

Despite having to work with a shoe-string budget, the Spaniard managed to keep the Toon Amy in the Premier League last season.

When reflecting on the past season, Yedlin said: "I think that's the good thing about Rafa Benitez - he kept everyone positive.

"He said nobody was expecting us to stay up so we have nothing to lose. We know how good we are and we know how good we can be.

"And from 2018 we just cracked on and started beating some big teams, winning some important games and we ended up finishing in tenth position."