OPINION
Newcastle United were aiming to rack up their first win of the 2018/19 season when they took on Crystal Palace at Selhurst Park and they failed in their quest for three points.
The Magpies were lucky to achieve a 0-0 draw with their Premier Leagues on Saturday as Palace had several opportunities to punish their opponents for sloppy mistakes.
Rafa Benitez would have learnt several valuable lessons from his side’s latest performance and must makes changes to his first-team as a result.
Nothing But Newcastle has comprised a list of three things that the Magpies would have learned from their performance against Palace after the sides shared the points in a 0-0 draw.
Perez must be axed
Ayoze Perez is wasteful and offers the Magpies nothing going forward. The £45,000-a-week attacker (Source: Spotrac) may have ended his 2017/18 campaign drowning in plaudits as he scored vital goals and demonstrated his silky skills but that is just a distant memory. At the end of the day, the Magpies need an attacker capable of consistently delivering the goals similar to how former Magpie forward Aleksandar Mitrović is regularly scoring for Premier League rivals Fulham this season. While several may argue that Perez’s ability to never stop running and work hard for the team makes him better than some other options Rafa Benitez has available to him, at the end of the day, goals win games, not pointless runs that lead nowhere.
Lack of left-back options is a worry
Paul Dummett struggled when Andros Townsend charged at him and also failed to deal with the eccentric Wilfried Zaha trying his luck against them. If Benitez had other options to play at left-back then perhaps the Welsh international would have been saved from his struggles. However after not recruiting a capable left-back in the summer, Benitez was forced to keep Dummett being exposed on the left-flank in order just to hope his game turned around. Dummett is usually one of the Magpies’ most reliable performers but it was clearly he couldn’t handle the blistering pace that at least a couple of Palace’s players possessed.
Rondon is blameless
Salomon Rondon no doubt rocked at St James Park licking his lips at the chance his teammates would create for him but yet again in his outing against Palace his teammates’ failure to provide decent service left him isolated. The Magpies consistently weaved their creative magic last season as they create chance after chance, only not to have a capable forward to fire them home. However after recruiting the 29-year-old Venezuelan it seems the Magpies’ midfield haven’t got it in them this season to play the forward through on goal and until that changes Rondon will not be prolific for Benitez’s side. The forward isn’t the type of attacker who can carve out his own chances and that was known ahead of him joining so his continued failure to score in the Premier League is hardly his fault and leaves him blameless.
