Rafa Benitez commented on the chances of Newcastle United defender Achraf Lazaar featuring for the club again and opened the door slightly to him returning.
The Magpies boss admitted that the 26-year-old will continue with the U-23s for now but that the side will continue to monitor how he does and that he can’t rule out using him.
Benitez shared that Lazaar was named in the senior squad as the Magpies don’t have many left-backs to call upon.
“He will stay with the under-23s. We will see how he is going on. We cannot say no or cannot say yes – we have to see how he is doing and then we decide,” stated the Magpies manager, as quoted by the Chronicle.
“The reason we put him in the squad is because we know it’s a weak position and we have no back-up so it’s just in case.”
OPINION
Lazaar has rarely been seen featuring for the Magpies’ first-team and managed to make only one appearance last season before being loaned out. The left-back played in the League Cup fixture against Nottingham Forest and hardly made a case for himself why he should be seen as an option for the first-team. The 26-year-old joined the Magpies from Italian side Palermo in 2016 and has since only made a grand total of 10 appearances for the senior side. While Lazaar’s heart might be in the work place, he just simply doesn’t have the quality needed to succeed in the Premier League. If the left-back ended up having to replace first-choice Paul Dummett in the team for whatever reason that the Magpies’ opponents would no doubt funnel all their attacks down the left-flank in order to take advantage of Lazaar’s presence. However who knows, worst players have turned their careers around at St James Park and given Benitez’s comments, there is a chance that the left-back could get one final opportunity if the Magpies find themselves desperately short of a left-back.
