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Quinn raves about Rondon

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Former Newcastle ace Mick Quinn has raved about resurgent striker Salomon Rondon, describing his performance against Bournemouth as ‘the complete centre-forward’s display.’

The Venezuela international has endured a slow start to life on Tyneside with injury limiting his involvement so far, but he scored twice in a 2-1 win over Bournemouth last time out to announce himself at his new club.

Quinn has now highlighted the fact that Rondon is perfectly suited to Rafa Benitez’s system, and offered up some advice on how to get the best out of the 29-year-old.

In a Q&A for the Chronicle, he said [13:31]: “I always thought that Rondon, once fit, would do the business for Newcastle – and he certainly delivered last time out. What a performance that was. It was the complete centre-forward’s display – and that second goal was an absolute peach.

“The thing I like about Rondon is his work ethic. He covers far more ground than I ever did, and he does so much unselfish work for this team.But I also think that’s one of the reasons he doesn’t score the volume of goals he should. He’s not in the box often enough; sometimes when he is out chasing the ball, he should be in the penalty area getting ready to get on the end of crosses.

“You only need to look at that header he scored to see the way to get the best out of the Venezuelan: whip inviting crosses into the box, and he will get on to the end of them. He looks perfectly suited to Rafa’s 4-2-3-1 system, and now I just want to see the likes of Ayoze Perez and Yoshinori Muto running off him more and giving him some support.”

OPINION

It is no surprise to see Quinn, a former Newcastle striker, rave about Rondon, the current incumbent at St. James’ Park. Everyone could see that Rondon put in a scintillating display against Bournemouth, and Quinn, having been in the same position, is even more aware of that. The Venezuela international had been left frustrated by niggling injury problems before the Cherries clash, and it was getting to a point where fans were growing agitated with his lack of impact. The Toon Army had experienced one of the most frustrating loan spells last season with Islam Slimani, who played just a few times for the club and never scored due to ongoing injury problems. There were obviously fears that Rondon’s spell at the club would turn out the same, but the 29-year-old looks back to full fitness and is raring to go after his double last time out. Hopefully he can continue that kind of form in the coming weeks and fire Newcastle away from the relegation zone.

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