OPINION
Newcastle United attacker Ayoze Perez gave a refreshingly candid interview with the Chronicle on Wednesday, and the Spaniard hit the nail on the head with much of what he said.
The Magpies haven’t been good enough for large portions of this season and it was nice to see a first team player acknowledge that.
“It wasn’t good enough [Saturday’s draw with Blackburn Rovers],” Perez said. “It was against a Championship team at home and we keep struggling at St James’ Park.
“Something is wrong. It wasn’t good enough but we have to keep going now. We have put ourselves in a tougher situation because now we have a replay.
“You can’t struggle as much as we are in home games. That means something is wrong. It is strange because there is no consistency, sometimes it is individual performances, sometimes it’s not like that and it’s team performance. I think there is a piece of the jigsaw that is missing,” he finished.
While Perez has summed up the situation on Tyneside quite succinctly, he also has to look in the mirror and acknowledge that he himself hasn’t been good enough this season.
The attacker came on in the 1-1 draw with Rovers on Saturday and instantly made an impact, winning the penalty that Matt Ritchie converted to secure a replay for the Magpies.
How is it that he was able to do more in such a brief cameo at the weekend than he has done for several months now? Yes he was facing a Championship side rather than a Premier League one, but that should be no excuse.
Perez has to be doing better on an individual basis. He has played a lot of football this season but has done precious little with it.
He is an important cog in this Newcastle team, supposedly linking the midfield and attack, but more often that not he floats around games and is largely anonymous.
So yes, Perez should be praised for his honesty, but at the end of the day he needs to buck up his own ideas and improve his performances in the second half of the season.
