No anxiety over Almiron's lack of Newcastle goals – Benitez
The Magpies boss is calm about his new arrival’s failure to score since joining in a club-record deal, instead hailing his impact on his team-mates
Newcastle United manager Rafa Benitez insists there is no anxiety over the fact that big-money signing Miguel Almiron has not scored a goal yet.
Almiron joined the Magpies in January for a club-record £21 million ($27.5m) and has since played six games – five of which were starts – but has yet to find the back of the net.
The attacking midfielder has struck up a good understanding with Salomon Rondon and Ayoze Perez, however, and Benitez is pleased with the Paraguay international’s impact on his forward line so far.
“He is doing OK. I do not see any anxiety just because he is not scoring. He is fine,” Benitez said.
“You talk about (Salomon) Rondon, (Ayoze) Perez and Almiron and they play well together.
“Maybe he (Almiron) has more pace going forward causing more problems for defenders, and that is beneficial for Rondon and Ayoze.
“The team is doing a lot of things with more confidence and we have more chances and then we are more of a threat in attack.”
Curiously, Newcastle have the exact same points total now as they did at this stage last season – with nine wins and eight draws from 31 games leaving them on 35 points – but they have also matched their goals scored and goals conceded tallies from this stage of last season, scoring 31 and conceding 40.
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“I was surprised [about the statistics] because I think it is quite special. But I can take that as a positive because if we do well, we can finish 10th if we are doing more or less the same.
“But at the same time, the approach changes even if you are not conscious of it, the approach changes depending on where you are.
“At the moment, we are fine and I have read some players talking about that, so we will see if we are safe enough, where we can go.
“We have to do exactly the same, try to get points in every game. At least we have this feeling of confidence because we are doing well.
“If we do well and we are lucky – sometimes you need a bit of luck – then we can compete now against anyone because the team is quite solid and then we have confidence in ourselves, so I think we can do it.”
Newcastle visit the Emirates Stadium next as they take on Arsenal on Monday.
