Jermaine Jenas praises Newcastle United striker Salomon Rondon despite defeat to Liverpool

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West Bromwich Albion loanee Salomon Rondon has been a success at Newcastle United this season.

Jermaine Jenas has spoken in awe of Newcastle United striker Salomon Rondon after he put in a ‘selfless’ display during his sides 3-2 defeat to Liverpool on Saturday night.

The BBC Sport pundit claims that manager Rafa Benitez will be ‘hugely proud’ of Rondon’s performance, who has been on a season-long loan at St James’ Park this term from West Brom.

The powerful striker found the back of the net with a lovely left-footed finish in the second half, but the away team netted a late winner to keep up their hopes of winning the Premier League title.

Speaking to Match of the Day on BBC One (04/05/2019 at 10:40 pm), former midfielder Jenas spoke highly of what Rondon did against the title-chasing team.

“I think Rafa will be hugely proud of his team,” Jenas told Match of the Day. “Hugely proud of this man Salomon Rondon. He occupied the whole back four. Making really selfless runs. Putting that back four under enormous amounts of pressure.

“I thought his position was very good at times. Getting in between the two centre-halves and allowing his teammates to join him up – his confidence is growing now.

“This [his goal] on his left foot is brilliant, absolutely brilliant finish. It completely warranted the performance he put in and he was unfortunate to be on the losing side, as well as the rest of the team.”

Whilst Rondon’s goalscoring numbers may not be up there with the Premier League’s big boys, his performances this season have been invaluable to Newcastle.

The Albion man doesn’t just win points for his team on a regular basis, but he also has the ability to make those around him much better players.

As things stand, Rondon will be heading back to the Hawthorns in the summer, with his parent club currently hoping to earn promotion via the playoffs.

As for the Magpies, they have sealed their top-flight status for another season and the Toon Army faithful will no doubt want to keep their star man for another campaign.