Rafa Benitez explains why 10-goal Real Madrid ace never worked at Newcastle United, but says he helped a lot

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Rafa Benitez has attempted to explain why one Real Madrid ace was never a rip roaring success at Newcastle United.

During his time at the Geordie club, Spanish manager Rafa Benitez was one of the more popular figures for fans of Newcastle United under Mike Ashley’s ownership.

During the unsuccessful years of the 2010s, Newcastle had multiple managers who struggled to relate to the passionate fanbase but Benitez did.

The Spaniard overperformed during his time at the club before he left Tyneside and was later replaced by Steve Bruce, who was a car crash of an appointment.

Benitez on why Real Madrid ace didn’t work at Newcastle

During his time in the North of England, Benitez signed a cluster of players from Spain with the most famous being Ayoze Perez.

Perez wasn’t the only one with Mikel Merino and Spanish forward Joselu, who netted for Real Madrid in the Champions League semi-final.

The move for the Spanish forward did not work out and Benitez, in an interview with Spanish outlet AS, attempted to explain why didn’t work out for Joselu.

“The Premier League has a lot of rhythm and a lot of speed. Due to the conditions of our club, our team was the protagonist in the Championship, but in the Premier, we had to play more on the counterattack,” he insisted.

“The other forwards adapted better than Joselu to the Premier League game, he helped us a lot in the aerial game and especially in the games in which we had the initiative. With the ball close to the area, he always showed his quality in controls, passes and shots.”

Joselu at Newcastle

During the forward’s time at Newcastle, Joselu only scored six goals for the Geordie club before moving to Alaves, where he was much more successful.

Now at RCD Espanyol, Joselu was allowed to move to Real Madrid on loan and the Spaniard netted 10 times for Los Blancos.

The Spaniard netted the decisive goal against Bayern Munich in the Champions League semi-final and he was a massive success at the Santiago Bernabeu, although it is unlikely his stay will become permanent.