Rafael Benitez reacts to Newcastle fans jeering Ayoze Perez

Follow us on Google Discover

Newcastle United’s Ayoze Perez struggled against West Ham.

Newcastle United boss Rafael Benitez has told The Chronicle that Ayoze Perez will be disappointed with his display against West Ham United as he received jeers from fans.

The Magpies went into their game with the Hammers off the back of three wins in a row, and were looking to make it four – but fell flat at St James’ Park.

A Javier Hernandez brace put West Ham 2-0 up, and Felipe Anderson raced away to make it 3-0 late on, handing the Hammers a thumping victory on Tyneside.

Nothing really seemed to go Newcastle’s way, and forward Perez had a miserable afternoon having missed a couple of great chances to score.

The Spaniard has been playing as a number 10 for much of his time under Benitez, but has been mostly disappointing and at best inconsistent in that role, leading to the club’s interest in signing Atlanta United’s Miguel Almiron.

Perez was jeered by fans, booed and ironically cheered when substituted, and boss Benitez was asked about the situation after the final whistle on Saturday.

Benitez suggested that everybody needs to understand that the Newcastle players are always wanting to win, rather than being poor on purpose, suggesting that fans shouldn’t get on his back quite so much as he is working hard for the team, but fan expectation is so high.

“We have to understand that everybody wants to win, starting with the players,” said Benitez. “I’m sure that the first one disappointed will be Ayo, or anyone who had chances during the game or anyone who made a mistake in defence or anyone who missed a pass. We have to understand what is our team, what we have and why we have been successful – because we work really hard, not because we were miles better than the other teams, it’s because we have worked as a team, and Ayo is working really hard for the team.”

“Obviously he had some chances and the fans were expecting that he had to score or at least be more dangerous. But it’s part of the game and part of our problem. We create enough chances in a lot of games to score goals and we have to take more if we can,” he added.