AYOZE PEREZ understands why John Carver took him out of the firing line recently, and has vowed to return to the peak of his powers in the final two months of the season.

Perez has been one of Newcastle United’s few success stories this season, with his goalscoring form in the wake of a £1.8m move from Tenerife seeing him linked with a possible summer switch to Arsenal or Manchester City.

However, he was relegated to the substitutes’ bench for the recent games against Aston Villa, Manchester United and Everton, with Carver only restoring him to the starting line-up for Saturday’s 2-1 defeat to Arsenal.

Having closely analysed the 21-year-old’s physical statistics, Carver concluded he was not at full fitness, and opted to restrict his involvement rather than run the risk of him suffering an injury that might have curtailed his campaign.

With Papiss Cisse suspended for another five matches, Perez will be an important figure in the closing weeks of the season, and while he was disappointed to find himself on the bench, the Spaniard can appreciate the thinking behind his demotion.

“Sometimes, a player needs a bit of a rest,” said Perez, who has now made 32 senior appearances in his first season in the English game. “I think it’s a good thing, and I don’t have a problem with that.

“Rest is good sometimes – I feel better. I feel much fresher now and it’s been good for me. Whenever he (Carver) wants me to play, I’m ready.”

Saturday’s game saw Newcastle recover from a relatively lacklustre first-half display to produce one of their better performances of recent months after the break.

Trailing to two first-half goals from Olivier Giroud, the Magpies threatened a revival when Moussa Sissoko pulled a goal back shortly after the interval, and while they were unable to claim an equaliser despite some decent second-half pressure, they at least provided a riposte to those who were claiming they were completely devoid of motivation in the wake of the 3-0 defeat at Everton.

Motivation should not be an issue when they return to the field a week on Sunday, with the Wear-Tyne derby at Sunderland offering an opportunity to end a run of four successive defeats to the Black Cats, and Perez is hoping last weekend’s improvement at least gives his side something to build on as they prepare for their biggest game of the remainder of the campaign.

“We must play all the games like that now,” he said. “We need to keep working and training hard for the derby.

“We played better in the second half, and I think we could have scored a goal and drawn the match. We had a good second half, and now we have a break before the derby so we can recover.

“We’re a bit disappointed not to have taken anything, but now we just need to train and prepare for the next match.”

Next month’s derby gives Carver an opportunity to court favour with the Newcastle fans, with Alan Pardew’s wretched run of results against Sunderland regularly cited as a key blot on his record during his time on Tyneside.

Carver remains hopeful of securing the head coach role on a permanent basis in the summer, and his prospects improved yesterday when it emerged that one of his leading rivals for the position, German Thomas Tuchel, had held talks with Bundesliga side SV Hamburg.

Tuchel, who has been out of work since leaving Mainz at the end of last season, is understood to be one of the overseas candidates being considered by Newcastle’s recruitment team, which is headed by managing director Lee Charnley and chief scout Graham Carr.

However, the 41-year-old has met senior officials at Hamburg to discuss the vacancy that was created when the German club dismissed Joe Zinnbauer.

Peter Knabel has been installed as a temporary head coach until the end of the season, but the former sporting director is not expected to remain beyond that point and Tuchel is widely viewed as Hamburg’s preferred candidate for the post.