Newcastle: Mikel Merino not worried by Graeme Souness' jibe

Souness blasted Merino’s poor attempt to track Aaron Mooy before the Huddersfield man struck the winner ten days ago as ‘a joke’.

It was hardly the sort of impact the Spanish midfielder would have wanted from his first start for the Magpies in the Premier League, with the Terriers going on to win too.

But Merino showed what sort of quality he does possess in his second appearance in the English top tier, when he dictated play in the middle to help Newcastle defeat West Ham 3-0 on Saturday.

The 21-year-old said that he doesn’t give Souness’ comments “importance” and his focus is more on ensuring he develops into the best footballer he can – helped by this season-long loan on Tyneside.

Merino said: “I like to give the passes to my team-mates because I think it’s the best way to win matches. Precise passes and to go forward, that is what I try. Sometimes you misplace passes because you take risks in order to give a good pass to someone in front.

“But when the pass is good, it creates a clear chance for our team so I try to give these passes. If I fail with half of it, then it doesn’t matter because I know the other half will be good chances.

“That’s what I try to do. I have to learn a lot from Rafa Benitez, from the league, I’m only 21, and I think I have a lot of things to improve. But by playing I will learn and I will become a more complete footballer.”

Merino might only be relatively new to Newcastle following his switch from Borussia Dortmund, but he was well aware of the increased pressure on securing a positive result against West Ham.

Having lost three games in a row before that – two in the Premier League – and the growing tension being reported after a failure to land the transfer deals Benitez has wanted, a victory was crucial for the mood in the dressing room.

Merino said: “You cannot comprehend it because no-one wants to lose, but what we have to do is forget the bad results, only think about the good things and the things to improve.

“We are lucky in this game because we win doing a great job and this is good for us to feel confident and to keep doing the things we are doing.

“I enjoyed the West Ham match a lot, of course. It was very important to get that first victory after two losses to begin with. It was important to win in front of our people.

“The main thing is we played as a team, we played together, and the things we are doing are in the right way so we have to keep playing, keep pushing and the wins will come.

“It was important to win before the two-week break. If you win now, then you have positivity. If you lose, then you have two weeks to think things over in your head and it is not nice. Now we can relax, be more confident and come back even stronger.”

When Newcastle do get back to Premier League action at Swansea a week on Sunday, Benitez will hope to have more new signings in the mix.

And, despite admitting that he has had to lower his sights because of limitations on the transfer front and a lack of players moving out of St James’ Park so far, he is working hard with managing director Lee Charnley to get deals done before Thursday’s deadline.

It has emerged that Icelandic striker Vidar Orn Kjartansson is on his list of targets, having struggled to get a deal over the line for Arsenal’s Lucas Perez.

Kjartansson, 27, is playing for Maccabi Tel Aviv and is rated at £8m.

The need for a new forward has always been there, but that will be greater if Benitez offloads Dwight Gayle this week having become frustrated with his performances. Aleksandar Mitrovic is also wanted by a number of clubs, including Olympiacos.

Dutch forward Siem de Jong is on the verge of moving to Ajax, while Bologna have inquired about Achraf Lazaar. Newcastle are still hoping to move on more to free up more room on the wage bill.