RAFAEL BENITEZ remains confident Salomon Rondon will make a major impression this season, despite the on-loan Newcastle United striker failing to score a league goal in the opening three months of the campaign.

Rondon will retain his place in the starting line-up this afternoon as Newcastle look to build on last weekend’s morale-boosting win over Watford when they entertain in-form Bournemouth without injured duo Jamaal Lascelles and Jonjo Shelvey.

Fabian Schar and Ki Sung-yueng will start after impressing as substitutes in the Watford win, and Rondon will also feature in the Magpies line-up despite failing to score in his six league appearances since moving to Tyneside from West Brom.

The 29-year-old has suffered a disrupted start to his Newcastle career, with a succession of niggling injuries keeping him on the sidelines, but having made him his number one attacking target at the start of the summer, Benitez is confident he will rediscover his goalscoring touch before too long.

“I think that he can do it, although it’s been quite difficult for him,” said the Newcastle boss. “When he came, he was coming from injury. So then it was difficult for him because he’d been out for three weeks, which is a long time, especially during pre-season.

“After, when he picked up the injury, we lost another five weeks. It will be quite difficult for any player to recover from that, but especially a big player who needs more time to improve their match fitness. I think it’s a question of time, but that he will get better and better. I think he will play better, for sure. When? Hopefully against Bournemouth.”

He might have played Yoshinori Muto as a central striker on a couple of occasions this season, but Benitez prefers to play with a physical centre-forward leading the line.

Joselu filled that role for a significant part of last season, but the Spaniard’s goalscoring record is poor. Rondon has tended to be more productive in the final third, and the Venezuelan also boasts the kind of muscularity and aerial strength that Benitez likes in a leader of the line.

“We are talking about a big striker who is strong enough to hold the ball,” said the Magpies manager. “He’s decent with his feet and also has some mobility and can run, but we haven’t seen that enough yet.

“He is quite good in the air at flicking the ball and winning headers, but in terms of holding the ball Rondon is maybe a little bit better than Joselu. We have two different strikers so, even when we talk about two big strikers, they are different. He is quite a strong striker. He is not very tall, but he is quite strong. He uses his body really well, and that is the main thing.”

While Rondon will get another chance to impress this afternoon, neither Lascelles, Shelvey nor Muto will be involved against Bournemouth after picking up injuries last weekend.

Shelvey and Muto have not been able to train this week after damaging their calf, while Lascelles will not be considered despite having taken part in some light training in the last couple of days.

Schar will partner Federico Fernandez at the heart of the back four, with Ayoze Perez starting instead of Muto. Ki will replace Shelvey in central midfield, and the South Korean’s presence should change Newcastle’s attacking focus.

When Ki came on to the field last weekend, it was noticeable that the Magpies retained possession much more effectively than when Shelvey was looking to play long balls beyond the opposition defence. That shift in emphasis is likely to be apparent again this afternoon.

“With Jonjo, we know he can play long passes and make the difference with that,” said Benitez. “But with Ki, we know he can do both. He can play long or short, he has mobility and he is a clever player. He knows where he has to be and where he needs to go. Jonjo has his qualities, and Ki has his.

“Although Ki has not been playing with us, he went away in the international break and played two full games for his country. In terms of match fitness, it’s not perfect but it is okay and because he has a lot of experience in the Premier League and he can help the team.”

Jacob Murphy is set to return to the substitutes’ bench after failing to make the match-day squad against Watford, and while the winger has not had the kind of impact that was anticipated when he joined Newcastle in a £13m move from Norwich City, Benitez insists he is unconcerned at his failure to make much of an impression this season.

“He is in the squad and training well,” he said. “I had a conversation with him, but a normal one. I think he is doing really well in the training sessions – he is one of the best in the training sessions – and he has to improve his understanding of the game. But he is quite keen to learn and is working really hard to do that.

“He’s a young player, a nice lad, and he understands when he needs to talk with me, we talk. We spend a lot of time doing specific work – his running with the ball, his dribbling, something like that – but he’s still a young player.

“The problem with young players is when you are not doing well, or the team is not doing well, it’s more difficult to play them because everybody is expecting them to make the difference because of the quality that they have. But if they don’t have the experience, sometimes the pressure is too much for them.”