Shola Ameobi believes that Salomon Rondon did well in his Newcastle United debut against Tottenham at St James’ Park on Saturday.
Rondon, 28, joined the Magpies on loan from West Brom in the summer transfer window and made his first appearance as the club’s new No 9 by coming off the bench in the 2-1 defeat to Mauricio Pochettino’s Spurs side.
The Venezuela international almost grabbed Newcastle an equaliser when his deflected shot rattled the crossbar, and Tyneside icon Ameobi was impressed with what he showed in his limited time on the pitch.
“I thought he did well,” said Ameobi on Sky Sports’ live post-match coverage on Saturday afternoon.
“He held the ball up well. He’s always going to be a tough customer for defenders.”
OPINION
Rondon is very much a ‘what you see is what you get’ kind of striker. He will bully defenders, he will hold up the ball and he will win headers. The West Brom loanee did well in his cameo off the bench on Saturday and hopefully he will be in contention to start against Cardiff next week when Rafa Benitez’s side travel to South Wales to play the newly promoted side. That is a game that Rondon should flourish in though as Neil Warnock’s men are bound to put in a very physical and aggressive performance. The Venezuelan enjoys them kinds of encounters and hopefully Ameobi will be impressed by him even more in the future. However, will Rondon be starting that game? Joselu did well after being named to start up front. The under-fire ex-Stoke man scored a good header and made some clever passes. It’s a good problem for Benitez to have, but surely he has to play Rondon.