Rafa Benitez reveals how many positions he hopes to strengthen at Newcastle in the transfer window

Rafa Benitez says his players want to see new signings at Newcastle United.
Rafa Benitez.Rafa Benitez.
Rafa Benitez.

Benitez hopes to strengthen his squad in next month’s transfer window. Injury-hit Newcastle climbed out of the Premier League’s relegation zone after Saturday’s 3-2 win over West Ham United.

The victory, the club’s first in two months, moved Benitez’s side up to 15th in the table.

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Benitez has openly spoken about the need to strengthen his squad. Asked if his “we have what we have” statement was a negative for players, United’s manager said: “People can say ‘oh, it affects the confidence of the players’, but the players they know.

“So if you play against teams and you can see the quality and the size of those players, they see and they know and understand that what we need to do is bring in players in order to compete and be better.

“If you are the right-full-back, you want strikers, you want midfielders and you want wingers.

“If you are the left-full-back, you want a right-full-back. If you are a striker, you want midfielders. Everybody knows that we need players, but nobody wants it to be a player in his position.

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“But they all understand that we need players, then we can be better and win more games together.”

Asked how many players he wanted in the window, Benitez added: “We just need to be sure that in three or four positions we can strengthen, and if we can bring someone who can bring us something different – (something) that we don’t have – then that’ll be positive for the team.”

Meanwhile, midfielders Isaac Hayden and Mikel Merino could be fit for tomorrow night’s home game against Manchester City, though defender Florian Lejeune won’t be fit.

“Merino and Hayden will have a chance, because it was little problems,” said Benitez. “Lejeune? It will be more difficult.”