Salomon strikes are justifying for Benitez

RAFA Benitez believes Salomon Rondon has underlined why he was top of his wanted list in the summer.

The striker’s two goals handed United three points against Bournemouth to make it back-to-back wins.

Rondon arrived from West Bromwich Albion on loan in the summer with Dwight Gayle heading the other way for a season.

Benitez said: “When we signed Rondon, we were talking about a striker who could win in the air, could hold the ball and at the same time have some mobility.

“He’s different to Ayoze, Muto or Joselu and that is good news for us because we have different options we can manage depending on the games.

“He did really well, and still he can improve his match fitness – that will be by playing games – but if he continues training hard in training sessions, he will be better and better.

“He’s not very fast, but he’s quite strong and as I said before, still he can improve.

“If we continue training normally, I think he will be a little bit better physically and it will give him more chances in behind defenders.”

The deal to bring Rondon to Tyneside resulted in several hours of hard work behind the scenes by Benitez as well as him sacrificing Gayle to the Hawthorns.

He said: “We signed him because we knew about the characteristics of the player, we knew about his mentality and we knew that he could give us something different.

“But it’s not that he was the number one priority because of that.

“If you were asking me if I would sign Alan Shearer now and pay £50million, I would do it.”

When asked if Rondon’s bullet header in the first half