Toothless Toon fail to impress Benitez
PRESTON NE 1
Barkhuizen (33)
NEWCASTLE UNITED 1
Mitrovic (10) NEWCASTLE’S lack of firepower will be a major issue unless Rafa Benitez can persuade Mike Ashley to invest in a proven Premier League goalscorer in the next three weeks.
Benitez will intensify his search for a striker in the coming days, with Daryl Murphy sold to Nottingham Forest and both Aleksandar Mitrovic and Emmanuel Riviere available for transfer.
That leaves just Dwight Gayle as a regular source of goals – and only 15 of his career goals have come in the top flight.
The Spaniard was very cagey after the game when pressed on whether there will be new faces before the season opener against Tottenham.
“Hopefully, we’re close to making signings but we will have to wait and see,” he said.
“We (he and Ashley) are in contact all the time. We still have time.
“We have too many players now so not all of them can have a future at the club. We need 25 players.
“I don’t know about those leaving because it depends on other clubs.”
Mitrovic was the scorer here – a 10th-minute tap-in from six yards out when keeper Chris Maxwell pushed Paul Dummett’s shot out.
North End levelled in the 33rd minute when Tom Barkhuizen volleyed past Rob Elliot after £ 8.7m signing Florian Lejuene and Grant Hanley failed to deal with Greg Cunningham’s teasing centre.
Mitrovic could have had a second just before Alex Neil’s team scored when he chested the ball down and drilled in a low shot which was cleared off the line by Marnick Vermijl.
The big Serb looks effective against this level of opposition but Benitez knows that he’s been found wanting in the top division.
The Spaniard had laid down an “impress me” challenge to his squad, but his desire to give all 22 players some minutes on the field meant it was difficult for anyone to make a case for themselves.
He made eight changes at half time, including introducing £12m Jacob Murphy.
“It was not the best performance,” Benitez acknowledged. “Fitness is important at this stage and they were sharper than us.
“It’s always good for strikers to score and for Mitra, for everyone, we are building the squad.
“If they want to stay and play in the Premier League we need desire.
“These games mean you can give 45 minutes to players and they can play with intensity.
“But we didn’t play to the level we were expecting. Everyone needs to understand where we are and how hard we have to work.”
Michy Batshuayi was on target in each half as Chelsea recorded a 3- 0 friendly victory over Premier League rivals Arsenal at Beijing’s Bird’s Nest Stadium.
The Blues lost Pedro to a suspected concussion midway through the first half after he suffered a blow to his face in a collision with Ospina, with blood appearing to come from the Spain international’s ear. He was replaced by Jeremie Boga.
On 40 minutes, Chelsea’s Willian beat three Arsenal defenders and the diving Ospina as he slotted into the bottom corner with precision.
The Blues doubled their lead two minutes later as Batshuayi scored in almost mirrorimage fashion to Willian’s opener.
The second half got off to a controversial start as Arsenal boss Arsene-Wenger tried to bring on Giroud but the France international was not listed on the team sheet. After some discussion the officials let Giroud on to the pitch.
The Premier League champions began to dominate from the whistle and Batshuayi completed his brace four minutes later.
Marcos Alonso cut the ball back to his team-mate, who fired a thunderbolt into the back of the net from the edge of the box.
Meanwhile, in the Premier League Asia Trophy third place play- off, Crystal Palace boss Frank de Boer was unhappy with the physical treatment meted out to Wilfried Zaha during his side’s clash with West Brom.
The Eagles won 2-0 in Hong Kong, courtesy of goals from Luka Milivojevic and Bakary Sako.
Liverpool triumphed 2-1 against Leicester in the final.
The Foxes opened the scoring in the 12th minute through an Islam Slimani header from a Christian Fuchs cross.
Eight minutes later, Phillipe Coutinho found Mo Salah in the box and he nodded home to level things.
A minute before half time, Coutinho smashed a stunning 18-yard shot past Kasper Schmiechel to win the trophy for the Reds.