Newcastle manager Rafael Benitez tells owner Mike Ashley ‘everyone can see’ where squad must improve

Benitez believes reinforcements are needed this winter in order to steer the club away from trouble and met Ashley for positive talks over dinner last week

Newcastle are 19th in the Premier League table (PA)

Rafael Benitez has told Mike Ashley that “everyone can see” where his squad needs to improve after their 3-2 defeat at Manchester United.

Ashley, Newcastle’s owner, was in attendance for the third consecutive game to see Benitez’s side collapse from going 2-0 up in the opening 10 minutes to lose to Alexis Sanchez’s late header.

The defeat means Newcastle remain second-bottom of the Premier League table and are still waiting for their first victory of the season.

Benitez believes reinforcements are needed this winter in order to steer the club away from trouble and met Ashley for positive talks over dinner last week.

The Spaniard hailed the effort of his players at Old Trafford, but agreed when asked whether the collapse at Old Trafford had exposed his squad’s limitations.

“I think everybody can see that, it’s not just Mike Ashley,” he said. “Everybody can see the team is working so hard, doing so many good things, but still today we are talking about one of the top six and we cannot compete against them player-by-player in 90 minutes so we have to do everything we could as a team.

“We did it but you make mistakes, they score and the game changes.”

Newcastle are 19th in the Premier League table (PA)

Newcastle were handed a difficult start to the season by the fixture computer. Saturday’s visit to United was their fifth meeting with one of last season’s top six.

Benitez is grateful that his side’s schedule is more favourable after the forthcoming international break and believes it may be December before the table truly reflects his side’s quality.

“We’re disappointed because we couldn’t get the points and we were very close in a lot of these games,” he said. “At the same time, we have to play against Liverpool. But the other teams are there. They could be similar to us, some of them, but if we do well we can win.

“Hopefully it will be more positive, we will have a first victory soon and then we start to have more confidence and we play at the level we play today, but take the chances we did not take today.

Benitez added: “For me, obviously October, November and December, we have too many games in December and too many teams in these three months that are more or less our level.

“When we finish December we will see, and I think we will have a better idea about the possibilities, but still I have confidence. In December last year we were in the bottom five and after we finished 10th.”