Jamaal Lascelles explains what Newcastle teammate Ayoze Perez is like in training

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Newcastle United captain Jamaal Lascelles has explained that teammate Ayoze Perez is not only in brilliant form on the pitch, but that he’s “unreal” in training too.

Perez has guided the Magpies to Premier League safety for another year with his purple patch of form recently.

The Spanish attacker has now scored four goals in his last two league games, which included a hat-trick against Southampton at the weekend.

He’s now up to 11 goals across all competitions this term and is thriving on the right hand side of a front three.

The 25-year-old has quite often divided opinion at St James’ Park due to his inconsistency, but he has a tremendous work-rate and has popped up with vital goals once again this campaign.

Senior defender Lascelles has waxed lyrcial about the quality of Perez, who he feels has been at the heart of the team’s success on the pitch.

“Recently he (Perez) has been unreal, in training and in games,” Lascelles said, as quoted by the Chronicle.

“He’s not the fastest of players but he just skips by players. I don’t know what it is, his balance or his dribbling.

“He works so hard, too. He is up there with the most interceptions [made] as well, most tackles. He does do a lot of the dirty work, as well as scoring goals. He has been a key player for us this season.”

TBR’s View:

Perez hasn’t quite done enough yet at Newcastle to suggest he can be an elite player, but he’s proved doubters wrong with some match-winning performances and when he’s on form he’s a real handful.

The creative playmaker certainly fits Rafael Benitez’s style with his tireless energy in the final third and he does defend from the front.

He could be classed in the top bracket of attacker if he finds a little more consistency and can get his goal return up closer to the 15/20 mark.