Does Mike Ashley know what's needed at Newcastle? Rafa Benitez has his say

The club was held to a goalless draw at St James’s Park by basement club Fulham on Saturday.

Newcastle didn’t have a shot on target against the team with the worst defensive record in the Premier League.

And the performance underlined the need for attacking reinforcements given the team’s inability to break Fulham down over the 90 minutes.

Asked if owner Ashley knew what was needed, manager Benitez said: “I hope so.

“We had a meeting with Lee (Charnley, United’s managing director), and we’re working on that.

“We’re doing what we have to do, and now we wait to see what will happen. We have the targets, the names, so we have to do what we have to do.

“It’s not easy. I don’t say that the players are not giving everything.

“They’re working so hard, but sometimes you can see that the final pass, the final decision, is making the difference to get the three points in these type of games.”

Atlanta United midfielder Miguel Almiron is one of Benitez’s targets.

However, the club would need to break its 13-year-old transfer record to sign the 24-year-old.

“We said in the meeting we know exactly what we need,” said Benitez.

“It’s just a case of identifying the players, and we’re trying to do it.

“We keep working on that. I was talking with Lee, and we’re trying to identify the targets.”