RAFA BENITEZ does not think Jamaal Lascelles or any one of the defenders should be guaranteed a starting spot at Newcastle United, as he asks for his players to cut down on errors.

Lascelles’ form has been in the spotlight again. He was culpable for gifting Dejan Lovren the opening goal during Liverpool’s 4-0 defeat of the Magpies at Anfield on Boxing Day.

The Newcastle captain has struggled to recapture the sort of form that saw his value soar to between £40-50m last summer, and he has plenty competition now for his shirt at St James’ Park.

Florian Lejeune could be available recovering from a cruciate knee ligament injury, while Federico Fernandez and Fabian Schar are in contention for starting spots. Ciaran Clark misses out at Watford today through injury.

But rather than focus on what Lascelles is doing right or wrong, Benitez has delivered a reminder to all his defenders that poor decisions costing his team points need to be stamped out.

The Newcastle boss said: “The point with the centre-backs is that we are playing with two and afterwards with three, and we have done well with both and badly with both systems.

“You can change players and anyone can play, and anyone can have a good game and anyone can make mistakes. You have to accept that. The point for us is to try to reduce the number of mistakes.

“Not just for Jamaal but for everyone. We have bodies there and it is more a question of how we can improve them, and how much we can stay focused to do the things we have done in a lot of games.

“We have kept clean sheets, I think we have six. We have done it because we have been solid in defence at times and also because the strikers and midfielders have helped. It is something we have to repeat in every game. It’s not Jamaal, it’s Jamaal and all the other centre-backs.”

Lejeune had become a key member of the squad when he suffered his knee injury in pre-season but now the 27-year-old is available.

Benitez said: “He was playing with the Under-23s, 45 minutes and he did well. He is training every day, so he could be playing on Saturday, but the problem we have is that we have too many centre-backs, and we don’t need to risk him. Maybe, it is a chance for him in the FA Cup against Blackburn because he is training normally.”

Newcastle are looking to close the year in style by surprising tenth-placed Watford at Vicarage Road before facing Manchester United on January 2 at St James’ Park.

Given the off-the-field distractions Benitez has faced this year on Tyneside, with Mike Ashley’s unwillingness to invest in the squad running alongside attempts to sell the club, he was asked if 2018 was the hardest of his managerial career.

He said: “You never know. Overall, it was fine. To finish in the top ten was a great achievement. Our position now is fine. It could be better, could be worse.

“Cardiff was an important game in August, if we win it would give us more confidence for the other difficult games. If we can keep the same level and maybe improve, I think we will be fine.

“Hopes for 2019 are to stay up and that’s simple. My message is clear, the target is to stay up.

“We are in the half bottom of the table and we have to get as high as possible, get the points to stay up and then get as high as we can. We have to approach every game focused and we cannot make mistakes like the other day.”

Newcastle are five points above the drop zone ahead of a run of six games when three of those will be against Manchester United, Chelsea and Tottenham.

He said: “If you compare to last season we are similar, we had a very good reaction in second half. We have the same difficulties this year, there were more teams around in the bottom half fighting against relegation, now there are less teams. Last year there could be eight, ten teams. Now there are four, five or six teams.’’