Yesterday afternoon saw Wolverhampton Wanderers beat Newcastle United 2-1 at St James Park in the only Premier League clash of the day. It was a strange clash, as both managers opted to rotate their teams following strong midweek results, and the Geordies were shocked to see that Jacob Murphy was dropped from the side after playing so well and getting an assist on Wednesday.
TEAM NEWS:
Here’s how Newcastle United will line up against @Wolves at St. James’ Park this afternoon. #NUFC pic.twitter.com/ITEHf8Nt7S
— Newcastle United (@NUFC) December 9, 2018
In the place of Murphy, Benitez drafted in Christian Atsu and the supporters weren’t best pleased to see the Ghanian winger coming in. More often than not, Atsu gets slated for his level of performance and it looked like it would be one of those days for the African international. In the end, it seems Rafa did get this one wrong and it would have made a lot of sense to keep Murphy in the side given his efforts at Goodison Park.
The Magpies are starting to look like a much better side when they’re on the road given the way they play, but with that being said they should still compete at their home ground. Had they had the legs and directness of Murphy in the side then their 2-1 loss may have turned out very differently, especially seeing as Salomon Rondon looked very in the mood for the game and having an out-and-out winger to whip something in for him could have made all the difference.
You can see what the Magpies made of Rafa’s Murphy snub here:
Why’s Murphy just been dropped like that
— Kieren Wilkinson (@KierenW6) December 9, 2018
Harsh on Murphy that.
— Callum Hackers (@CallumHackers) December 9, 2018
Murphy gets an assist and gets dropped from the whole squad..
— Luke GowlandMcAndrew (@Luke_McAndrew13) 9 December 2018
Atsu man
— shaun johnston (@shauni46) 9 December 2018
Decent lineup, harsh on Murphy but gotta be a reason for it. What’s happened to Shelvey?
— Owen Cundall (@OwenCundall) December 9, 2018
Never mind atsu have we not got any one instead of walking dead diame and has shelvey gone awol murphy had a cracking game against everton OR rafa cud promote 3 kids from the U23s we all know who I mean
— niall (@dellynel) December 9, 2018
No Shelvey, Schär or Murphy… Strange that
— Cieran (@TUSEagle) December 9, 2018
The Geordies were annoyed that Benitez left out Murphy and would have been keen to see the youngster get the opportunity to build on his positive showing against Everton in midweek.
