Tonight is not the night to complain about the players
THE dejection in Rafa Benitez’s voice could not be disguised as he tried to offer an instant verdict on Newcastle United’s agonising loss at Old Trafford.
After defeats like this it can be hard to make sense of what you have just witnessed with the adrenaline still pumping hard around the veins.
However, Benitez refused to conduct a post-mortem and instead looked to offer public support for his young players.
With a host of national journalists in the room and the dust still settling from a meeting with Mike Ashley , perhaps Benitez feels he still has a chance of persuading the owner to spend in January.
Therefore he opted against making a scene.
Newcastle are crying out for experienced players, however.
As you looked around the pitch at full-time, your heart could only go out to many members of the side.
Jacob Murphy looked shell-shocked, Jonjo Shelvey was inconsolably slumped on the floor while Kenedy looked on in despair after being forced off when his side had been 2-0 up.
At his post-match press conference, Benitez was asked whether that little bit of extra experience in the side would have helped on the night.
The Spaniard replied: “Tonight is not the night to complain about the players.
“They did great, it is just something we need to learn for the future.
“The team was in control of the game for a while but perhaps we have to manage the situation a little bit better if we can.”
At both 2-0 and 2-1 up, Newcastle did have the ball enough to run the clock down and eat up more valuable seconds than they did.
Yet they kept going for the jugular and rather than retaining the ball in the corners, something which would have rattled Man United immensely as they chased the game, kept trying to create chances.
Rather than hold on to the ball from corner kicks the same old-fashioned free-kick was whipped in by Shelvey looking for the head of Jamaal Lascelles – and it failed almost every time in the second half.
Newcastle needed to be smarter in the last quarter of the game and there naïvety left the door wide open for Man United to punish them.
Benitez felt the Red Devils had the edge in the final stages with four forwards.
He added: “You have to give credit to Man United.
“It was the players they had on the pitch and the pace, the size, the ability, the power, everything.
“It was very difficult to stop them playing.
“We did it and we played very well for a while.
“We cannot complain about the players – we just have to learn for the future.”