OPINION
It is time for Rafa Benitez to return to the drawing board after Newcastle United suffered yet another defeat, this time at the hands of Wolves on Sunday afternoon.
It certainly was not their day and there will no doubt be questions raised about the performances of a number of his players.
One of those players will most likely include midfielder Mo Diame, whose polarising form this season being enough to give Benitez an enormous headache.
He has been blowing hot and cold and his display at the weekend must be the the icing on the cake in terms of his Newcastle career – basically, he is in last chance saloon.
There is only so long Benitez will put up with Diame’s exploits and the chopping block is seriously beckoning if he continues at the rate he is currently operating at.
In fact, he is just a liability, as you never know which Diame is going to turn up on the day.
His only notable mention from the game with Wolves was how he managed to carve an early chance for Salomon Rondon in the first half, but after that he was practically invisible, making it easy to forget that he was even playing.
The 31-year-old, on a reported £45k-a-week, was clumsy while in possession – in a nutshell, he was just woeful.
Why Benitez continues to place his trust in the central midfielder remains to be seen, and the fact that he is keeping Jonjo Shelvey out of the starting XI is just downright bizarre.
Benitez needs to be ruthless and axe the 6ft [Transfermarkt] player as he is just an accident waiting to happen and this is simply not good enough going into the busy Christmas schedule.
Diame is putting his playing career at Newcastle on the line and Benitez must take swift action.
