OPINION
After weeks of scraping the barrel, Rafa Benitez will be spoilt for choice when it comes to naming his midfield against Wolves on Monday night.
The Magpies manager will welcome back Mo Diame and Ki Sung-yeung to his squad, as reported by the Shields Gazette, while new signing Miguel Almiron will also be available for selection.
That will give Benitez something of a headache, especially given how well deputy midfield pairing Sean Longstaff and Isaac Hayden have performed together in recent weeks.
The question, therefore, is whether Benitez will show faith in his trusted options, or continue to give his unlikely pair of aces a prolonged run in the side.
Whatever choice he makes, he has to keep to Sean Longstaff in the starting eleven.
The 21-year-old has been a standout performer for the Magpies since he was drafted in by the Spaniard, and to drop him now would be entirely unjustified.
Longstaff is a dominant physical box-to-box player who provides an assurance in possession and an eye for a forward pass that few of his teammates can.
Obviously, Benitez will not want to rush him into a huge amount of responsibility given his age, but everything that Longstaff has done so far would suggest that he is completely ready to shoulder his share of the burden of a relegation battle.
It won’t be an easy choice for Benitez to make, and it will be a novelty having all of those options at his disposal, but the local lad has earned his right to keep on shining.