John Carver was disappointed with one Rafael Benitez decision against Spurs

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Newcastle United lost against Tottenham Hotspur in the Premier League last weekend.

John Carver suggested on The Friday Football Social show on BBC Radio 5live on Friday evening (7pm, August 18, 2017) that Newcastle United should have made use of Jacob Murphy against Tottenham Hotspur last weekend.

Newcastle kicked off their 2017-18 Premier League campaign with a 2-0 defeat to Tottenham Hotspur at St. James’ Park last weekend.

After a goalless first half, Dele Alli put Spurs in the lead on 61 minutes, and Ben Davies doubled the advantage on 70 minutes.

The Magpies played most of the second half with 10 men due to the sending-off of midfielder Jonjo Shelvey in the opening minutes of the second period.

Former Newcastle interim head coach Carver has suggested that manager Rafael Benitez should have deployed winger Murphy at some point in the game – the youngster was an unused substitute against Spurs.

The Magpies signed the 22-year-old winger from Championship club Norwich City in the summer transfer window.

According to Sky Sports, Newcastle had to pay the Canaries a transfer fee of £10 million which could rise to £12m in order to secure the services of the 22-year-old winger.

“The one thing I will say is I was delighted to see Atsu and I thought he was one of the shining lights on the left-hand side,” said Carver on The Friday Football Social show on BBC Radio 5live on Friday evening (7pm, August 18, 2017).

“(I was) a little bit disappointed not to see Murphy because when you pay £10 to £12 million, he has been there most of the pre-season, so he knows the players, he understands the system, how he has to play, and obviously because of what happened to Dummett and Lejeune early in the first half.”

Meanwhile, Birmingham City manager Harry Redknapp has told The Birmingham Mail that he is interested in signing Afriyie Acquah from Torino in the summer transfer window.

Back in June, The Daily Star claimed that Newcastle were interested in signing the 25-year-old Ghana international midfielder, but it seems that he is now on the radar of Birmingham in the Championship.

“He has always been one we’ve been after, we’ve not suddenly gone from Onazi to Acquah, we were always on Acquah anyway,” Redknapp told The Birmingham Mail.