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When the teams were released at the iPro Stadium an hour before kick-off, there were raised eyebrows in the Press room and there was a sliver of discontent on social media.

Why on earth was Isaac Hayden, one of Newcastle United’s most consistent performers so far this season, left out of the starting XI?

An ever-present in the Newcastle line-up in the Championship before the 2-0 victory over Derby County, the former Arsenal midfielder has been a calm, reassuring and classy presence in the middle of the park for the Magpies.

A goal and an assist to his name already this season, so why was he omitted from the XI?

Was he ‘dropped’, as some people suggested? Did he have a knock and was left out as a precaution?

The truth is neither of those things.

You see with Rafa Benitez, it is difficult - and disingenuous - to use the term ‘dropped’ every single time a player is left out of the starting line-up.

Sometimes the Spaniard does ‘drop’ players for under-performing, but he also rotates his pack and it very much appeared like that was his logic behind leaving the 21-year-old out of the XI who started against the Rams.

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Remember, this is a manager who once famously went 99 games without fielding the same line-up during his first couple of years at Liverpool.

Benitez believes in managing his players’ mental and physical fitness across the course of an entire campaign. Sometimes he predetermines whether a specific player will be fielded a good couple of weeks in advance of a game depending on their season-long conditioning plan.

United play six games in 18 days, including travelling to Queens Park Rangers as soon as Tuesday night, and Hayden will surely start that one.

And, when you consider the fact both Jack Colback and Jonjo Shelvey trained with the squad continuously for a fortnight while Hayden was away on England Under-21 duty, it is obvious those two would be more drilled for this specific match.

Benitez had a full two-week period to pass on detailed instructions to Colback and Shelvey during training sessions, while Hayden only arrived back on Tyneside in midweek.

Instead, Hayden - who helped Hull City to promotion via the play-offs last season - will play a crucial role in the upcoming rapid run of fixtures.

With Benitez, we must all be careful not to use the term ‘dropped’ too hastily.

Sometimes players will be dropped but, more often than not, he will merely be shuffling his pack in order to ensure as much freshness as possible across a 46-game season.