Eddie Howe defended his team selection after Newcastle beat Wolves at Molineux

At 3:15pm on Sunday Newcastle United posted Eddie Howe's team selection to X and by 3:16pm the questioning was well underway.

Everyone thinks they know best when it comes to who should represent their side, we do a lineup prediction ahead of every game and although the intent is to try and guess how Eddie Howe will lineup his team, there's always some personal opinion that creeps in.

Our predicted lineup to face Wolverhampton Wanderers perhaps had more opinion than expectation in there and as a result, it was quite different to the one Eddie Howe went with.

In fact, a lot of fans were caught off guard by Howe's team selection with Sandro Tonali and Harvey Barnes being dropped.

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Eddie Howe has told his players to play well and they'll be selected

It was Harvey Barnes bagging his second goal in as many games that sealed the win for the Magpies which gave those who questioned Howe's lineup a sense of justification, but after the game, Eddie Howe told The Mirror that there's always a method to his team selection and that every player has to play for their place.

"I think we had a few players who would have been disappointed not to start. The most important thing is the players respond in the right way and their best chance of playing in the next game is how they play on the pitch.

"With the strength of the bench, we need the pressure on the players knowing if they don't perform they won't play. That's a healthy dynamic as long as the players handle it in the right way. I'm confident we can get the dynamic - but that doesn't guarantee you results.

"One or two injuries and we are back where we were last year and we don't have the ability to make the changes we want to.""I just felt we needed a different energy in the team. I think it is a reflection in the quality of players we have waiting to play. I was really pleased with the attitude as they entered the pitch and I thought they made a positive difference for us."

Eddie Howe can justify his big calls after winning the game

We understand the reasons behind not overworking Sandro Tonali too soon after such a long layoff, especially as Italy didn't extend the same courtesy during the break, but dropping Harvey Barnes baffled pretty much everyone before and after the game, especially given that it was he who won the game.

However, Eddie Howe could easily argue that had Barnes played from the start he may not have grabbed the winning goal. You can look at it either way because, without a De Lorean, a wild-haired scientist and a kid in a life preserver, we can never tell what might have been.

At the end of the day, Newcastle won the game and Eddie Howe is due credit for that regardless of what we, as armchair coaches, would have done differently.