Newcastle United crashed out of the Carabao Cup last night. And there was no shortage of talking points from the club's 3-2 defeat to Nottingham Forest.
Benitez made 10 changes for the second-round tie, which was decided by an extra-time winner from Tyler Walker.
But he brought back into the team players he has already told don't have a future at the club!
And none of them performed!
Winless Newcastle must now regroup ahead of Saturday's Premier League home game against West Ham United.
Benitez was asked about his team selection in his post-match press conference.
United's manager fielded a number of unwanted players in his starting XI.
And Achraf Lazaar, told to train at the Academy last month, was recalled to his squad ahead of an expected return to Serie A.
Benitez, however, felt he had to make changes to the team beaten 1-0 by Huddersfield Town on Sunday.
“I made the changes because we played (three) days ago," he said.
“The players have to be ready to play in the cup against a Championship team. If you cannot, then it means that something is wrong.
“I thought we could do and, watching the number of chances we had, I think we deserved to go through."