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Gus Poyet has some harsh words for critics of his team selection this weekend during the hammering at the hands of Hull City in the FA Cup Quarter Final.
Poyet slammed the critics as 'clueless' in speaking to BBC Newcastle;
If we were playing Real Madrid, maybe they would have a point. That team was good enough to win.
People will criticise, but you cannot go back - some of them haven't got a clue what goes on behind the doors.
Indeed we don't. On one hand Poyet has a point. Some quick maths and even allowing for some bad maths and Wikipedia being wrong, there was easily over 200 international caps and 1200 Premier League games between the starting XI on Sunday.
The other hand to that however knows that the likes of Andrea Dossena, Oscar Ustari and Nacho Scocco does constitute a weakned team.
Poyet had words for the likes of us though who suggest it was overly weakened;
Wes Brown and Craig Gardner were injured, Jozy Altidore and Valentin Roberge ill, Emanuele Giaccherini started and he is one of our most expensive players, Steven Fletcher is coming back and Ignacio Scocco needs to play.
There are no excuses from me, if someone wants to look for some, then fine. I'm man enough to say we played 11 first-team players that were certainly good enough to win the match.
In making no excuses Poyet seems to be finding excuses by ruling players out through illness and what have you. Whilst the team selected could have done a hell of a lot better, I don't really buy that Poyet would have selected the likes of Wes Brown even if available given he left out stars like Fabio Borini and Adam Johnson.
Poyet is a good manager. He's proved to be so far and we're thankful to have him. However this is the first major test of his skills and his mettle, and it will be interesting to see how he handles the pressure as the week building up to the all important home game with Crystal Palace.
