Newcastle United boss Eddie Howe has revealed he told his whole team that any one of them could have been taken off at half-time as they slumped to a desperate defeat against West Ham United.

In the end Howe hooked Anthony Gordon, Emil Krafth and £69million man Nick Woltemade before labelling the 3-1 defeat to the Hammers as 'poor' while also claiming his players they weren't at the races mentally.

In a measured Press conference in the bowels of the London Stadium, Howe admitted his team must accept criticism and ensure they put it right against Athletic Bilbao in midweek.

Howe said: "The dynamism wasn't there. The physicality and the energy were missing in our performance. The difficult thing to take from that is we rotated the team a lot in midweek for freshness in the players. That did not seem to be there.

"It is hugely frustrating for us. That was a poor performance. We try to be open and honest with how we play and we weren't ourselves today."

OPINION