MATT RITCHIE insists Newcastle United’s players have accepted that squad rotation is the sensible thing to do in the Championship – even if he would still prefer to play every week.

Ritchie has tended to be one of Rafael Benitez’s first choices since his £12m move from Bournemouth and he has started the last five games.

But Benitez, who regularly mixes his team selections up in a bid to keep everyone fresh, is likely to leave him out again at some point even if he is in good form.

He will no doubt make a couple more changes when Birmingham visit St James’ Park this Saturday, even though the sending-offs of Jonjo Shelvey and Paul Dummett at Nottingham Forest on Friday night have been overturned.

That defeat – however harsh the red card decisions were – was the third setback in a row, which has seen Newcastle knocked out of the EFL Cup and their five-point gap at the top of the Championship reduced to one.

Ritchie is confident Newcastle will soon find their feet again and thinks the quality within the pool of players Benitez has to call on highlights why there are changes on a regular basis.

“Football, nowadays, there’s loads of stats and they work out the load on your legs, recovery etc, so rotation does come into play,” said Ritchie. “The squad we have got means it is probably silly not to rotate because we have strength in depth so why not?

“What the manager has done so far has worked well so hopefully we will continue to perform for the rest of the season.

“I don’t think the players ever buy into it because players want to play every game, but at the same time you probably have to bite the bullet and understand that the manager is doing the best for the team.

“He will see the team through as our leader, so we need to buy into his philosophy. If I am left out I am still disappointed because I want to play.”

Newcastle are gearing up for five Championship fixtures before the turn of the year before travelling to Blackburn on January 2.

Despite suffering back-to-back league defeats, things still look rosy for the Magpies in their bid to return to the Premier League at the first attempt; sitting a point clear of second-placed Brighton and six ahead of the play-off zone after 19 matches.

Ritchie said: “It’s an important period, as you saw last week, we had three games, it’s a lot of games all at once. The Christmas period is important because there are so many games, so you want to go into it with confidence and performing well because you can come out of the other side in a good position and on the home straight. We need to continue to progress the way we have been.

“I wouldn’t say we would have expected anything at this stage when we thought about it at the start of the season, because you have to earn the right to be top. We are in a good position, I expected to be in and around it.

“To be top is a fantastic start and 19 games in hopefully we can continue to perform the way we have been in the league. The performances have been very good and we want to continue to pick up points.”

Ritchie was a key component of the Bournemouth team that won the Championship two seasons ago and he does not think there is much difference in standards, despite the rise in spending across the division.

“You have the clubs that have come down from the Premier League with the money from TV and it is such a huge prize to get to the Premier League so the Championship clubs throw everything at it,” he said.

“But I wouldn’t say it is more competitive than two years ago because it always was anyway, but I understand the prize is so big that clubs throw anything at it to get there.

“There was us Norwich, Brighton, Watford and Middlesbrough two years ago. Middlesbrough looked like the team all season, dead solid all week they kept winning 1-0, but then at the end Bournemouth and Watford snuck in. It was a successful season.

“You look at the league last week and we were five points clear, all of a sudden you drop points and it’s tight again. It is so early to start talking about who your competitors are, you have to concentrate on yourselves and make sure our performances are right and that we keep picking up points.”

Benitez is not looking to rush into replacing assistant coach Ian Cathro, who took over as Heart of Midlothian’s new manager on Tuesday. The 30-year-old has become the youngest manager in the SPL by making the switch, after spells coaching with Dundee United, Valencia and Newcastle.

Cathro said: “This is a step I’ve wanted to take, one I’ve prepared for, and I think the circumstances are perfect. I just want to get to work.”