steve_69

I think we could be about 6 points better off personally, or should be. I don’t know where that would have us in the table as I haven’t looked. We could be 7-10 points better off than we are now if it wasn't for individual errors - that's not something Rafa can control. If it wasn't for those errors we'd almost be safe by now. When the players take to the field they are the only people that can control their individual actions, concentration, application etc. It can be worked on in training and with psychologists but ultimately the bucks stops with the players. And with regards to dropping deep, a lot of that comes down to confidence. If the players know they have given away leads multiple times their collective lack of confidence (and experience) will lead to a more cautious approach, which in turn gives the opposition more confidence and momentum in going forward. Again, this can be worked on in training and with club psychologists but ultimately when they're on the pitch it's down to the players. Rafa has categorically said that he doesn't tell the players to start sitting deeper and given how honest he is, i think it's reasonable to believe him.

Clearly a lie though.

We have a winner. Fits perfectly!

Who has a problem with him as our manager? Really?

The individual errors are quite often because they just aren't good enough. Clark couldn't handle Benteke in the air on Sunday for example so ended up tugging his shirt out of sheer desperation. Yedlin isn't naturally a good defender so he was always going to hold back from closing Zaha down properly. It's what you get when you buy players for £3-5m. I haven't even mentioned the strikers or midfielders, but it's the same story. 100%. Joselu single-handedly cost us 2 points against Burnley, Lejeune's penalty concession against Southampton cost us 2 points, Darlow's howler against Everton cost us a point. They're just the ones i can remember off the top of my head. I guess if Clark hadn't given away the penalty against Palace we might've got the 3 points. That's 7 points gone in 4 calamitous incidents. I'm sure there are others as well. I expect someone will point out that Joselu, Lejeune and Clark are Rafa signings (because it fits their agenda) but if Rafa had been given the resources he should've been, none of those players would be anywhere near the NUFC first team.

Other than general lack of ability in the first team, the thing that cost us the most points this season is individual errors not Rafa's tactics. We must've surrendered 10-12 points in very winnable games from doing stupid shit. The blame for those incidents does not lie at Rafa's door. Once the players take to the field it's down to them to keep their composure and concentration, and carry out the manager's tactics. If they'd done that minus the stupid errors we'd be near enough safe by now.

He had 24 points and remained on 24 points until his sacking on March 11th. With a much better squad. Well that’s why he was sacked, obviously. Not before time, the writing was on the wall relegation wise. I’m interested in this much better squad. I’d only slot two if the pre January window squad into our current starting 11. How many would you play? You can't compare like for like though because every team in the PL has strengthened since McLaren left, every team except us. McLaren got us to the same points total in the same number of games with a stronger team than we have now but in a weaker PL. Rafa has achieved it in a much stronger PL but with a weaker squad/team.

This in a nutshell. Rafa's football is a bit dour, but on the odd occasion it breaks down and we have Benteke bearing down on our goal after the world's simplest throughball three minutes into a game, I understand why we set up the way we do. Give us the keeper and striker that Rafa wanted and I think we'd have had similar results to Burnley. Even the though football is a bit dour, we still create plenty of chances. If we had the striker that Rafa had wanted, we wouldn't be grinding out 1-0 results like Burnley. We'd be scoring 2-3 goals per game against most of the bottom half. We should've put 3 past Burnley a couple of weeks ago but Joselu saw to it that we didn't.

This x 100 I'm fucking staggered at the state of some of the points being made in this thread.

It's just depressing when he's not on the pitch. The guy is a class act!

I don't know about that to be honest. They had a far great number of dangerous attacks than we did. We definitely could've won it but it would've taken a good 30-40 minutes of squeaky bum, backs to the wall defending. I'm guessing the possession stats are well in their favour? Burnley we definitely should've won.

Look at the chances we missed against Burnley. Stick a striker who can finish in there instead of Joselu and we win that game comfortably. We're still creating chances and we have a £25m+ striker about to join the party. If we weren't creating chances and we had to rely on Gayle and Joselu for the rest of the season i'd say we're down, but hopefully Kenedy and Slimani can help us to the 2-3 wins we need.

I agree. Every other team has match winning quality with the exceptions of probably Brighton, Huddersfield and Swansea. It'll be three from us and that lot to go down. Our only hope is Slimani really. So our hope is based on our striker scoring goals? Pretty much like all the teams in the league then. The problem is, we've had some of the shittest strikers even seen in this league playing for us this season. So, teams only score when the striker scores? Pretty sure that's not how it works. Most good teams get plenty of goals from midfield as well. We don't though. At the moment our biggest goal threat is Lascelles because our strikers are awful. We do create chances for them though, so sticking a player up top who can put some of them away will undoubtedly benefit us. Between Joselu and Gayle we've probably missed 20 good chances this season already and most of our games are decided by one goal. So yes, Slimani could make a massive difference. We're not talking about good teams. We're talking about teams battling relegation. Every single one will require their striker to score goals. We've got the worst strikers in the league, so yes Slimani is key. Just saying.... Sigh..... the teams at the top aren't "hoping" to try and avoid relegation. So "all teams in the league" in the sentence with "hope" in it refers to those teams battling relegation. We're in a thread called "relegationmeter". It really didn't need the explanation. Fair enough. Sorry mate, i was just being a picky twat. It is Monday afterall

Which, in this instance, was probably the right thing to do. Palace have devastating pace and players who can hurt you on the break. If we had gone for the jugular i think we'd have been picked off pretty quickly. Against lesser teams we shouldn't be sitting back but against teams with an abundance of pace, especially away from home, I think it's the right move.

I agree. Every other team has match winning quality with the exceptions of probably Brighton, Huddersfield and Swansea. It'll be three from us and that lot to go down. Our only hope is Slimani really. So our hope is based on our striker scoring goals? Pretty much like all the teams in the league then. The problem is, we've had some of the shittest strikers even seen in this league playing for us this season. So, teams only score when the striker scores? Pretty sure that's not how it works. Most good teams get plenty of goals from midfield as well. We don't though. At the moment our biggest goal threat is Lascelles because our strikers are awful. We do create chances for them though, so sticking a player up top who can put some of them away will undoubtedly benefit us. Between Joselu and Gayle we've probably missed 20 good chances this season already and most of our games are decided by one goal. So yes, Slimani could make a massive difference. We're not talking about good teams. We're talking about teams battling relegation. Every single one will require their striker to score goals. We've got the worst strikers in the league, so yes Slimani is key. Just saying....

You can't underestimate Roy's influence at half time. As dull as he is, the guy knows football. He almost certainly told his players to mark Shelvey out of the game, hit earlier balls to Benteke and press us quicker. All of those things made us shit ourselves. Rafa is a master tactician but he not a master turd polisher. Palace have the players to punish us and when they started really turning it on we had nothing to counter it. Fair play to Woy for sorting his team out at half time.

Yes, but Pardew.....

I agree. Every other team has match winning quality with the exceptions of probably Brighton, Huddersfield and Swansea. It'll be three from us and that lot to go down. Our only hope is Slimani really. So our hope is based on our striker scoring goals? Pretty much like all the teams in the league then. The problem is, we've had some of the shittest strikers even seen in this league playing for us this season. So, teams only score when the striker scores? Pretty sure that's not how it works. Most good teams get plenty of goals from midfield as well. We don't though. At the moment our biggest goal threat is Lascelles because our strikers are awful. We do create chances for them though, so sticking a player up top who can put some of them away will undoubtedly benefit us. Between Joselu and Gayle we've probably missed 20 good chances this season already and most of our games are decided by one goal. So yes, Slimani could make a massive difference.

And yet people still seem to think Rafa is underperforming with this squad. It's baffling! 3 PL quality players maximum

I agree. Every other team has match winning quality with the exceptions of probably Brighton, Huddersfield and Swansea. It'll be three from us and that lot to go down. Our only hope is Slimani really.

How many of our players get into the Palace first team, realistically? Shelvey? Lascelles? Merino?

Alex Song is available on a free. Not sure if he's any good now but we could definitely do with a defensive midfielder

He looked like he was running through treacle on that breakaway. If he’s knackered, freshen it up. Makes perfect sense

You know what, when Joselu does this, you'll be right, until then you're wrong, have a nice evening Umm......no.

You honestly think a manager of Rafa’s stature bases his team selections on who runs the furthest in training? He and his coaches will have data on everything - each player’s Vo2 max, resting heart rate, heart rate at maximum output etc. If the stats consistently show that he isn’t pushing himself as hard as he can in training, would you honestly advocate picking him? That kind of attitude is unacceptable! Rafa’s word is law at this club, end of. If he says he wants players giving everything in training and he can see that Mitro consistently isn’t then he can’t expect to get picked. All he had to do was work a bit harder and he would’ve been in the team. What you seem to be saying is it’s ok for players to go against the manager and that they should still be picked regardless. I can see that ending really f***ing well!