midds

Eventually someone is going to get a good result against them, it's inevitable. Don't see why it can't be us, not because we're better than them because we're clearly light years behind them but most teams are. Great teams like this City one drop points to poorer teams like us, they can't win forever. Let's just have a go and roll the dice, see what happens. I expect a good hiding so anything other than that is a bonus. No pressure, no expectations so just get at them and see how it goes. Nowt to lose.

It'll be interesting to see how he approaches it. He's always been used to scrapping for survival, any means necessary, keep it tight and grind the results out to reach a certain number of points. Now he's going to have to switch things completely and look to attack, score and win as many games as possible. Complete flip of mentality for him, I'll be interested to see how he goes about it.

Wonder if Rafa has prioritised other fixtures and will keep a few key players back for the (far) more winnable games against Brighton and Stoke?

Quite happy if Pulis takes the Boro job because as dreadful as it would be to watch he's got the potential to organise a struggling PL side. Britton may turn out to be the next Guardiola but I'm thinking he's going to struggle if he gets it permanently.

Competition for places is never a bad thing. Him coming in from the deep freeze will have naturally got the attention of Hayden, Shelvey and Merino. From most accounts he went about his business rather well all things considered, those three will need to try and oust him now, up their game or they'll be the ones on the bench or left at home completely. Perform or you'll be replaced, it's harsh but it's helping the club.

Wonder who he threw under the bus to explain another defeat in his post match interview? Also hope west brom fans are liking his brand of attacking, front-foot football. Shame about the 'bloody noses' they're suffering for showing a bit of fret. The fucking cunt.

Getting relegated benefits absolutely no one connected with the club in any way shape or form. Current and prospective owners need to ensure the club does everything it possibly can to make sure we're still a top flight club come May. Ashley stands to lose millions if we go down again, the writing is plainly on the wall, Benitez can see it, Ashley can see it, Staveley can see it. Money needs to be spent asap or everyone's shit goes south. Spending little/nothing fucks everyone's shit up. I know we heard this in the summer but things have fundamentally changed on and off the park. It's now urgent and big money is at stake and if there's one thing that Ashley is concerned about its cold, hard cash.

They'll be absolutely made up with that. It's the best Christmas present they could possible have wished for.

I know everyone is entitled to their opinion but imagine thinking that the situation at the club would be made better by sacking Benitez? If fucking thick arseholes are entitled to their opinions then I suppose I'm also entitled to shout the fucking pricks down too. Absolute cunts man.

Correct, it's 18. A lot of them will be perfectly justified too btw, not whinging for the sake of it, just fucking fed up of the outright refusal to show opposition red cards for similar offences and incidents. Lots of ours are merited, those of the opposition are ignored and that's the infuriating thing. It's double standards.

Approaching the 4th anniversary of last time we had he opportunity to play against fewer men in the PL. Boxing Day 2013, Stoke at home (won 5-1) was the last time a PL ref thought that an opponent of NUFC had committed an isolated red card offence. Fuck knows how many reds we've been shown in those 4 years, I bet it's nearly 20.

This is the crux of it. They seem to want to stoke things up and don't like it when they don't get the reaction they expect and want. It's almost as if the fanbase, largely en masse, have considered all of the available information and blame correctly at the foot of the owner rather than the manager. Which is obviously against fan regulations which clearly state that the manager should be sacked for the first poor run of results.

Proper. Baller.

I think we all know how this one will pan out....

There are a lot of poor teams in the league and it's still very compact down there. We all know we're shit and crying out for investment. There's the prospect of that happening in January and if we get a couple of difference makers then I'm confident we'll be better than 3 other teams. It's not head in the sand and ignoring things it's looking at where we'd be if we get a break or two and get 7 points from 9 or something like that.

Fully expecting a fucking good hiding in this. Zero faith in them holding out for more than 15 mins.

French for water. Nice.

I don't have the time of day for any fucker who sits there thinking 'results are shit, we need to sack him, we'll be better off without him, he's the reason we're losing games.' He's not beyond criticism but he's not the problem and never has been.

Why are you being like this? You're always like this when you've had a drink.

No pissing about this window. No buying for tomorrow, we need quality right now and if we need to pay through the nose to get it then so be it. No excuses, no stalling, no lowballing, pay the money and get a black and white shirt on them in the first week in Jan. Striker, number 10, GK and LB are absolute priorities. CM and RB would be next.

We all know the context behind this summer and it can't be ignored. But at some point the question is going to be asked about his ability to organise, drill, motivate and inspire the squad he's got to work with. Lack of quality is annoying but a lack of effort and desire to put it right is unforgivable. It looked like they just gave up tonight, heads went down and they went through the motions which is where you need some direction from the dugout. I think it will get better and we won't go down but he needs to deal with this situation right fucking now. We look shot to bits and some of that is down to him, he's not perfect or bulletproof and he's the manager of this squad.

We're in total free fall and, worryingly, he looks absolutely clueless about how to stop or rectify it. Individual errors are costing us but a lack of effort, motivation, confidence needs to be addressed and that's his job. He may have a very poor squad to pick from but there's no excuse for looking as desperately poor and demoralised as we currently do. We're the side everyone wants to play at the minute. It'll get worse before it gets better too. Just got to hope that other clubs lose too and we buy the right striker who comes in and fires immediately. The league is tight and a few wins will leapfrog 7 clubs so it's not the time to shit the bed just yet but we look wank. Hold firm, grit your teeth, take the punches and come back swinging in January.

The stars are aligning, the gods have awoken. Shit is happening.