tmonkey

Said this all along. Carr did a good job for us given that we were limited to signing gambles from weaker leagues. A decent or good manager/scout probably has a hit rate of lets say 33%, i.e. 1 in 3 signings are good ones, rest are squad fillers or complete dross, and if the team is good enough then noone really cares about the 66% that come in, fail or don't get a look in, and are shipped out. When you add the constraints that Ashley added, e.g. players must be cheap, of the right age for resale, no other club capable of offering better terms is in for them, and then factor in the additional gambles all of these introduce (e.g. having to sign players from a weaker foreign league like France because that's where many of the players in that category are found now means you introduce additional gambles around language, adaptability, etc) that "good" hit rate needs to be brought right the way down in terms of a target success rate which the manager/scout is judged by.

We won't pay the going rate for anyone with either clear potential or experience. Everyone we sign is bottom of the barrel stuff, the type of player for whom there's no real demand and therefore we can dictate the buying terms, and as such they're complete long shots in terms of turning out to be good signings and highly unlikely to be suitable for PL level in the short term. If Rafa has a choice between a long shot or nothing, he's obviously going to take the long shot since at least there's a chance of them turning out to be decent. The issue is exaggerated the further up the pitch we go. Potentially decent goalkeepers and defenders are inherently cheaper than attacking/creative midfielders or goal-scoring strikers. Rafa basically has no chance of improving the team's attack beyond a complete shot in the dark - at that point it becomes a numbers game, he needs to sign a hell of a lot of dross and bargain basement players before he strikes lucky and gets someone who is actually good at this level when it comes to creating or scoring goals. I'd say this reflects what we have on the pitch. Good keeper, some good defenders, a couple of decent midfielders, then the rest are shiite, especially the wingers/strikers. Blaming Rafa for what he's spent so far is just nonsense given these constraints. If Ashley wasn't a cunt withholding the clubs own cash we'd probably have brought in the likes of Townsend and Sturridge (or if not them then others of that ability level), and all of a sudden you're talking about a different team entirely one that is solid at the back and dangerous going forward.

Maybe I'm harsh, but still think this lad is a bit of a donkey (albeit an in form one) and would struggle really badly if isolated up front in Rafa's system, asked to make runs off the ball, and starved of service because our wingers/full backs are really shit at the moment.

How does that even work? Kevin has an open casket at St James?

Too rich to care what anyone thinks, which is why he can't be arsed to lose weight which would be easy as fuck for someone with his bank balance - just hire a few fucking personal trainers to be with you 24/7 and have a personal chef cook nothing but delicious healthy foods ffs. Cunt.

What are those shoes? Looks like hes wearing gorilla tape round his feet the fucking gimp.

I'm never going to be a fan of Rafa's tactical mindset on match day purely because I'm biased towards free flowing attacking football where players are given creative freedom and flair players are accommodated. That has never been, and will never be, Rafa. Beyond that preference for seeing a different style of football, Rafa is absolutely the best manager for the job, and in terms of how we're doing this season I don't think for a second the table or even match day performances reflect how good a job he's doing despite everything Ashley and his entourage have done to damage the club. We've lost 2-1 to Arsenal, Spurs, Man City, and Chelsea, despite having a really poor, imbalanced squad that bears all the hallmarks of having zero strategy to squad building because we always buy the cheapest 5th/6th/7th choice target. At least half the players shouldn't be playing in the PL (not regularly at least), we can barely string passes together and some players struggle to control a football at this level without losing their balance or the ball. And yet we're actually somehow managed to compete with some of the best sides in the league who have fielded teams where one or two of their players have cost more than our entire first team combined. He's performing miracles right now, even though we're playing shit and losing. Get Shelvey back in the team, hope Kenedy finds his feet, get Rondon up to speed, and we'll be OK again.

Mane doesn't want to help Salah score.

Went on the plane to the World Cup though, must be quality.

Disagree, perfect bullet. Venomous shot, and one of those where it looks like it's about to swerve to the right but then straightens up and dips towards the left slightly. Like the faintest of Juninho knuckleballs.

This, for our entire squad. Add a left back who is decent on the ball/going forward and we're instantly more likely to create chances. Add a striker who can control, move, and finish moderately well at PL level and we're a dangerous side all of a sudden. Add a number 10 who can actually play like a number 10 and retention shoots up. Unfortunately for us all of these things cost good money, a level of spend we're not willing to achieve even though we can. We'd rather pay peanuts and get monkeys (hard working ones albeit).

Do you give any thought to him hoping that Ashley might sell, that's why he's staying in the hope we are sold. That's not going to happen man, I genuinely believe the club isn't for sale because if it genuinely was someone would have took it. Its all Ashleys games saying its for sale to give us idiots hope This. Ashley and his minions/paid mouthpieces keep reminding us how he's pumped money into the club to keep it running. Noone in the media seems to want to address the fundamental question this poses - why does he still own such a massive loss making organisation if it personally costing him money, especially given that someone has offered him £250m straight up cash or £350m through incentivised deals? If NUFC was really costing him more than it's making him he should have cut it loose as soon as he got a reasonable offer. By rejecting good offers it indicates NUFC is valuable to him and almost certainly making him money/richer, directly or indirectly.

The cheek of Ashley calling someone else greedy . This is basically Orwell's Animal Farm: NUFC version. Ashley is Napoleon, Rafa is Snowball.

Unluky Yedlin. Head up son, carry on. Carry on my wayward son.

That was like a Floyd Mayweather sucker punch. "Defend yo self at all time".

I love that elbow to Girouds big fucking nose the handsome rich successful bastard.

Hahhahhaha.

Ref has been pro Chelsea entire game. Any time a Chelsea player has gone down he's given a free kick. Any time a Newcastle player has gone down he's waved play on.

The criticisms of Rafa's tactics would be fair if: 1) He had been backed in the transfer market over several windows, and therefore didn't have to field a team of Championship players mixed in with bottom of the barrel cheap C-list signings that noone else wanted against a team of world class footballers half of whom single handedly cost more than most of our first team combined. 2) Kenedy, Shelvey, and Lascelles were available.

It's easy to forget just how much of a genius he is with the ball. Almost every other touch is a feint or mis-direction of some type. Must be a nightmare to mark, never know if he's feinting or actually going to change direction.

We're like the kids in those 50 kids vs 2 professional adults videos. Just packing the defense with numbers and hoping for the best. Solid defending so far overall, but Chelsea have had a few decent half chances. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HBpEmqyBrfQ

Two decent chances in the past minute for Chelsea. Overall though we've looked quite solid defensively despite Chelsea dominating and looking a class above.

Kenedy - violent conduct, kicking/lashing out at a player out of frustration. Has to be a red card if the ref sees it. Hayden - questionable red card, most likely a referee evening things out after missing the Kenedy kick, but possibly justifiable because of the way Hayden lunged in studs up and connected with the back of the calf. Wasn't intentional but somewhat dangerous. Arter - cynical foul but never more than a yellow card. The manner in which he swings the leg round being more of a standard kick than a Lui Kang lunge like Hayden's was.

I know Rafa didn't fancy him, but Gamez looked so much better than this clown.

Ref missed it and is just bullshitting/saving face saying that he saw it. He also corrected his mistake in-game by sending Hayden off, so probably felt he had done enough.