Hanshithispantz

It's not a misconception about our issues at all. I don't think a new striker is suddenly going to change us into a good side but it's by far and away the easiest gap to fill along with an attacking midfielder.

We only need to go on a little run to get out of this. If we buy a proper striker in Jan we'll be fine - obviously someone who can play behind him too but I wouldn't hold out much hope for that, we could probably do with an experienced backup centre back too.

To ask a similarly pointless question, what if we win every game from now and April? Is that shite?

We'll play the same way but hope Stoke are looser at the back I'd imagine.

How is anyone getting "Rafa is being sacked" from that?

From Sewelly a few months back:

If we can end up with a midfield of Xabi Alonso and Javier Mascherano with 2008 era Fernando Torres up front then he spend whatever the fuck he likes.

Some of those 'big pluses' being like one of the best strikers of the PL era, arguably one of the best DMs of all time in any league, Raheem Sterling who's now scored like 15 goals so far this season from the wing, and one of the best ball playing midfielders in Premiership history.

Also, you can pull up his Napoli signings too if you like.

What's your point, there's some legitimately world class buys in there Aye, not every player he signs is going to be great. If that's you point then I suppose well done?

Nobody said the Man City game was a tactical masterstroke fwiw That bit of japes seems to be creeping in quite a bit. The team worked hard and as a plan it looked better than 'taking the game to them'. The complete butchering of arguments on this forum is tragic at times.

He does decide because Rafa aint got 100mil in his back pocket to sign a prime Fernando Torres. He gives a budget just like any other owner/chairman who runs a business and then the manager works with that budget. He does not decide who is recruited with that budget. Rafa chose to sign these useless fuckers he was not forced to what cant you understand about that He doesn't 'give a budget' though. Benitez has come out multiple times during the last 2 windows saying he hasn't got a clue what's going on and just hopes Charnley 'gets them over the line'. Did you not see his presser when he wanted us to bring in Townsend? He was literally in the dark over what was happening. Same with the closing stages of the Summer window. It's the exact same as what happened with Keegan, he seems confident we'll get someone in and then as the window comes to close it's become apparent Mike and (in this case Lee) are fucking him around. Unlike Pardew Rafa doesn't mince his words either, he's flat out telling us this.

I'll admit I was 'losing faith' before Lascelles returned. Since he's come back into the side we've looked strong defensively which is what Rafa wants and obviously what he believes will pick us up points in the long run. If he isn't pissed around in January he'll build around that.

Was Joselu his first choice? Or a last resort due to financial restrictions from Ashley? It doesn't f***ing matter he decided to sign him, he wasn't forced at gunpoint to say yes. He sold a guy in Darryl Murphy who would have been far more effective than this plank He was essentially forced to sign dross like Joselu and Manq due to having no other option, you monumental toss pot I'm sure he would of loved Cenk Tosun and Luke Shaw, but guess what? NEWSFLASH. MIKE ASHELY OWNS US. Youre the tosspot for thinking Mike Ashley decides who we sign. Townsend, Abraham, Caballero, Lucas Perez, Matt Targett. He literally does, or at least his underlings do.

Mind blown. It's asif Ashley doesn't exist and Rafa wasted 20mil of Joselu for the laugh. Do you think the chairman decides who a team signs??.....The manager decides on who he wants to recruit just like in any business. If you think Ashley forced these players on him then youre blinded *bites tongue* and who do you think sets the transfer budget which in turn dictates the players that the manager can sign? And when and where that budget can be used as well as who does the negotiating, hence us not getting Tammy Abraham and Willy Caballero because we were too slow.

Completely forgot about that Southampton loanee we never got about a day before all of our left backs collapsed too

For me, he would have to travel back in time ten years and alter the course of history resulting in an owner that runs the club in an intelligent, professional manner, maximising its commercial revenue and allowing that to be invested back into the playing staff. Who exactly do you think would do better with this current squad? Pardew? McClaren? Kinnear? Carver? That is the quality of alternatives under Ashley. I think the guy in the opposite dugout today could do just as good a job as Rafa is doing today with this squad to be honest Im sick to death of him being absolved of any blame for shite performances week in week out. The 2 performances we have just put in this week are 2 of the most insipid, pathetic,gutless and toothless performances ive ever ever witnessed. Dress the Man City one up all you want but we conceded that game before wed even kicked off that is not football and Rafa is the guy who tells these useless fuckwits to play this way Im sick to death of watching this negative approach to every game as if we are little old Newcatsle from the northern premier league taking on the big boys...its shit I think most blamed him for our horrific 9 game winless run like.

forgot about that. Townsend would have improved us no end this season too.

Funny how Hughton didn't get Aguero money or a cool 50 million to spend in their promotion season and Brighton are still doing well isn't it. Rafa is under performing, and I hope he still turns it around but, things just seem to be getting worse rather than better. They also didn't literally lose 13/14 first team players from the 2015/16 either though. We had about 10 players remaining after all those transfers so had to bring in at least the same number of players to cope with the extra 8 (or 11) league games in the Championship. Brighton's team had been geared for promotion for years and the likes of Dunk would have easily been worth £15m, Knockaert the same (in this market), Dale Stephens £10m or so, whereas the bulk of our signings ranged from £2.5m to £5.5m, bar 2 notable exceptions. Pretty much all our quality was sold to generate that £90m - £55m was put back in to sign 14 players - an average of £3.9m per player and you just need look at transfers in that league from this season to see that that figure really isn't that much - Assombolonga £15, Neves £16m, Rhodes £10m, Braithwaite £10m etc. Brighton were at least equal to us last season, if not better as they were 7 clear with 3 games to go once their bottom line of promotion was secured. Make no mistake, if 1 was promoted and the other 4 went in the playoffs rather than 2 automatically, then we wouldn't have won the league, so we were at least equal and for whatever reason, their transfers this season have been better - Ryan has made a big difference, Davy Propper. We had Atsu last year, Joselu and Manq have arguably made us worse, Murphy non existent, so you could argue we are actually even worse than we were last season as only Merino has come in and had a decent impact. Is location a problem, are we more restricted on wages (really can't see Joselu, Manquillo and Murphy being on more than £100k between them)? But I can guarantee if Rafa had his way, he wouldn't have went to Mike and said 'Mike, whatever you do, please please give me that Joselu lad who can't get a look in at Stoke, he'll make a hell of a difference". We've had a bunch of top championship / fringe Premier League players bundled together in one window and while that cope have coped had 3 or 4 players been brought in at £15m-20m a skelp to add a bit of quality to a try hard but limited group, but we all know that didn't happen, so I'd argue that we are at a worse level than Brighton now. People need to realise we are literally operating on a bottom 3 to 4 budget now (far lower than the likes of Everton, Leicester, Palace, West Ham, Watford etc) and if you were born after 1980 or so (which a large chunk of us on here will be) then for the first time in your life this is the first time that has happened - forget the top 6, we are miles behind 75% of the league. When Keegan took over and in a far worse position he bought players he thought could get us out of the league but would also make an impact in the premier league and the rest is history. Don’t think that happened last year and compounded by the fact tha Yes. The footballing landscape allows us to replicate that on our budget. Aye, Ritchie pretty much fits that and cost us £12m Rafa could have bought better, definitely. His transfers have never been anywhere close to 100% throughout his career but he has a habit of building a squad that works when he actually has money to spend. We not only asking him to build a squad on a negative transfer budget but to do it if and when he sells, it's ridiculous.

Every game is the same. It's what we do, surrender possession so we can try and not get beat. Funny that, we beat West Ham just the other week with 35% possession whilst apparently 'trying not to get beat' That's what we do. We go out to not get beat and if we score then brilliant. We never go out to try and take it to a team. I will never warm to this kind of football like, always detested the "not get beat" style. Just takes any kind of enjoyment out of the game of football. I was taking the p*ss, you'd have to be a bit daft to think that we went out to not get beaten in that West Ham match. I'm mainly talking about playing this way at home. It isn't right. I don't agree, Rafa's working with what he has, if you think we should take it to teams indiscriminately, godspeed. So are you happy with two banks of four in front of our box and letting a team as s*** as Brighton have all the possession? I just don't get it. It's not how it should be done at home, which is why our record is so s***. I didn't say I was happy, I said Rafa's working with what he has. He is, I agree with you, but I wish we would do it with the ball more. We set up at home like you would expect for an away game. You should never let the opposition have more of the ball than you at home like, but we set up like that. For me it is nowhere near good enough. It's been said countless times, but I can't work out why people can agree that Rafa's working with what he has and then complain that we don't dominate possession or take it to teams at home. Which one is it? Is Rafa working with what he has or should we be attacking teams? For me there's a crucial link between the two and a bit of contradiction in terms from people who keep forgetting time and time and time again that these players are nowhere near good enough. Sorry but that's bollocks. This was Brighton we were playing. We could pass it off when it was Man City but not when it's a s*** team like Brighton. We are a crap team but we are more than capable of pressing a s*** team like Brighton and showing more desire to get forward. To sit back and let such a s*** team have so much of the ball at home is inexcusable. No idea what you were watching but 'letting' didn't come into it, they're just not good enough. If you think that's bollocks, like I said, godspeed, but I don't and it's as simple as that. I do think that's bollocks because Brighton are not a better team than us. We are better than we are showing (not much like) but we are more than capable of taking a game to a team like Brighton at home. And letting the opposition have the ball is right, it's what we do and how we set up, then hoping to hit teams on the counter, which for me is disgusting at home. (Love playing that way away from home as it has had a form of success). But at home it's awful, no matter how shit you think our players are. Debatable, but in any case we were picking up more points than Brighton playing exactly like we did today before Lascelles got injured and our defence went to pot.

Aslong as they aren't about Rafa you should be alright. Why do people keep saying this? I WANT TO CALL RAFA BENITEZ 'THE SPANISH TONY PULIS' IN PEACE WITHOUT ANYONE BRINGING UP ANY COUNTER ARGUMENTS FOR WHY HE MAY HAVE US PLAYING LIKE HE HAS

Express them all you want and argue your fucking points instead of being a whinging drip.

A few games ago people were pretty much begging for us to return back to this A solid looking side defensively who look like they could never score in a month of sundays.

We only lost to Bournemouth in the last minute after lascelles went off injured. Does that not count as a loss like? We were awful 2nd half in that game. Can add Leicester and a Watford side who went on a horrific run after the beat us to that too - we'd lost our last 5 at home. We could have lost today, obviously, but we quite clearly set out just to not concede as best we could which is what worked for us before our bad run with Lascelles out.

I don't know what people are expecting like, that's exactly how we played for the first 1/4 of the season when we were actually picking up regular points. It's absolutely shite to watch and borders on embarrassing but the alternative seems to be shipping 3 goals a game and/or being beaten at home to the likes of Bournemouth.