Sho Time

I agree but only to a certain extent - for fans that are losing/have lost faith with Rafa or never had it in the first place, that's pure madness. Pointing out mistakes he's made isn't like "arr hea that's a pure joke that like, Stevie Mc coulda done a betta job lyk", it's a lot of people saying "all the blame lies with the owner, he is the issue and the reason the squad is so limited, however I didn't like this what Rafa done and think him doing something different could have changed the outcome", that's simply just people analysing a game of football over 90 minutes and discussing it, which is the f***ing point of football and a football forum especially! Outrightly saying "you can't/shouldn't criticise Rafa full stop" is a bit daft, as he's definitely not perfect, but he's definitely 20x better than anyone else we could hope to attract. It doesn't "serve a purpose" but neither does whinging about players, neither do a lot of things. It's just discussion ffs. May as well shut down the forum if you can't even discuss a game unless to say "Ashley's a c***, players aren't good enough, but Rafa is God". (he is, but y'kna what I'm getting at).

Phenomenal that, some absolutely class references.

No. Fuck off, that's a perfectly reasonable post. The blame is 95% Ashley but you still can't argue that Rafa has made some bewildering substitutions, or made them too late, and put out a few questionable line-ups.

Pope, Taylor, Doucoure all on the bench. Missed out on 18 pts for my paltry 36, so essentially lost almost 50% of my pts, this seasons great form carries on.

Yeah, our defence did improve when Clark came back into it, compared to when Lejeune was playing.

No way do they stay up imo....They cant win games and are now starting to get spanked away from home couple that with having to play just about all of the top half and the teams around the bottom having more 6 pointers then them. SAFC only have Burton and Bolton to play whereas the rest have 4 "No way do they stay up" They're 1 win away from being out of the drop zone and the other teams are just as bad as them at picking up points. They've got every chance of staying up, which is still hilarious in itself how difficult they're finding this league.

It's definitely not as simple as just "it's down to poor players" like, Nut. Even when we finished 5th and had Ba, Cisse, HBA, Cabaye, peak Tiote etc. we were a 45 minute team then. Seems to be just a NUFC-philosophy thing.

That's because he's absolutely enforcing the midfield and popping up everywhere. If he can only do that for say 60-70 minutes, we're immensely improved for that time and we need all the help we can get. Another cracking performance by him, although after losing the ball twice (that failed backheel to Shelvey which sent them on the counter, and that pass to Dummett which went behind him) his head seemed to drop a bit. Really hope that doesn't impact him going into the next game - it shouldn't - but we support Newcastle United so I wouldn't be surprised.

One thing that just seems to have been ingrained in Newcastle United for years now, and I don't quite understand how or why, is that we appear to be a 45 minute team at best. Yesterday was a classic example, solid 45 minutes initially and then after the half time whistle blows and they come out the flow of the game just changes so dramatically, sometimes it's us getting dicked on first half and then playing out of our skin for the next 45 minutes (often futile, mind). This was a huge thing pre-Rafa and has definitely continued under his tenure.

Wew, watching that video he looks just like Sels. Constantly 'saving' the ball into the danger area and putting the team under pressure. If that's a compliation of his best bits, then he doesn't really look that good at all.

mad bastard man.

For me he's always had that in his locker, just been a case of him being a bit lazy. He's been a revelation in the last few games, I hope he keeps it up as it makes a huge difference to our team.

Nah. They were a proper stink in the PL for years before they went down. Couldn't be arsed with yet another London club in the PL either.

Surely can't be worse than what we have.

No way Atsu will start the next game after that latest showing, he was dreadful. He has ability but his inconsistency is just mental.

Imagine relying on the loan signing of Leicester City's 4th-choice striker to save us from relegation. Welcome to Ashley's Newcastle.

Burnley are a terrible side who were playing well for first half of the season, well above their level just like Huddersfield/Brighton. They have been showing their true level for the past 6-7 games and this was the perfect time to play them. This is a terrible result, no two ways about it. We're constantly throwing away points at our main rivals, so "better days ahead"? It can hardly get much fucking worse can it.

We're playing the worst teams, at the best times, and we still can't fucking beat them. As a collection of players, this lot are fucking embarrassing at this level.

THAT'S WHY JOSELU STARTS GAMES BABY. WHAT A WIN OF A FREE KICK

Vete a la mierda

Surely Rafa can see he can never start for us again.

Miles better.

ARRRRR FUCK OFF JOSELU

Definite corner to them.