Tiotes Witch Doctor

Hes already got a few assists.

Had we had this exact performance and result under Rafa everyone would be saying how much of a genius he is and you all know its 100% true. I still dislike Bruce, understand ultimately hes a shite manager and we are going nowhere under him but I'm not going to pretend that the football was any better for large parts of last season either. Somehow, and I dont understand how, the team are playing for him and he is picking up results, I don't expect it to last but we are doing extremely well on paper.

that's the difference between elite managers and PFM type garbage, guys like rafa will improve everything across the board...obviously a handful will not take to methods or personalities and in the main top managers will improve most of the players and performances average PFM's like bruce will improve a handful if they're lucky, some will stay about the same if they're lucky and others will collapse into oblivion i'd say we've seen improvement from shelvey so far, but i've yet to entirely buy into that, but beyond i'd say what's been noticeable is he's destroyed almiron is in the process of destroying joelinton looks like destroying sean longstaff thrown Ki in the bin completely people like hayden, clark, fede have done well under him but i'm not sure you could class any as an improvement on where they were under rafa Almiron and Longstaff - fair comments. Joelinton just looks gash - not sure you can blame Bruce for that. I disagree about Joelinton. I personally won't judge him until Bruce sorts the system or we get another manager that gets him chances nearer goal and he starts missing them. Carroll, with all his experience, looks equally shit standing up on his own fighting for hoofs against 2-3 defenders. But let's judge a 23 year old new to the country as we always do. Pepe at Arsenal presumably shit and needs binning as well. 1 goal in 17 though. I mean it's pretty terrible for a striker. He played fairly well against Spurs, but apart from that he's done fuck all really. Someone needs to show me a stat on how many chances have been created for him. i can see with my eyes what's going on like, don't need stats to tell me, but it won't be pretty i'd have thought again i'll ask anyone booting off with joelinton to watch carroll in the same position and tell me what changes Or maybe one is not good enough and the other is past it and both are garbage?

And do you think that's going to happen this season? Nope.

I miss Rafa as much as the next man, and trust me I "get it" but the football is a mirror image of the first half of last season, only with more points on the board, we didn't look remotely exciting to watch until the second half of the season.

It's absolutely no different to many games last season mind.

My heart

Our form this season is showing us one of three things, Rafa really was past his best and could have got more out of the players last season (dreadful early season form) OR Bruce is doing quite well, so far accumulating more points than last with an arguably weaker team depending on how you prefer to look at it. OR The players are still drilled to play and train a certain way learned under Rafa and his coaches, and in time this will be coached out of them and regimes, fitness, tactics etc... will be tweaked and pulled apart.

If we win this today, through gritted teeth I'll have to admit we've actually had a decent start under him, be 3 points off top 6 if scoreline stays the same.

No decent sides seem to want to hire him.

Dubravka should have done better with their goal, just like against Liverpool and the 3 or 4 howlers he made last season too, average goalkeeper living off a great debut.

We played relatively well, didn't really create anything which is nothing new and we looked fairly solid and comfortable at the back, pretty much standard Rafa Benitez type away day performance. Need to try and get Maximin on the ball as much as possible second half, looks dangerous every time he gets it.

This quote sums up why Ashley will never leave and probably wakes up and laughs his tits off every single day.

He knows who the problem is but is a club mouth piece.

Can just imagine him going on Youtube and watching highlight reels of their three best players.

Hate him now

First this and next this dodgy "£47m" Joelinton deal will hopefully come out in the wash. Something is minging and I think its that fat sweaty cunt.

Can't wait to watch Colback spraying passes into him.

I miss Rafa

Best long passer at the club, his short range passing isn't all that impressive tbh.

The fat mackem cunt will probably give this ginger mackem cunt a new 4 year contract aswell, he'll be exactly his kind of player.

He's going to suprise us all and guide this squad, without Perez and Rondon to a 10th placed finish.

If this falls through its probably gonna be Hughes.

Could be another McClaren style season without Rafa coming in at the end to give us hope

Even with Rafa, and with Perez, Rondon and the players playing his way to grind out the wins we still looked vulnerable and very poor at times. Now take Rafa and his gameplan, discpline and infleunce away, take away our two top scorers, add in Redfearn and a toxic atmosphere and Jack Colback and Joselu, and we could be relegated on record points. Not to mention we'll probably be losing some of our best players from last season in Hayden, probably Schar and Dubravka if they have any sense. Grim. 20th.