Tiotes Witch Doctor

Its a combination of both, Ashley isn't forcing him to leave his most expensive signings on the bench is he? Or to keep playing Joselu when we could be trying something else, or to set the team up in a which totally stifles any creativity.

Fact is his biggest money signings sit on the bench week after week while Joselu lumbers around trying to stand up and Perez bottles games, while sticking with a formation that simply isn't working for us. He's too stubborn for his own good, if we go down, and even if we don't he needs to take his share of the mess, we are awful.

What decisions did Benitez make in the transfer window exactly that he should be reconsidering. Do enlighten me. Jacob Murphy, total shite, and not given the chance to prove otherwise anyway, that's his most expensive signing and hes made zero impact in a season and a bit. Spending 10 million Muto and hes barely played a games worth of minutes, has also contributed nothing. Manquillo, I'm no scout but surely there was a younger, more hungry player someone across Europe to spend 5 million pounds on? If reports are to be believed he wanted to spend a combined 40 million on Rondon and Kenedy too, what a fuck up that would have been. Atsu, 6 million quids worth of shite, that's without mentioning the likes of Gamez and Lazaar who were seemingly brought in for the crack and cast off without being given a chance. That's the chance you take with transfers, but overall we've had more misses than hits from him.

Joselu is worse than Shola, by a lot.

Okay. Joselu is better at pressing and holding it up in this system. Mitrovic will tell you the same thing. His hold up play today has been worse than anything Mitro produced. In all of their other matches while at Newcastle, Joselu's has been better. He certian;y hasn't mind the bloke is tter rubbish. He can't run, he can't link play, he can't control the ball and he certainly is not very good at putting the bal into the back of the net either. Nor could Mitro while he was in this team. If we had a team in any way similar to Fulham's I'd possibly agree, but they're chalk and cheese. He could when he was given a chance.

Didn't Rafa want to spend the 16 million on Rondon though? and 25 million on Kenedy? Not spending that 40 million would look pretty good to me right about now if I was Ashley. I hate Ashley and want him out but there are still questions to be asked of Rafa both tactically and in the transfer market. We are utterly clueless all over the pitch, what do we do in training just run defensive drills none stop?

Should have spent the 10 million on Muto on somebody who actually fits the system if he was going to persist with Perez at no10, just another waste of money to add to the list to go with Murphy.

Lack of investment, poor signings and negative tactics all rolled into a depressing Saturday afternoon.

If its a drubbing he might pull the trigger on Rafa ironically enough, 8 games and 2 points will be worrying for his Sports Direct ads.

This is dreadful, we look utterly clueless all over the pitch, the buck stops at the manager and he needs to sort it out.

It'll be Joselu, Rafa loves Joselu.

I'd be inclined to agree, but minus Ayoze and a fit Lejeune, probably(On Paper). But you never know your best side until players play to the best of their ability. Last season early on Shelvey hadn't quite hit the ground running and everyone wanted him dropped, by January there were still morons claiming he was crap and a bid of 12m from West ham should be accepted if press claims were accurate.It turns out he is one of the most vital players we have, and should no doubt have gone to Russia to represent England. So what do many of us know about our best team? I didn't count Lejeune due to his injury but if he was fit he would be on there too for sure, though Fernandez is looking like a good deal thus far. I don't particularly rate Perez I'm just not sure we currently have a better alternative.

If available I would start the same team we went with against Palace, its our best team on paper and we need to get our best players gelling together in some sort of consistency. Rondon still hasn't had a clear run in the side and I can't see any better alternatives to Kenedy even though hes had a dire start, hopefully we can persevere and get the win, then go into the Man Utd game with a bit of confidence and get something there too. Its still early days but we need to improve our attacking game, at this point a win would probably take us to 13th-15th and out of immediate trouble.

Dubravka Yedlin Lascelles Fernandez Dummett Ritchie Shelvey Diame Kenedy Perez Rondon

He would be decent if he had a run of not being totally shite.

Not that the two are anywhere near in the same league, but when Pardew was given players like Ben Arfa we all said a good manager should adapt the game to suit his best players, particularly attackers. The narrative always changes for Rafa, it's like admitting hes not perfect makes you less of a fan, its like a weird cult thing which actually makes the deluded tag seem less of a myth.

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You can be fully behind Rafa while also not agreeing with everything he does, the two aren't mutually exclusive.

You aren't allowed to question Rafa, did you not get the memo?

On this showing maybe Rafa could have adapted his methods to accommodate him in some way. Early days though, but I think he will outscore our entire batch of forwards tbh.

Ganghanded brutes.

Didn't get down fast enough IMO, if it was Elliot everyone would say that same I reckon.

Think he should have done better for walkers goal personally. Good apart from that. His treble save were saves he should have been making, but still did well.

Do they talk about other managers in such derogatory terms? It seems more like a witch hunt. We played the same against City last season and they were all praising him by the end of the season.