TheDonis

Hey, don't take one negative posters views as representative of the whole. This place is garbage when the team are struggling, always has been, emotions take the place of reason. Blaming Rafa for Ashleys running of the club is bordering on the insane imo. But we could/should have a three man midfield every game, Shelvey needs to be out there purely for the way he can change a game. (and I'm not thinking red cards. ) I have posted on here before and said quite clearly that I don't understand - at all - why Rafa has abandoned a system that has served him so well and gone 4-4-2 in search of goals. Yeah you've scored them but you're shipping them at a ridiculous rate. I find it bizarre. Rafa is usually the stubborn guy who never rips up his rulebook, and yet he's cast aside his favoured formation. I genuinely don't understand it as it could cost him his job - (my comments up the thread were in response to some dimwitted meff who said he'd damaged you forever) - and that'd be a shame for you, and for him. But that's football Have any journos asked him why he's abandoned 4-2-3-1? He's played it everywhere, through thick and thin. Was there a clamour to change it? There was, but I don't think Rafa's they type to cave in to fan pressure. Maybe he just doesn't trust his team to be able to keep a clean sheet so is looking for more threat up front instead? I don't know. He's never caved in to any pressure. Which is what makes this decision so out of character. Yeah you were turgid early season, but you won 1-0 a few times and were in with a chance of drawing other matches. That's a route map to staying up. I'm genuinely baffled.

Hey, don't take one negative posters views as representative of the whole. This place is garbage when the team are struggling, always has been, emotions take the place of reason. Blaming Rafa for Ashleys running of the club is bordering on the insane imo. But we could/should have a three man midfield every game, Shelvey needs to be out there purely for the way he can change a game. (and I'm not thinking red cards. ) I have posted on here before and said quite clearly that I don't understand - at all - why Rafa has abandoned a system that has served him so well and gone 4-4-2 in search of goals. Yeah you've scored them but you're shipping them at a ridiculous rate. I find it bizarre. Rafa is usually the stubborn guy who never rips up his rulebook, and yet he's cast aside his favoured formation. I genuinely don't understand it as it could cost him his job - (my comments up the thread were in response to some dimwitted meff who said he'd damaged you forever) - and that'd be a shame for you, and for him. But that's football Have any journos asked him why he's abandoned 4-2-3-1? He's played it everywhere, through thick and thin. Was there a clamour to change it?

I'll leave you to it lads. Best of luck with Steve Bruce.

Wasted money on Gayle.

Yeah, got you promoted at the first opportunity and really fucked you over.

Ok lads, fire him then and save yourself the pain.

p.s you're not very good, but I've just been on your match thread and you're not half as bad as you make out. Just very low in confidence.

Wondering if this could be Rafa's Becher's Brook. A team without much talent, who have now lost all confidence. Not sure giving it the old 'once more unto the breech' schtick and channeling his inner Pulis is his thing.

yeah - had a mare with Coutinho there...! Didn't seem like he bought anyone of note at Inter at all. Hence the reason he called out Morratti and got himself fired.

This is wrong. He bought and built really well with us, and also at Napoli where the team he built is the one doing so well now. I thought he bought well for you for last season. Maybe not so much for this, but he wasn't given loads and he found you a bargain in Merino. Yes, he buys a few players at lower prices who don't work out, but then that applies to all who rummage at the bottom end of the market. The problem is when you only have a few quid, nearly every buy has to work out.

Rafa is always in a much stronger position when he makes these points when the team is doing well rather than when they aren't. Otherwise it looks like he's trying to distract from a poor run of results, which he might well be doing. But he's probably right. I'm not sure what the longest run of defeats is for one of his sides but he must be near it. I don't remember any bad runs when he was with us, or elsewhere. But he's hardly dealing with the same calibre of players. This is a genuine test for him now. He's overcome a couple in charge of you. Can he do it again? I love him to bits but I'm not sure a moan about Ashley right at this juncture is entirely in his best interests, even if it suits the club and takeover, because it will draw fire. Not that he's ever given a fuck about that

As a seasoned Rafa watcher, I'm confused about why he's changed formation. The football might have been turgud, but his 4-2-3-1 makes you hard to beat at least. And occasionally you nick it. Why change to a formation which leaves you more open? Very very un Rafa-like to go in search f goals and ditch what was (sort of) working. I wonder what gives.

It was the only way. Had you pressed on, Palace might have scored. Hodgson's game plan is always to sit back and you don't have the players to tear them apart. Rafa knew to pile on the pressure was to invite conceding on the counter, so he basically let it turn into shit on a stick and then banked on grabbing one as they tired. I reckon that game went according to his plan. He's the ultimate pragmatist. And Hodgson is a knob-truffling arsebasket.

This was always going to an awful game. Hodgson plays two banks of four and sits back, waiting to score on the counter or from a set piece. Rafa will know that and won't want Newcastle to commit too many men forward. The result = stalemate.

Before Hodgson came to us I thought he was a decent manager and a decent bloke. When he was appointed after Rafa left, it was hugely disappointing - Rafa is a world class manager, with a rapport with the fans, who had given us some great times. Hodgson was a solid enough boss and a nice enough cove, or so it seemed, but it was a step backwards. He'd never really won anything or achieved anything other than respectability and a nice little UEFA cup run with Fulham. It also didn't help he'd been appointed by a world class fuckwit in Christian Purslow, but that wasn't his fault. Nor was it his fault that Rafa had run himself into the ground fighting the crooked owners, and the fans wanted them out, and Roy came in trying to give to Kofi Annan. You can hardly expect him to start a ruck when he'd just been appointed. But little prepared me for the horror of the Dreaded Hodge, though. Fuck me, he was abysmal. First he bleated about the squad he inherited being too big. Then he bleated about it being too small. He fucked off Mascherano. While it was clear that Carra and Gerrard and the egg butty brigade were happy to have him, it was also clear some of the foreign players were not impressed. Two banks of four, two up top, set up not to concede. maybe nick one on the break. That works if you're Fulham, or Neuchatel Xamax, but not at Liverpool. The football was shocking. A step back in time. I half expected Don Howe to pop up on the bench. I;ve never seen a more timid, insipid and downright dull Liverpool team. Not a single player improved under his tutelage, which is the essence of coaching. A lot of them went backwards. But the crud on the pitch wasn't half as bad as the self serving drivel that spewed from his mouth. My God, there's enough to fill a book but every time he opened his mouth it was a snide comment or something thaat Definitely Wasn't His Fault. He would bleat and blame someone else, have a go at the players in the snidest terms, talk up terrible results as if they were greatest nights in the club's history, stick his tongue right up Ferguson's arse, have a dig at Rafa, make half racist digs at foreign journalists, or have a go at the fans at protesting at the owners - a protest that would soon bear fruit. Imagine that - the fans were trying to save their club from sliding into financial oblivion and into a vacuum of failure and mediocrity - and all Roy could do was moan and groan about it not being helpful. It was blessed relief when he went and I hate seeing manager's sacked. Even Sounness. Roy's suited to mid table sides, or lower, making them hard to beat and kissing everyone's arse. But if you have passionate fans and a club which dreams, he's a rancid splash of cold piss in the face. He's spineless and his teams often play in his image. I wish him all the very best at Palace.

Rafa probably has more than a decent case for constructive dismissal.

Evening all. Good start from you lot Tbh, even as a long term Rafa lover, i think the fact he's pissed off might have transmitted itself to players. But what do you expect? The man's incredibly ambitious, and wears his heart on his sleeve; if he's being pissed about he won't be able to hide it. And he's doing it for the right reasons - to make the club better. But what can he do in the face of a man who has no interest in making the club better. Who often seems like he wants to make the club worse? Will Ashley even bother to sack him if you lose loads on the trot (I've never seen a Rafa side go into a losing slump btw...) or will he simply let it go on? I don't know how it goes from here. Rafa won't settle for mediocrity. It's difficult to see Ashley backing him in the way he needs. An uneasy truce helps no one. Maybe when the window shuts Rafa might be able to carry on and do his thing, and make it work. But the wound just gets reopened in January. Then next summer...it seems unsustainable while Ashley is there.

Rafa and Reina have a great relationship. Pepe is past his best and has been for some time, but Rafa would take him as back up, or short term number 1, with a view to having him on the coaching staff at some stage because he knows his stuff and is a great bloke. Again, depends on the ££££.

Rafa is a patient man. But the nature of that equaliser against Leeds will have driven him f***ing spare. Maybe he decided to give it both barrels, though that's not his style. Usually he cuts players dead who won't learn or won't do a job. Maybe that's why Mitro was benched? How was Mitro to blame for the Leeds goal by the way? He comes steaming out at a hundred miles an hour to the bloke with the bandaged head, who beats him easily, and finds space for the pass. If Mitro doesn't dive in, holds him up or jockeys him there, that pass isn't on. He has to cut back inside and launch it in himself or go wide.

They do but often it's because players stop listening to them. Or become tired of them, or lose respect if they've ballsed up elsewhere. Rafa had no respect at RM. But the players at NUFC should be delighted to be working with someone like him, which is why this job is a good fit.

Rafa is a patient man. But the nature of that equaliser against Leeds will have driven him fucking spare. Maybe he decided to give it both barrels, though that's not his style. Usually he cuts players dead who won't learn or won't do a job. Maybe that's why Mitro was benched?

I've always been a big fan of Rafa, and thought he was a great manager for Liverpool. I put down his career wavering due to some poor choices in terms of clubs. Going to Inter after winning the treble, replacing Mourinho just as Moratti had fulfilled his ambition to win the CL meant he was on a hiding to nothing in a new financial reality. The fact Rafa was the last Inter manager to win a trophy tells you everything. Chelsea, too, as an interim, was not the kind of project or club suited to him. But he ultimately did an excellent job in the end to guide them to 3rd and win a trophy. However, I was disappointed with how he did at Napoli. While he did win the Coppa Italia, Mazzarri had also managed that, and he ultimately took them backwards to finishing 5th. Also, losing the Europa semi-final to Dnipro was a big disappointment. He succeeded in improving the status of the club by attracting big signings, but failed in developing the team on the pitch and developing the players they had brought in. Since replacing him Sarri has had them playing significantly better football. You only have to look at the level of goal output Higuain, Insigne and Mertens have produced and the way they've developed as players to see that. So I'm not sure whether I agree with the hypothesis that managers can pass their sell-buy date. But I do think they can make bad career choices, and become looked at less favourably because of it. Rafa has done that in a pursuit for trophies for his CV. With us he finally has a project more in line with what he had at Valencia and Liverpool, so long as he receives the backing and support he deserves from the board. There should be no short termism to it. He is back in England, close to his family, and in a job where the expectations aren't high and the timeframe is longterm. He needs to prove himself as a manager who can build and shape a team over a number of seasons again. Then, he only needs to deliver one of his usual trophies, and he'll have a statue outside the ground. Think poor choices is a good way of describing it. Inter was a terrible one, albeit sort of understandable after he'd been Purslowed. Chelsea was a bad choice too but he used to get himself back in the top level of the game and used it well. Napoli seemed good and his first season was promising. Higuain was amazing. But there was a falling off in the second season, that's true. Real was ridiculous but understandable given his connection to the club. Newcastle is everything he needs. My God, the squad needs work though. Can't think of another job he's been in where's he's had such a task. Given they go up, next season has to be about staying up. Season after that, kicking on and challenging for cups.

Funny one this. You have to be the most un Rafa like team I've seen, of all his charges, and of course he must take responsibility for that. It's his job to drill/impress his methods on the team and it could be said he's failed to do that. He's certainly failed if you don't go up, even if ensuring that is not half as easy as some on here make out. I think you will go up. But there's some cause for concern for me, as a seasoned Rafa watcher. 1. Rafa teams nearly always finish the season strongly. Valencia did. We always did at LFC. Chelsea too, when he got them in the CL and won the Europa. Napoli in his first season (less so his second but he'd announced he'd gone then...). It's one of the benefits of rotation. But you lot seem out of steam and patched up. That might be down to bad luck with injuries. But it could also be an issue with the fitness work, either now or earlier in the season. Or, as I suspect, you have struggled with the pressure all season, particularly since Xmas. Everyone expected you to piss it, win every game, and its a cup final for the opposition etc...In that respect it's different as all Rafa's other teams were coming from behind but you have been pacesetting almost from the start. You need strong characters to handle it and drag the team with them. All his teams have had characters like that. Gerrard, Carra, Mata etc. Who are the leaders on your team? Who can lead from the front? I think that's been a problem and one that will need solving. Maybe in the last three matches but definitely when you go up. 2. Defensive mistakes. Seems like you're making lots of them. Rafa teams rarely fuck up defensively. They defend set pieces well. Is this related to the pressure problem? Or is Rafa unable to organise a defence like he once did? 3. I don't believe for a second this talk of complacency. From what I've seen or read you are bricking it on the field, nervy and prone to errors. If so, it's a failure of Rafa's not to be able to relax players and take some of the pressure of them. But he will also need to find some players who can cope with it better. He has also seemed to be micro managing you in matches, a sign he doesn't trust people to carry out the game plan. That's not sustainable. It was never the case at LFC anyway. You need players not only capable of carrying out a game plan, but reacting to whatever the opposition are doing rather than having their hand held. 4. Selection - I was surprised to see he made so many changes today. Not surprised one of them was Mitrovic, because he was the one who I reckon caused that late Leeds goal, which was a giant kick in the teeth, and Rafa doesn't forgiver that bullshit. Plus Murphy v his old team etc. There might have been reasons for it though. It smacks of a bit of panic from him though, not often seen. In those late season runs he made changes of course, but one or two, not five. Did anyone ask why he made so many changes? Again it points to people being battered and knackered and his system is meant to avoid that. 5. Goals - they seemed to have dried up. You scored for fun earlier in the season. But now it seems to be one a game, two if you're lucky. That makes you very vulnerable, particularly when you're defence is prone to fucking up. Gayle's injury was obviously a blow, but I'd have put money on Rafa finding another way. Ironically, if you did go to the play offs, no matter that you'd shit the bed, I'd fancy you to go up because as he's proved already this season no one prepares a team better for one off, big matches. But something is missing. Most likely players, but I think it's fair to say that while he's done a good job this season, in a situation where he and you were damned if you did and damned if you didn't, it has been by no means perfect. But if you do go up - and I think Fulham will take points off Hudderslacks on Saturday so if you beat Preston you'll be there - then there is much work for him to do. A LFC mate thinks managers pass their shelf life in the same way players do. I don't think Rafa has past his, and of course they said the same about Ranieri. But he has some serious work on his hands next season if you make it up and maybe the biggest challenge of his career to keep you up.

And gets skinned by the lad with the bandaged head? Mitrovic. Unforgivable that, if you ask me. Rafa does not forget shit like that.

I follow more than a few Leeds lads on social media and the amount of replaying and reposting of a late goal to draw a game, not even win, has been a bit embarrassing. By the way, who is it who steams out of Newcastle's midfield and misses the tackle in the build up, when a bit of jockeying or harrying might have held them up. Bet that drove Rafa fucking apeshit.