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Wullie, midds et al, does this make you want to get back behind the team?

 

It does. I thought investing the money in the summer was a step in the right direction, another was making some signings in January and this appointment is another sign of intent. However, I don't think we'll fare well until we get another CM, commanding defender and a left-back of quality. (Yes I think Mitro can be the guy for us).

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Guest Howaythetoon

His appointment makes me now give a fuck. I now want us to win and to stay up and for the team and club to succeed. Although I won't be attending games until Ashley goes. And talking of that cunt, if relegation meant him leaving I'd take that any day of the week. I'd take relegation to the Conference if it mean he sold up. MA will never be the right man to own this club, Rafa appointment or not.

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Rafa moved Gerrard from cental midfield to behind the striker due to Gerrard not being great tactically and leaving too many gaps there.

 

We may very well see the same with Shelvey who actually played a more forward attacking midfield role coming up at Charlton. Think it would improve our midfield solidarity.

 

Someone start a Rafa tactics thread ...

 

Perhaps longer term Shelvey will be pushed forward but I think that is quite difficult to pull of this season where we have too many attacking midfielders and no one that can play well in central midfield other than Shelvey.

 

Having said that though, if he were to make a good box to box central midfielder out of Wij or Moussa that would be amazing.

He tends to be play with two pivots, i'd be surprised to see any box to box players although our squad isn't suited to his system at all.

 

Saivet and Sissoko as the pivots for me. Sissoko has experience in that role from his Toulousse days and we need to utilise his strength and pace in midfield. He can then get forward in counterattacking scenarios.

 

From what I've seen I like Saivet's positioning and discipline in that role, and he is another good athlete. Both French so hopefully can develop some chemistry too.

 

Gini and Perez can then play in the wide attacking midfield positions and tuck in a bit, with Shelvey in a number 10 spot. Mitrovic upfront.

 

I think that would be an interesting approach.

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Guest The Little Waster

His appointment makes me now give a f***. I now want us to win and to stay up and for the team and club to succeed. Although I won't be attending games until Ashley goes. And talking of that c***, if relegation meant him leaving I'd take that any day of the week. I'd take relegation to the Conference if it mean he sold up. MA will never be the right man to own this club, Rafa appointment or not.

This ...

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Ultimately the only thing that can rescue our horrendous defence is getting that midfield two right, and playing two players in there that can really support our defence and close things up for opposing teams. We cannot afford to have Shelvey as one of the two with the defenders we have at the club.

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Guest Howaythetoon

A mate of mine today said he would take Rafa and relegation than staying up with SMC and another 3 or 4 years of him.

 

By the way if we do go down, I could see a scenario where Rafa stays and takes us back up. Its about the project with him!

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Loads of people saying we should have gone for a relegation experienced manager, I just dont think we have the type of players that would respond to a Pearson type manager. We have the best bloke we could of hoped for and Newcastle is a club where the fans need to be made to think "what if?" anythings possible. Going to be tough staying up but I'll be buzzing come next season if we manage it and then who knows?

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Interesting that Rafa barely trusted Gerrard in the true CM role and that's because he lacked the ability to keep it simple, give and go, pass and move etc. like Alonso which was the staple of Rafa's philosophy at the time, ball retention and possession. I once called Rafa's football nothing football because a lot of it was sideways passing football without venturing forward, but it was basically me being ignorant of the trends outside of the PL. He almost made it work here. I can see Anita becoming a key player for us and maybe Shelvey pushed further forward or wider as a narrow midfield. I'm sure Rafa liked his full-backs to push up at LFC. Mind, I don't know how he has progressed since his LFC days as I've not taken any interest in European footy clearly /Ronaldo

More to do with positional discipline. Gerrard has no regard for it. Teams concede buckets of goals with CM's not paying attention to runners. Shelvey is in that same mould as is Aaron Ramsey.

 

Rafa seemed to prefer conservative fullbacks.

 

 

 

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His appointment makes me now give a f***. I now want us to win and to stay up and for the team and club to succeed. Although I won't be attending games until Ashley goes. And talking of that c***, if relegation meant him leaving I'd take that any day of the week. I'd take relegation to the Conference if it mean he sold up. MA will never be the right man to own this club, Rafa appointment or not.

 

Yep, i wanted relegation and now i'm desperate to stay up just to see where Rafa can take us.

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Sissoko playing as a pivot man. Behave Kaka.[emoji38]

 

If not then the guy might have to sit on the bench man. He isn't providing enough in the final third to take up the role he has had. Would rather have Perez and Gini in those wide roles. Shelvey as I sad cannot stay central so has to move further up. Our central midfield is crucial in this run in. Pretty sure Sissoko played alongside Capoue in that Toulousse midfield in France.

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Guest Howaythetoon

Loads of people saying we should have gone for a relegation experienced manager, I just dont think we have the type of players that would respond to a Pearson type manager. We have the best bloke we could of hoped for and Newcastle is a club where the fans need to be made to think "what if?" anythings possible. Going to be tough staying up but I'll be buzzing come next season if we manage it and then who knows?

 

I can see the argument tbh, Rafa's methods and philosophy can take time to work, especially given our lot. As delighted as I am with his appointment and how mad this all is, I personally feel its too late and that we will go down. We realistically need to win 4 games and maybe draw 2. I cannot see where our next win is coming from. I can see a narrow win for Leicester with the Toon putting up a brave fight and at best a draw at home to the mackems. Then what? Swansea at home looks the most likely chance of a win. LFC away, Villa away... tough games. Palace at home, wouldn't it just be typical for Pardew to end his winless run at SJP! We are down IMO. I hope I'm wrong like!

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A mate of mine today said he would take Rafa and relegation than staying up with SMC and another 3 or 4 years of him.

 

By the way if we do go down, I could see a scenario where Rafa stays and takes us back up. Its about the project with him!

 

We just have to assume he is definitely going if we go down. No point getting our hopes up to that extent.

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