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Rafael Benitez


Jesse Pinkman

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I'm not getting too downbeat about this. We lost, yes, but it was to the team at the top of the league and at their place and only by one goal.

 

I think we can beat Sunderland on Sunday and start building some momentum.

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3 days of training, played our 2 backup CBs, our ginger cunt at LB, and we conceded 1 and fought the entire match and could have had a shout for an offisde on their goal and a penalty for us.

 

5-6 days to be with the squad to prepare for Sunderland. Get 3 points, 2 weeks until Norwich and then onward and hopefully upward.

 

Rafa's post match demeanor just looked like a man who was frustrated, he doesn't like losing, no matter what.

 

:thup:

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I'm not getting too downbeat about this. We lost, yes, but it was to the team at the top of the league and at their place and only by one goal.

 

I think we can beat Sunderland on Sunday and start building some momentum.

 

I'm confident we won't lose to the Mackems. But winning means scoring, and scoring means creating chances. We didn't see much of that today.

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Jesus Christ, I can't believe some people are actually upset by tonight's result/performance - we played the league leaders, at their place, three days after the new manager was appointed - no wonder people take the piss out of our fans!  :frantic:

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I'm not getting too downbeat about this. We lost, yes, but it was to the team at the top of the league and at their place and only by one goal.

 

I think we can beat Sunderland on Sunday and start building some momentum.

 

I'm confident we won't lose to the Mackems. But winning means scoring, and scoring means creating chances. We didn't see much of that today.

 

To be fair we saw plenty of chances, we just didn't put them away. Tonight's performance was streets ahead of anything we've had in a very long time, if that's after three days with Rafa imagine what we'll be like once he's settled in - just hope he settles in fast enough to keep us up.

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I have no doubt that we're going to be better organised after tonight.  3 days of training and we looked like a team which we haven't often done and I rarely felt we were in danger of leaking goals.  If front of goal is another thing and is our current biggest problem and we need to do something different because we'll always beat risk if we're not looking like scoring.

 

Marks out of 10 for his first game, 8.

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I'm not sure where all the negativity is coming from, try watching back any of McClarens away games and watch tonight's game back again to see the massive strides we've made already. We still have a game in hand on Norwich and the Mackem game can be a huge turning point for us.

 

Rafa has breathed a new lease of life into these players in a very short space of time and he has another week to make even more of an impact. IF we lose the derby then by all means start to panic.

 

:thup:. Very encouraged by the impression Rafa has made in a short space of time. Greater organisation/solidity/spiritedness was the most noticeable improvement (limiting Leicester to one shot on target with the back four we put out is no mean feat), but in patches I thought our buildup play showed greater promise/potential than it has under previous managers, albeit with the types of growing pains (e.g. players not always being on the same wavelength) which you would expect from a team in tactical transition. You could even see the effect of those one-touch Madrid drills on a few occasions when we broke forward.

 

 

 

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We have better players and a better manager than Sunderland and we have home soil advantage, they have the psychological advantage and that has been used to full effect against weak minded management. Benitez needs to get the players right in the head most of all going into this game. We need belief and confidence.

MOST of our players are better than theirs...but they have the edge in attitude, although this may be been altered by Sunday, and they also have a player who can snatch a goal, even though he is in the veteran stage.

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Ian Ayre leaving Liverpool next year. Did he have a good relationship with Benitez at Liverpool? Has to be better at his job than Charnley.

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Difficult to gauge.  He's not been here long enough to see massive changes.  Leicester weren't that great, I'm sure our gameplan played a part in that.  They had two decent chances all game and scored one.  Well, in fairness, the goal wasn't that much of a chance, just a great finish.  It was also an away game and for the most part, we've been pathetic on the road.  We rarely create fuck all and we've scored seven away goals, all season.  So you can't expect it to change overnight.  We've played well at home in comparison.  So if Rafa gets a similar level of improvement from our home games, then we may be in with a shout of stopping up. 

 

I think we looked a bit more organised and with 1-2 players back, we might actually manage to get some points away from home.  Steven Taylor stuck in reverse all game didn't help.  So hopefully Mbemba/Colo, might actually help us out slightly.  He's not great, but I'd play Lascelles over Taylor. 

 

For me, last night was all about trying to take the positives and not get hammered and ruin our confidence.  We probably deserved a point and so long as we build on the performance, then it wasn't too bad. 

 

My biggest worries, are that we're running out of games and I just don't think we're ever going to score too many.  So we're going to have to be keeping a lot of clean sheets, or conceding no more than a goal a game. 

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Not bringing him in after chelsea could still prove the undoing imo. We'd be far better off now had he been given that extra time (and games obviously).

 

Agreed.  I think we would have got at least a point from Stoke.  They were terrible that night.  Bournemouth, who knows? 

 

But it's not just the two extra games we missed out on.  It's the time with the squad.  He would have been in the job 3 weeks by now, if we had appointed him after the Chelsea game.  Instead, he's working like a loon, trying to figure out how to get us out of this mess, with not long between fixtures. 

 

Need to get a win Sunday and then hope he can work some magic during the international break.

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For me I'm more nervous about us staying up just because we have him in now and he will be gone should we go down.

 

I wouldn't mind going down as much if we knew he was going to stay, as I think he could still rebuild us from the championship.

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For me I'm more nervous about us staying up just because we have him in now and he will be gone should we go down.

 

I wouldn't mind going down as much if we knew he was going to stay, as I think he could still rebuild us from the championship.

 

Does anyone know more about this get out clause?  Is it an option for him to leave, or is it the club can cancel the contract?  Or is it just, if we get relegated, he's gone?

 

I can't see him managing us in the Championship.  But it would be great if he stayed.  He'd help us steady the ship and rebuild.

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It's a bit of a minor point but even though I didn't agree with some of his subs they very clearly changed either the tactics or the formation. I've been that used to seeing like for like changes it was refreshing to see.

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3 days of training versus Leicester and we had about 3 decent chances to punish them and a penalty decision that didn't go our way. They also scored on a bicycle kick from 6 out. Have faith in the world class manager.

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