Rafael Benitez

[buzza]

Yep, a couple of losses and this board goes into meltdown. Pinch of salt needed desperately; top of the league and a run in with only Leeds who could really worry us.

As for the two strikers argument, I like the system we use, we just lack a decent Nº10 who can battle and who can work as a second striker also, diame and perez just not up to it.

Shelvey has one off game and it completely affects the whole team (ritchie/anita very bad also). We need someone to accompany him,Colback is lamentable...

Still top, we will still be promoted and Rafa will also surely see where we are lacking. Come on!

[Chris Banaloona]

This place after a loss is such a cesspit man.

 

I would say after a win given the way we have played for 85% of the season is massively subjective and blinkered. After a loss reality and object opinion generally prevails. We could quite easily be sitting on 70 points this morning had we not rode our luck last week.

You're a WUM welcome to the ignore list.

 

Rather than calling me a WUM (which is an easy aquisation from imdividuals when they are incapable of holding an intelligent objective discussion) give me reasonable factors as to why my opinion is wrong? Rafa is the reason we are struggling

[newsted]

What in the actual fuck is going on here? Did I blink and we're not top of the league? Hang on.

 

Nope, still top. You tossers. Christ, might as well go back to bed if you haven't already wet it.

[merlin]

If Rafa insists on playing the same formation then try playing Murphy as the number 10. Perez and Diame play one good game then put in a load of poor performances. They've both been a huge disappointment this season.

Totally agree - I don't attach much blame to Rafa because we lack quality in m/f especially. As you say, Diame and Perez have both been anonymous for much of the season and Perez' goal at Brighton may well turn out to be his major contribution to the promotion effort. Diame has been very poor, esp since the ACN and it is easy for the opposition to isolate Shelvey because the others do not offer any alternative threat. As for Colback, well its hard to imagine this guy still here if promotion is achieved because he will be a liability in the PL. Rafa wanted to address this weakness but Ashley & Co said no ...

[Figures 1-0 Football]

What in the actual f*** is going on here? Did I blink and we're not top of the league? Hang on.

 

Nope, still top. You tossers. Christ, might as well go back to bed if you haven't already wet it.

 

100% this.

[Elliottman]

What in the actual f*** is going on here? Did I blink and we're not top of the league? Hang on.

 

Nope, still top. You tossers. Christ, might as well go back to bed if you haven't already wet it.

 

100% this.

[thomas]

I hope he makes a public apology and admits that 4-4-2 is the superior formation and that he is guilty of crimes against football before stepping down. It's the only honorable thing to do.

[TRon]

I'm not joining in the WUMMING, but I feel compelled to dust-off a variant of the  'two up front' rant. The lack of variation in our home formation (pretty much lining-up as we do when away)  does two things: makes us predictable as hell; concedes home advantage which adds most benefit when we have possession football and chances to crank-up the atmosphere into something helpful rather than harmful.

 

Why do either? Especially when we have three fit strikers and are without an obvious 'no.10'/AM in our usual system. RB needs to take a long hard look in the mirror and channel his internal teacher: could do better; more flexibility required.

 

 

So you know better than Rafa? Remind me who sits top of the league? Managed by whom?

 

Too many subjective blinkered opinions here. We have the highest paid manager, the highest wage bill, most spent on players and yet we are fucking crawling over the line due to his tactics. We have the be the worst team to sit top of a table in the whole of europe.

 

Lucky against Brighton, Huddersfield and Reading. We easily could have came into fulham with zero points.

 

How do we compare to Villa? They are a similar club who have bigger pockets than most in the championship and have recruited a highly rated manager.

[Dokko]

I think a little more flexibility wouldn't go amiss. He must see certain things not working but he chooses not to react but to keep with it. He's protecting the bigger picture, understood, but sometimes to reach that end goal you need to adapt and make changes which will impact the short term.

 

I think he is being let down by players individual performances, but he could change things and give it a shuffle instead of sticking with, there's enough in the squad to do that, lesser squads are managing.

 

He's been brilliant for the club and long term will be an amazing asset should we keep him but this season hasn't been as expected. I expected defeats but by luck, refs, individual mistakes, not being dominated and outplayed by teams stuck in this division. Hopefully we can get him the players he needs to play the way he wants next season, but if its the players then we're going to need to sell about 10 and bring in about 15 to do anything but stay up (should we go up)

[UncleBingo]

This place after a loss is such a cesspit man.

 

I would say after a win given the way we have played for 85% of the season is massively subjective and blinkered. After a loss reality and object opinion generally prevails. We could quite easily be sitting on 70 points this morning had we not rode our luck last week.

You're a WUM welcome to the ignore list.

 

Rather than calling me a WUM (which is an easy aquisation from imdividuals when they are incapable of holding an intelligent objective discussion) give me reasonable factors as to why my opinion is wrong? Rafa is the reason we are struggling

 

Two questions.....why do you only appear after a loss? Which top manager did you have in mind?

[shintonsghost]

 

struggling 

 

championship table

 

1: Newcastle United

 

:lol:

[Si]

[ExiledGeordie]

 

W all know Colback is weak as piss but the continued complete ineffectiveness of Diame and Perez game to game has really hurt us this season. I thought Perez would rip this league up but he's been nothing short of a disaster this season. Diame clearly isn't a number ten but his fluctuating and often woeful form only heaps more pressure on Shelvey to do something.

[Tsunami]

Hang on, our away form is the best in any Division; our home form doesn't get us in the Play Offs. Fans have every right to question our tactics at home; there's nothing new in our failings at home yet Rafa has steadfastly refused to change things around.

 

Fulham beat us with ease yesterday and perhaps 442 may not have made any difference but in the games we've lost at home we've conceded first and in 4 of them we conceded in the first half and didn't try anything different until the games were at desperation stakes.

 

We're not up against PL opposition, we're allowing some average sides to become comfortable on our home patch, when we score early it's fine when we don't we've struggled. It's too late now to change how we set up at home, I'd have loved us to try 442 in some of the earlier games and press the games.

 

Rafa's a stubborn manager, he has his way of doing things, it doesn't mean he shouldn't have questions asked when we continue to struggle at home.

 

As an aside, I think that if we'd have signed Townsend it would have made a huge difference with our home form. His pace alone would have added a whole new dimension to our ability to attack within Rafa's preferred formation.

[The College Dropout]

Yep, a couple of losses and this board goes into meltdown. Pinch of salt needed desperately; top of the league and a run in with only Leeds who could really worry us.

We'll win or draw against Leeds no bother.  But the dross - at home? Major concern. Teeth returning to form and Hayden back in good form will be crucial.

[morla84]

Not entirely sure where the comments that he isn't rotating any more are coming from, he made 4 changes yesterday and 3 on Tuesday. Mainly the only players he isn't rotating are ones that he doesn't have strong options in reserve to bring in. Probably why he was so pissed off at not being backed in the transfer window. No midweek games for the next couple of weeks now anyway, so the players should be a bit fresher.

[Guest neesy111]

Yep, a couple of losses and this board goes into meltdown. Pinch of salt needed desperately; top of the league and a run in with only Leeds who could really worry us.

We'll win or draw against Leeds no bother.  But the dross - at home? Major concern. Teeth returning to form and Hayden back in good form will be crucial.

 

I really wouldn't play Gayle with our style of play at the moment, it completely doesn't suit him.

[Dinho lad]

That season is incomparable, the competition is a lot stronger this year.

 

No it isn't. The likes of Huddersfield have gone from relegation fodder to promotion contenders overnight without actually doing anything. It's a poor league and nobody can convince me otherwise.

 

 

 

Embarrassing shite, this. You're clearly out of touch.

[UncleBingo]

Like I said, I completely understand the concerns. And of course Rafa can be criticised. But some of the guff being spewed is just pathetic. Like spoilt little brats.

 

Very much this.

[Greg]

That season is incomparable, the competition is a lot stronger this year.

 

No it isn't. The likes of Huddersfield have gone from relegation fodder to promotion contenders overnight without actually doing anything. It's a poor league and nobody can convince me otherwise.

 

 

 

Horseshit.

[ExiledGeordie]

He gets it wrong every home game. we'd be promoted already with a more positive manager.

 

We've had Pardew, Carver, McShite in succession........we are top of the league with Benitez at the helm and automatic promotion looking likely.

 

Fuck off

[Kevo]

On balance I probably agree that we did make some bad recruitment decisions in the summer where we should have been replacing Colback.

 

The standout ones are probably Sels as a first team goalkeeper, signing both Gamez and Lazaar (just one needed), and signing Hanley while retaining Mbemba.

 

I am sure we could have found a better player than Colback had we made better choices.

 

However every club get a few signings wrong and don't know enough of the circumstances of each transfer to point the finger.

 

 

The squad is balanced too heavily on the defence.  Certainly not enough midfield options.

Shame really, as after all those defensive signings our defending is still shite far too often.

[Mick]

 

But he doesn't. If he did he would have backed him in Jan. But previous recruitment which is the direct impact of how s*** we are (for me extremely lucky to be where we are) along with his negative tactics. Any top manager wouldn't have Jack Colback anywhere near the first team. He'd have replaced him with better recruitment in the summer.

 

He did do that, the only problem is that the replacement is currently injured.

[Mick]

Hang on, our away form is the best in any Division; our home form doesn't get us in the Play Offs. Fans have every right to question our tactics at home; there's nothing new in our failings at home yet Rafa has steadfastly refused to change things around.

 

Fulham beat us with ease yesterday and perhaps 442 may not have made any difference but in the games we've lost at home we've conceded first and in 4 of them we conceded in the first half and didn't try anything different until the games were at desperation stakes.

 

We're not up against PL opposition, we're allowing some average sides to become comfortable on our home patch, when we score early it's fine when we don't we've struggled. It's too late now to change how we set up at home, I'd have loved us to try 442 in some of the earlier games and press the games.

 

Rafa's a stubborn manager, he has his way of doing things, it doesn't mean he shouldn't have questions asked when we continue to struggle at home.

 

As an aside, I think that if we'd have signed Townsend it would have made a huge difference with our home form. His pace alone would have added a whole new dimension to our ability to attack within Rafa's preferred formation.

 

I don't think tactics cost us yesterday, tactics don't stop us passing to each other and I doubt we were told to sit off them because that's not something we normally do, it's happened before but it isn't normal.

[Tsunami]

Hang on, our away form is the best in any Division; our home form doesn't get us in the Play Offs. Fans have every right to question our tactics at home; there's nothing new in our failings at home yet Rafa has steadfastly refused to change things around.

 

Fulham beat us with ease yesterday and perhaps 442 may not have made any difference but in the games we've lost at home we've conceded first and in 4 of them we conceded in the first half and didn't try anything different until the games were at desperation stakes.

 

We're not up against PL opposition, we're allowing some average sides to become comfortable on our home patch, when we score early it's fine when we don't we've struggled. It's too late now to change how we set up at home, I'd have loved us to try 442 in some of the earlier games and press the games.

 

Rafa's a stubborn manager, he has his way of doing things, it doesn't mean he shouldn't have questions asked when we continue to struggle at home.

 

As an aside, I think that if we'd have signed Townsend it would have made a huge difference with our home form. His pace alone would have added a whole new dimension to our ability to attack within Rafa's preferred formation.

 

I don't think tactics cost us yesterday, tactics don't stop us passing to each other and I doubt we were told to sit off them because that's not something we normally do, it's happened before but it isn't normal.

 

I said and agree that yesterday we were simply second best. We let a poor Blackburn side get into the game, we had a shocker against Wolves and allowed them to be comfortable, we conceded too much possession to both Sheff Wed and Huddersfield. We've beaten some sides fairly easily but we've not battered any side at home and we haven't attempted to do so.

 

The conservative approach at home is costing us points. We're giving sides hope; we could have some more very twitchy home games to come. Some of the crowd reaction yesterday was awful. We can't play to the crowd but we're not exactly helping ourselves.