Rafael Benitez

[Minhosa]

I'm no fan of Mitro, but you can't blame him for what happened on Friday.

 

Agree with this. The blame lies with the defence and particularly with Lascelles imho.

 

Mitro was doing exactly the right thing in timewasting. At the time I was shouting at Colback to chop the Leeds player assuming we would have time to organise ourselves to defend the set piece and then the game would be all but over.

 

Mitro and Jogback relatively blameless here. If Lascelles had of covered Wood, we'd be near enough up.

[HawK]

Blaming a striker for making a poor challenge when there were 10 other players behind him who made similarly s*** (or even no) efforts ffs

 

Mitro had been on the pitch for 94 minutes and had worked his arse off. Diame strolls onto the pitch with 10 minutes to go and he failed to put any sort of challenge in near the box, yet we're sat here talking about Mitro's poor attempt to challenge for the ball on the halfway line.

 

Murphy was terrible yesterday, again. As bad as Mitro has been in some matches - yet he's received little/no stick for it. Before anyone even says "aye but he scored", aye he did, but Atsu put the ball on a plate for him and it was near on impossible to miss. The remaining time in the game he was diabolically s*** and gave away constant free kicks.

 

If Mitro contributed to winning matches to compensate for his criminal lack of a goalscorer's instinct, he'd not get anywhere near as much stick.

 

The fact is he doesn't, and Murphy's goals have won us matches. Strikers should be judged on goals scored, first and foremost. Murphy is just better at scoring than Mitrovic as the stats will show. How many assists has Mitro gotten whilst not scoring?

[ujpest doza]

I wonder if there was something said on Sunday because there was rumours of players moping around the hotel on Sunday night.

 

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?

Timewasting in the corner didn't work.

Would have been better passing and moving the ball around, or whisper it quietly going for the jugular and actually trying to score more goals.

 

Just saying mind, don't quote me.

 

 

I thought the timewasting in the corner was fine and we were managing the game pretty well and frustrating Leeds but it was when the ball ended up in their box and we lost it which lead to us being opened up to the counter attack and Colback made the foul for the freekick in the lead to their goal. If we just kept it in the corner and kept winning throw ins or corners we probably would have seen the game out (even if it wouldn't have been great to watch)

I just don't think we did the timewasting in the corner thing very well and would have been better served passing the ball about to frustrate them.

 

I can't blame Colback either as it was a foul that had to be made and we should have then had time to get organised and defend properly.

 

I can blame Lascelles mind as he completely lost Wood.

 

[Figures 1-0 Football]

Blaming a striker for making a poor challenge when there were 10 other players behind him who made similarly s*** (or even no) efforts ffs

 

Mitro had been on the pitch for 94 minutes and had worked his arse off. Diame strolls onto the pitch with 10 minutes to go and he failed to put any sort of challenge in near the box, yet we're sat here talking about Mitro's poor attempt to challenge for the ball on the halfway line.

 

Murphy was terrible yesterday, again. As bad as Mitro has been in some matches - yet he's received little/no stick for it. Before anyone even says "aye but he scored", aye he did, but Atsu put the ball on a plate for him and it was near on impossible to miss. The remaining time in the game he was diabolically s*** and gave away constant free kicks.

 

If Mitro contributed to winning matches to compensate for his criminal lack of a goalscorer's instinct, he'd not get anywhere near as much stick.

 

The fact is he doesn't, and Murphy's goals have won us matches. Strikers should be judged on goals scored, first and foremost. Murphy is just better at scoring than Mitrovic as the stats will show. How many assists has Mitro gotten whilst not scoring?

 

You've argued against you own point here. The stats are remarkably similar considering one player gets thrown under the bus and the other doesn't.

 

In the league:

Mitro - 4 goals, 4 assists

Murphy - 5 goals, 1 assist

 

If you include the cup games, they both have 6 goals but Mitro has 3 more assists still.

 

Mitro also has a higher pass % (65.1% to 53.1%)

 

Mitro has played 300 more minutes like but his minutes have been in much smaller segments (ie, coming on late in a lot of games) and therefore reducing the ability to make an impact.

 

Also for the myth that Murphy has "won us more matches/points etc." No, he really hasn't. Even ignoring the assists and just basing it on the goals, it's very close run.

 

Mitro: 4 goals, 4 assist: worth 13 points

Leeds (h) - assist - 1 point

Wolves (a) - goal - 3 points

Preston (a) - 2 goals - 3 points

QPR (a) - assist and goal - contributed to the points but didn't win them solely

Cardiff (h) - assist - 3 points

Derby (h) - assist - 3 points

 

Murphy: 5 goals, 1 assist: worth 6 points, 12 even if you claim the Huddersfield/Rotherham as matchwinners.

Ipswich (a) - goal - earned us nothing

Fulham (h) - goal - earned us nothing

Huddersfield (a) - goal - contributed to the points but didn't win them solely

Brighton (a) - gets an assist for Diame's freak goal - 3 points

Rotherham (h) - goal - contributed to the points but didn't win them solely

Brentford (a) - goal - 3 points

[Guest neesy111]

[DJ_NUFC]

Stats or not, Murphy does seem to be the more natural goalscorer. We're now completely forgetting Mitro's full season in the Premiership? Or is that still being filed under "New League," "Foreign Land," "Young Lad," etc.?

 

Edit: I just realized how tiresome this whole Mitro argument is, and why it needs to be kept within the confines of the Mitro thread. Can we please talk about Rafa and management on here? Cheers.

[AyeDubbleYoo]

I've never seen 'straw man' used so often as on this forum. It's a like an N-O obsession.

[Shearergol]

Stats or not, Murphy does seem to be the more natural goalscorer. We're now completely forgetting Mitro's full season in the Premiership? Or is that still being filed under "New League," "Foreign Land," "Young Lad," etc.?

 

Edit: I just realized how tiresome this whole Mitro argument is, and why it needs to be kept within the confines of the Mitro thread. Can we please talk about Rafa and management on here? Cheers.

 

Mitro got mentioned because of the point someone made about Rafa blaming him for the goal (based on the fact he benched him). It's natural to discuss that point in here, but not the "Is Murphy any better" question, granted.

[U2]

Straw man has terrible movement.  Really static.  Just fucking stands there in the middle of the pitch waiting for something to happen.

[themanupstairs]

Mitro shouldn't have given the ball away by aimlessly crossing it into the box. He successfully won a corner just before that playing it off the man. Not sure what he was trying to do blasting it into the box with no one there.

 

Still not entirely his fault obviously as there were ten men behind him who should have stopped the goal. The blame lies with the entire team and their lack of focus. Instead of playing to the whistle, most were too busy speaking to the ref about the 5 extra minutes.

 

[TheHoob]

 

[Parsley]

Mitro shouldn't have given the ball away by aimlessly crossing it into the box. He successfully won a corner just before that playing it off the man. Not sure what he was trying to do blasting it into the box with no one there.

 

Still not entirely his fault obviously as there were ten men behind him who should have stopped the goal. The blame lies with the entire team and their lack of focus. Instead of playing to the whistle, most were too busy speaking to the ref about the 5 extra minutes.

Just watched the sequence back - agree that Mitro should've just kept it in the corner but he did find Diame with the cross who, between him and Shelvey, then contrived to give the ball away.

 

 

 

[SEMTEX]

Ipswich did alright by crossing it into the box when they were winning yesterday.

[Bimpy474]

 

 

It's not the points total and it's clearly not failure. It's the turgid football (Leeds game aside) since Christmas that have brought this on imo.

 

 

[Guest chopey]

With a day to calm down and think about it I think Rafa has lost faith in some of the squad and it looks like he is just scrapping around trying to find replacements for Gayle and Clarke and then players like Darlow, Shelvey, Dummet and Lasscelles start letting him down, I think there was absolutly something said on Sunday and he might have even told some players they wont be here next season.

[mrmojorisin75]

With a day to calm down and think about it I think Rafa has lost faith in some of the squad and it looks like he is just scrapping around trying to find replacements for Gayle and Clarke and then players like Darlow, Shelvey, Dummet and Lasscelles start letting him down, I think there was absolutly something said on Sunday and he might have even told some players they wont be here next season.

 

with nothing to base it on i'm tempted to agree with this like, we should have pushed on since that massive 7 points from 9 yet their arses have gone and literally everyone bar ritchie of those fit in the period has gone into hiding game in game out

 

i hope he's brutal and ruthless the moment promotion is secured, would rather see bairns playing the last 1-2 games than most of these cunts

[DJ_NUFC]

With a day to calm down and think about it I think Rafa has lost faith in some of the squad and it looks like he is just scrapping around trying to find replacements for Gayle and Clarke and then players like Darlow, Shelvey, Dummet and Lasscelles start letting him down, I think there was absolutly something said on Sunday and he might have even told some players they wont be here next season.

 

with nothing to base it on i'm tempted to agree with this like, we should have pushed on since that massive 7 points from 9 yet their arses have gone and literally everyone bar ritchie of those fit in the period has gone into hiding game in game out

 

i hope he's brutal and ruthless the moment promotion is secured, would rather see bairns playing the last 1-2 games than most of these cunts

 

If this is true and it happens, about fucking time we had a manager at the helm who held a lot of these shirkers to account and ran the club like a real, professional outfit.

[Greg]

 

 

It's not the points total and it's clearly not failure. It's the turgid football (Leeds game aside) since Christmas that have brought this on imo.

 

 

 

Criminal that we didn't freshen up the squad with at least one signing in January tbh.

[Guest neesy111]

 

 

It's not the points total and it's clearly not failure. It's the turgid football (Leeds game aside) since Christmas that have brought this on imo.

 

 

 

Criminal that we didn't freshen up the squad with at least one signing in January tbh.

Not even a loan signing is ridiculous.

[Crumpy Gunt]

Blaming a striker for making a poor challenge when there were 10 other players behind him who made similarly s*** (or even no) efforts ffs

 

Mitro had been on the pitch for 94 minutes and had worked his arse off. Diame strolls onto the pitch with 10 minutes to go and he failed to put any sort of challenge in near the box, yet we're sat here talking about Mitro's poor attempt to challenge for the ball on the halfway line.

 

Murphy was terrible yesterday, again. As bad as Mitro has been in some matches - yet he's received little/no stick for it. Before anyone even says "aye but he scored", aye he did, but Atsu put the ball on a plate for him and it was near on impossible to miss. The remaining time in the game he was diabolically s*** and gave away constant free kicks.

 

If Mitro contributed to winning matches to compensate for his criminal lack of a goalscorer's instinct, he'd not get anywhere near as much stick.

 

The fact is he doesn't, and Murphy's goals have won us matches. Strikers should be judged on goals scored, first and foremost. Murphy is just better at scoring than Mitrovic as the stats will show. How many assists has Mitro gotten whilst not scoring?

 

You've argued against you own point here. The stats are remarkably similar considering one player gets thrown under the bus and the other doesn't.

 

In the league:

Mitro - 4 goals, 4 assists

Murphy - 5 goals, 1 assist

 

If you include the cup games, they both have 6 goals but Mitro has 3 more assists still.

 

Mitro also has a higher pass % (65.1% to 53.1%)

 

Mitro has played 300 more minutes like but his minutes have been in much smaller segments (ie, coming on late in a lot of games) and therefore reducing the ability to make an impact.

 

Also for the myth that Murphy has "won us more matches/points etc." No, he really hasn't. Even ignoring the assists and just basing it on the goals, it's very close run.

 

Mitro: 4 goals, 4 assist: worth 13 points

Leeds (h) - assist - 1 point

Wolves (a) - goal - 3 points

Preston (a) - 2 goals - 3 points

QPR (a) - assist and goal - contributed to the points but didn't win them solely

Cardiff (h) - assist - 3 points

Derby (h) - assist - 3 points

 

Murphy: 5 goals, 1 assist: worth 6 points, 12 even if you claim the Huddersfield/Rotherham as matchwinners.

Ipswich (a) - goal - earned us nothing

Fulham (h) - goal - earned us nothing

Huddersfield (a) - goal - contributed to the points but didn't win them solely

Brighton (a) - gets an assist for Diame's freak goal - 3 points

Rotherham (h) - goal - contributed to the points but didn't win them solely

Brentford (a) - goal - 3 points

You need to find a girlfriend.

[Pixelphish]

[SEMTEX]

Blaming a striker for making a poor challenge when there were 10 other players behind him who made similarly s*** (or even no) efforts ffs

 

Mitro had been on the pitch for 94 minutes and had worked his arse off. Diame strolls onto the pitch with 10 minutes to go and he failed to put any sort of challenge in near the box, yet we're sat here talking about Mitro's poor attempt to challenge for the ball on the halfway line.

 

Murphy was terrible yesterday, again. As bad as Mitro has been in some matches - yet he's received little/no stick for it. Before anyone even says "aye but he scored", aye he did, but Atsu put the ball on a plate for him and it was near on impossible to miss. The remaining time in the game he was diabolically s*** and gave away constant free kicks.

 

If Mitro contributed to winning matches to compensate for his criminal lack of a goalscorer's instinct, he'd not get anywhere near as much stick.

 

The fact is he doesn't, and Murphy's goals have won us matches. Strikers should be judged on goals scored, first and foremost. Murphy is just better at scoring than Mitrovic as the stats will show. How many assists has Mitro gotten whilst not scoring?

 

You've argued against you own point here. The stats are remarkably similar considering one player gets thrown under the bus and the other doesn't.

 

In the league:

Mitro - 4 goals, 4 assists

Murphy - 5 goals, 1 assist

 

If you include the cup games, they both have 6 goals but Mitro has 3 more assists still.

 

Mitro also has a higher pass % (65.1% to 53.1%)

 

Mitro has played 300 more minutes like but his minutes have been in much smaller segments (ie, coming on late in a lot of games) and therefore reducing the ability to make an impact.

 

Also for the myth that Murphy has "won us more matches/points etc." No, he really hasn't. Even ignoring the assists and just basing it on the goals, it's very close run.

 

Mitro: 4 goals, 4 assist: worth 13 points

Leeds (h) - assist - 1 point

Wolves (a) - goal - 3 points

Preston (a) - 2 goals - 3 points

QPR (a) - assist and goal - contributed to the points but didn't win them solely

Cardiff (h) - assist - 3 points

Derby (h) - assist - 3 points

 

Murphy: 5 goals, 1 assist: worth 6 points, 12 even if you claim the Huddersfield/Rotherham as matchwinners.

Ipswich (a) - goal - earned us nothing

Fulham (h) - goal - earned us nothing

Huddersfield (a) - goal - contributed to the points but didn't win them solely

Brighton (a) - gets an assist for Diame's freak goal - 3 points

Rotherham (h) - goal - contributed to the points but didn't win them solely

Brentford (a) - goal - 3 points

You need to find a girlfriend.

 

This is some classic 2002 Internetting boys and girls

[Bimpy474]

 

 

It's not the points total and it's clearly not failure. It's the turgid football (Leeds game aside) since Christmas that have brought this on imo.

 

 

 

Criminal that we didn't freshen up the squad with at least one signing in January tbh.

 

That's true enough but it still doesn't really explain the poor play, the Ipswich game was utterly awful. Even if you ignore too many changes, hitting long over and over was tactically terrible.

 

But you're correct we should have signed one or two to freshen it up.

[Greg]

The hitting it long stuff, and not wanting to play at all, really can't be what he's sending them out to do (all the time). Rafa said as much in his post match comments.

 

[Figures 1-0 Football]

We have a habit of getting sucked into playing shit football by the clogger teams we come up against in this league. I think thats why our best performances come against the better teams, we both want to play football.