Guest Howaythetoon Posted August 14, 2016 Share Posted August 14, 2016 I love Rafa and still believe in him, but I do wonder if he is the right fix for us. In every single way he is or ought to be, but this is Newcastle and I just fear this will all end up horribly wrong when it shouldn't. This is 2 games, however and Rafa is a slow burner and not adverse to some funny old results just look at his career. He needs backing even more in the transfer market, even if it means breaking our transfer record on a championship player. We are the big boys in this division and need to start acting it when it comes to transfers. Spending 30m on two players from this league and 100k in wages between the two is nowt if it helps us achieve promotion. I know from various people that Rafa feels the club are not as prepared as they should be to get their men whatever the cost and that's worrying, as is the attitude of some players. He needs to play a midfield of Aarons, Tiote, Diame and Ritchie and drop Dummett and we need to buy a goalscorer at this level. He also needs to drop the cautious play with regards to the opposition, we are NUFC and shouldn't worry about anyone or anything in this league and that's not arrogance from me. Fingers crossed in 10 games time we are right up there in contention... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ronaldo Posted August 14, 2016 Share Posted August 14, 2016 Tiote's not gonna be in the lineup, man. Howay. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Howaythetoon Posted August 14, 2016 Share Posted August 14, 2016 Tiote's not gonna be in the lineup, man. Howay. He should be though, we are weak as piss in there. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest chopey Posted August 14, 2016 Share Posted August 14, 2016 Aarons was awful at the weekend, I'd rather play Janmatt in his position and use a different right back. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tubestationatmidnight Posted August 14, 2016 Share Posted August 14, 2016 I know we don't have many other options or no other options in some case and i know it's hard to sign quality in the championship but I always feel Newcastle fans always over rate and over hype some of our players when they are either average are done nothing yet. Is a left hand side of Aarons and dummett any better than the mid table sides? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
mrmojorisin75 Posted August 14, 2016 Share Posted August 14, 2016 Tiote's not gonna be in the lineup, man. Howay. He should be though, we are weak as piss in there. we really are, second best to everything yesterday, no fight or physical presence. If we don't fix that soon the only way we'll go up is signing a striker who can score 30 goals. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
TRon Posted August 14, 2016 Share Posted August 14, 2016 I don't mean a midfielder who arrives late in the box and get goals, more a out and out playmaker who is good on the ball and can thread balls through the channels. We don't have a single player like this and haven't for a while Isn't that what Shelvey was bought for? I mean he can't do much else, so you would hope he could do that. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
mrmojorisin75 Posted August 14, 2016 Share Posted August 14, 2016 I don't mean a midfielder who arrives late in the box and get goals, more a out and out playmaker who is good on the ball and can thread balls through the channels. We don't have a single player like this and haven't for a while Isn't that what Shelvey was bought for? I mean he can't do much else, so you would hope he could do that. He seems all about the long Hollywood pass though, when what we're missing is someone to thread cute little passes in between spaces. Not sure he's ever going to do that consistently. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest chopey Posted August 14, 2016 Share Posted August 14, 2016 Shelvey can't be blamed if he has no movement in front of him Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mattoon Posted August 14, 2016 Share Posted August 14, 2016 Shelvey can't be blamed if he has no movement in front of him Definitely not just Shelvey to blame but he is an asthmatic 80 year old who doesn't give his all, part of the problem not the solution. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Figures 1-0 Football Posted August 14, 2016 Share Posted August 14, 2016 A lot of the time Shelvey tries his Hollywood pass because he's had the ball for a few minutes and there is no fucker moving in front of him, or he's given it to a team mate and they've ran in a circle and passed it straight back to him. We have such a losing mindset at the moment, I've said it so many times but after a couple of wins we'll be bouncing and the players will look entirely different. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
BlueStar Posted August 14, 2016 Share Posted August 14, 2016 Would like him to experiment with his different striker combinations, but unfortunately he can't do that properly yet cos one of the dafties has got himself suspended. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lush Vlad Posted August 15, 2016 Share Posted August 15, 2016 Nobody is ever beyond criticism but I have full faith in him and it'll take quite a while to change that. Think people that are faltering already are slightly mental. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
SUPERTOON Posted August 15, 2016 Share Posted August 15, 2016 Would like him to experiment with his different striker combinations, but unfortunately he can't do that properly yet cos one of the dafties has got himself suspended. Rafa has never played two strikers from the start throughout his career, do you think he will be willing to now? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lush Vlad Posted August 15, 2016 Share Posted August 15, 2016 Would like him to experiment with his different striker combinations, but unfortunately he can't do that properly yet cos one of the dafties has got himself suspended. Rafa has never played two strikers from the start throughout his career, do you think he will be willing to now? Gayle could possibly play wide, similar to Kuyt? I doubt he has the same tenacity and workrate. But I think it's something we will see. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest neesy111 Posted August 15, 2016 Share Posted August 15, 2016 A lot of the time Shelvey tries his Hollywood pass because he's had the ball for a few minutes and there is no fucker moving in front of him, or he's given it to a team mate and they've ran in a circle and passed it straight back to him. We have such a losing mindset at the moment, I've said it so many times but after a couple of wins we'll be bouncing and the players will look entirely different. Some hyperbole that. Had the ball for s few mins, more like a few seconds. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
junkhead Posted August 15, 2016 Share Posted August 15, 2016 Would like him to experiment with his different striker combinations, but unfortunately he can't do that properly yet cos one of the dafties has got himself suspended. Rafa has never played two strikers from the start throughout his career, do you think he will be willing to now? I may be wrong but I think he switched to 4-4-2 / 4-2-4 at Madrid after some similar criticism. I don't think it's a question of formation anyway. The most worrying thing for me is how we crumbled under the pressure of these two games. We're not even at the stage to worry about tactics and player qualities. The whole team is playing paralised by fear, it's pathetic. I've seen enough in only the Fulham game to know that we're in for a very hard season. Winning games will bring confidence but I don't think we have enough character to maintain the confidence. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
The College Dropout Posted August 15, 2016 Share Posted August 15, 2016 But TCD, none of that is 'knowing the league', it is about knowing the team you are working with. Rafa doesn't need to 'know the Championship', he just needs to know his best 11 and best tactics for each game. we are getting caught up in semantics. He hasn't got up to speed with the challenge yet. We look setup to counter from what I've seen and the teams in division aren't interested in attacking us like that. We aren't set up to counter at all. That involves letting the opposition have the ball, sitting deep and hitting them in the break. We've had more possession than our opponents but we haven't got a clue what to do with it. Huddersfield played more counter attacking football yesterday. Okay then we are set-up to pass it around with no purpose Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hughesy Posted August 15, 2016 Share Posted August 15, 2016 Fully prepared to be shot down on this one - but have we just decided to write off a series of players too early? Take Riviere for example - I fully appreciate that the bloke looked massively out of his depth in the Premier League, but in many ways he seems to fit the bill for what we need in a striker (or at least a back up striker). He's quite quick and mobile, he's got decent enough strength and presence and despite being a very different league has scored the odd goal in Ligue 1. I'd say similar for Saivet whilst fully acknowledging the fact that being a defensive midfielder in Ligue 1 is a very different proposition to the Championship, but we didn't even give the bloke a chance. He might, just might, have the mobility to add something to our central midfield. It's not exactly a high hurdle currently. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jayson Posted August 15, 2016 Share Posted August 15, 2016 Just wanted to say i agree on Tiote btw, understand he's not well looked upon but he was superb in the prem end of last season. The guy still has the ability, makes no sense to not be playing him. Sissoko constantly talks us down, Tiote says nowt and has played well most times recently? Dont fully get why we're intent on moving him on, he must train awfully or be a really bad influence. Why buy players when you have someone who could anchor a midfield in the prem? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lush Vlad Posted August 15, 2016 Share Posted August 15, 2016 I agree on Saviet. I know Rafa sees him in training every day. So has more of a clue than us fans. But when you look at our midfield options, it does make you wonder whether or not he could offer something? To a lesser extent. It's the same with Thauvin. But in fairness, it didn't seem like he wanted to be here from the start. I just look at our wide men and it's Aarons, who has yet to prove he is any good or that he can stay fit, Ritchie, who looks class and that's it! After that, we have Anita playing out of position, Perez who looks massively out of form and then you're down to the likes of Gouffran, or wasting Armstrong out there. Can't say the same for Riviere. I saw enough of him in the Prem for me to think he is just a bit shit. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lush Vlad Posted August 15, 2016 Share Posted August 15, 2016 Just wanted to say i agree on Tiote btw, understand he's not well looked upon but he was superb in the prem end of last season. The guy still has the ability, makes no sense to not be playing him. Sissoko constantly talks us down, Tiote says nowt and has played well most times recently? Dont fully get why we're intent on moving him on, he must train awfully or be a really bad influence. Why buy players when you have someone who could anchor a midfield in the prem? Could be massively unfit, again? Used to always turn up to pre-season looking a bit fat, if I remember rightly? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest chopey Posted August 15, 2016 Share Posted August 15, 2016 Can tiote actually talk ? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hughesy Posted August 15, 2016 Share Posted August 15, 2016 Find it really bizarre that we seem to have a massively imbalanced squad that doesn't work on any level currently. Almost impossible to think a midfield set up that is defensively solid and actually offers a genuine attacking threat and our strikers seem completely ill suited to the football we are trying to play. What I find odd about it is that it can't be every other team in the Championship (admittedly we've played two) has an amazing blend of two Rob Lee-esque central midfielders who can scored goals, create and tackle or strikers that are strong, quick, good finishers and can hold the ball up well. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
xLiaaamx Posted August 15, 2016 Share Posted August 15, 2016 I'd rather have Gouffran right wing than Anita. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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