Rafa Benítez (now unemployed)

[themanupstairs]

I sometimes wonder if and when he takes us down if people will be banging on about how great the relegation was under Rafa, and that we should be over the moon we got relegated on 37 points and not 33 points because of his footballing acumen.

 

Some people are so desperate to believe our big name manager is working miracles that they can't see whats in front of their eyes, bloke can do no wrong.

 

I love the bloke and what his arrival did to reunite the club but I don't think its out of turn to say his managerial performance has been a bit underwhelming this season, and that hes not done too well with the 45 million he spent in the summer.

 

He isn't infallible in footballing terms by any means. He makes mistakes and he's the first to know when he's made a mistake. He is infallible however in terms of his leadership, character and integrity. I'd sooner go down with him in charge, get bought out in the summer and kick on from there than replacing him now with some run-of-the-mill mug on a short term appointment that keeps us up.

 

Also, we needed a squad in the summer and 45M is nothing these days when you need to bring 6 or 7 in. I'm sure he was promised more money anyway and never got it (keeper, striker, 10).

 

I think people are still reeling from the Kinnear/Pardew/Carver/McLaren debacle, and to have a man of his stature leading the club is some kind of elixir on healing wounds, especially that he's pretty much the only positive selling point we have at the moment.

[Guest firetotheworks]

I sometimes wonder if and when he takes us down if people will be banging on about how great the relegation was under Rafa, and that we should be over the moon we got relegated on 37 points and not 33 points because of his footballing acumen.

 

More likely that people will sympathise that he fought the good fight, because it doesn't take a great deal of footballing acumen to understand that the quality of the players we've got is nowhere near good enough for this league.

 

Some people are so desperate to believe our big name manager is working miracles that they can't see whats in front of their eyes, bloke can do no wrong.

 

What makes you think people are desperate, rather than just seeing things as they see them?

 

I love the bloke and what his arrival did to reunite the club but I don't think its out of turn to say his managerial performance has been a bit underwhelming this season, and that hes not done too well with the 45 million he spent in the summer.

 

The £45m? Could have sworn it was around £37m gross and £20m net, like. Also could have sworn that his targets, Abraham, Caballero, among others were all not signed because the club sat on its arse and did fuck all after he'd given them the list. If Manquillo, Joselu etc were high up his list of wanted players, I'd say that it's a fair point to criticise the signings, but I very much doubt that that's the case.

[Kanj]

Had to settle to buy Joselu, Manquillo, no new GK after the club fucked about with this lined up targets well within MA's shit budget. Forced to literally only spend what was physically in the bank account while other teams used whatever means necessary to spend the TV money, using whatever bank/cash facilities they had access to like normal run football clubs, lied to about budget over and over and over....and HE's doing an underwhelming job? Get a fucking grip dude.

[Kanj]

We should've also won at Southampton. Had numerous chances, hit the post, had a goal wrongly disallowed against Bournemouth. Had golden opportunities against Swansea, Burnley, Everton. Should've really gotten a point at Huddersfield.

 

Say we actually had invested in a striker that Rafa wanted who took those chances. That's 13 points we've missed out on. Blaming Rafa is f***ing daft, man.

 

100%. Blaming Rafa goes straight into the MA playbook.

[relámpago blanco]

Anyone who doesnt love rafa is literally bat shit mental and should be sectioned.

 

[HawK]

Anyone who doesnt love rafa is literally bat s*** mental and should be sectioned.

 

[Mattoon]

 

 

Had to settle to buy Joselu, Manquillo, no new GK after the club fucked about with this lined up targets well within MA's shit budget. Forced to literally only spend what was physically in the bank account while other teams used whatever means necessary to spend the TV money, using whatever bank/cash facilities they had access to like normal run football clubs, lied to about budget over and over and over....and HE's doing an underwhelming job? Get a fucking grip dude.

 

The only thing that needs said tbh.

[Shays Given Tim Flowers]

Must have missed all those floods of offers coming in for our Premiership quality players.

[mrmojorisin75]

That's a humdinger of a shit post right there like.

[Collage]

Anyone who doesnt love rafa is literally bat s*** mental and should be sectioned.

 

I agree.

 

[Dave]

The £45million.

 

Ashley has played a blinder with some of our fans like.

[Figures 1-0 Football]

According to transfermarkt, only one of our players in our entire squad is worth more than £10m in the current market. That player? Islam Slimani who arrived less than a week ago, hasn’t played a game for us and isn’t even owned by us.

 

We’re going through a PL season with a pitiful squad, Rafa has done a remarkable job so far.

[Si]

[TRon]

I sometimes wonder if and when he takes us down if people will be banging on about how great the relegation was under Rafa, and that we should be over the moon we got relegated on 37 points and not 33 points because of his footballing acumen.

 

Some people are so desperate to believe our big name manager is working miracles that they can't see whats in front of their eyes, bloke can do no wrong.

What would you have him do differently then?

 

Oh dear. Asking for specifics, that's not going to go down too well.

[STM]

 

More front foot fret at home.

[AyeDubbleYoo]

I mean, nobody wants their team to struggle and it’s traditional to question the manager when it happens. Unfortunately in our case it ignores some absolutely immense mitigating circumstances.

 

Saying when Rafa ‘takes us down’ is a bit like blaming the bus driver in Speed and ignoring the bloke who rigged it with explosives.

[Papavasiliou]

I mean, nobody wants their team to struggle and it’s traditional to question the manager when it happens. Unfortunately in our case it ignores some absolutely immense mitigating circumstances.

 

Saying when Rafa ‘takes us down’ is a bit like blaming the bus driver in Speed and ignoring the bloke who rigged it with explosives.

 

[Collage]

Saying when Rafa ‘takes us down’ is a bit like blaming the bus driver in Speed and ignoring the bloke who rigged it with explosives.

 

Love it!

 

Excellent.

[xLiaaamx]

Use Jacob Murphy as his pace is much more suited to a counter attacking system that we seem to use than Matt Ritchie who appears to get too many chances for a man playing as poorly as he is, without taking into account the fact he can't go up the pitch without being caught out due to his lack of pace.

 

Might help us take off the pressure and be more effective going forward, might do nothing. But it's been about 3 months since Ritchie's last meaningful contribution and he hampers us going forward.

 

It's the one mistake I think we're making. With Kenedy and Shelvey on the pitch, he wasn't even on set pieces. That's his only asset and I really think for our sake we could do without him for an extended period, not just the 1 game which his seems to be his limit out of the team at the minute.

 

There, that's the only one thing I'd do differently. Everything else is spot on I feel. Obviously I'd be bringing Slimani straight in too for a quality upgrade now.

 

 

[xLiaaamx]

((Also, I feel I needed to make that point with a more clear head after my silly outburst at the weekend.)) 

[TRon]

Use Jacob Murphy as his pace is much more suited to a counter attacking system that we seem to use than Matt Ritchie who appears to get too many chances for a man playing as poorly as he is, without taking into account the fact he can't go up the pitch without being caught out due to his lack of pace.

 

Might help us take off the pressure and be more effective going forward, might do nothing. But it's been about 3 months since Ritchie's last meaningful contribution and he hampers us going forward.

 

It's the one mistake I think we're making. With Kenedy and Shelvey on the pitch, he wasn't even on set pieces. That's his only asset and I really think for our sake we could do without him for an extended period, not just the 1 game which his seems to be his limit out of the team at the minute.

 

There, that's the only one thing I'd do differently. Everything else is spot on I feel. Obviously I'd be bringing Slimani straight in too for a quality upgrade now.

 

 

 

It's a fair point, but you can understand why Rafa might not want to put too much on the shoulders of a young lad in the situation we're in, especially since Murphy took a while to get going in his first few appearances. Ritchie lacks pace, but he is a fierce competitor and he's got experience. Plus he has the threat from set pieces and has shown he has an eye for goal in the past. If we were middle of the table and not in a relegation battle I think Rafa would play Murphy more.

[Klaus]

Saying when Rafa ‘takes us down’ is a bit like blaming the bus driver in Speed and ignoring the bloke who rigged it with explosives.

 

Love it!

 

Excellent.

 

:lol:

[Shadow Puppets]

I mean, as usual, I think the truth is somewhere in-between.

 

As we all know, Ashley has dealt Rafa a shit hand (yet again), but it would be stupid to suggest that Rafa isn't partly to blame for our league position. Of course he is. You all know that he has made quite a few mistakes this season with peculiar starting lineups, substitutions too late, negative tactics after going ahead, and the signings that he has been able to make have largely been poor.

 

BUT, he is a class above anyone else we could hope to attract, has genuine quality when he has the right tools, is a revelation in his work off the pitch, and has brought pride back to our club. And I would hate to see us let him go without giving him a fair hand to play with.

 

I wouldn't swap him for anything, but I don't think it's too much of a stretch to say he's done an average job on the football side of things so far (last season included - our final league position certainly did mask how largely crap we were for large chunks of the season).

[Ikon]

Saying when Rafa ‘takes us down’ is a bit like blaming the bus driver in Speed and ignoring the bloke who rigged it with explosives.

 

Love it!

 

Excellent.

 

:lol:

 

Brilliant

[HaydnNUFC]

I mean, as usual, I think the truth is somewhere in-between.

 

As we all know, Ashley has dealt Rafa a s*** hand (yet again), but it would be stupid to suggest that Rafa isn't partly to blame for our league position. Of course he is. You all know that he has made quite a few mistakes this season with peculiar starting lineups, substitutions too late, negative tactics after going ahead, and the signings that he has been able to make have largely been poor.

 

BUT, he is a class above anyone else we could hope to attract, has genuine quality when he has the right tools, is a revelation in his work off the pitch, and has brought pride back to our club. And I would hate to see us let him go without giving him a fair hand to play with.

 

I wouldn't swap him for anything, but I don't think it's too much of a stretch to say he's done an average job on the football side of things so far (last season included - our final league position certainly did mask how largely crap we were for large chunks of the season).

No.