Rafa Benítez (now unemployed)

[Toon No9]

Think Rafa got the tactics wrong today.

We must play more offensive at home and give it a real go.

Don't expect us to win against Chelsea but expect us to try.

Just a boring game to watch.

[Bimpy474]

 

I'm assuming that guy didn't die.

 

I've no idea 

[Bimpy474]

Can we separate the tv watchers from those who pay the hard cash to watch that shit.

 

I'd be quite flippant if my investment wasnt a grand plus every season.

 

 

Hate it when the TV cunts try to tell me it's an acceptable scenario that I should accept that shite today.

 

So your opinion matters more than supporters abroad or too far away in this country, or don't have enough money to attend games in person.

 

Rather arrogant don't you think.

[Kanj]

hope crumpy heeded my advice about the raw bird.

[Tubestationatmidnight]

There is no way he is leaving in May like. I'd be willing to wager £50 he is still here next season

I'll happily take this bet like.

There you go knackers, you've got 2 takers. Start saving.

 

Don't fucking call me. And I meant £50. £50 to charity if he isn't here next summer. I stand by that. Block me for what!? Telling it how it is. What do you want me to say? Suck ashelys cock and be silent like most our sheep

[HaydnNUFC]

'telling it how it is' klaxon.

[TRon]

A few people mentioned the Neil Custis rant on Sky Sunday Supplement in support of Rafa in the pre-match thread and tbf, he absolutely nailed it. Just watched it properly now and he said everything we've been saying for the last couple of years. He even called out the Sky pundit support for Ashley and deconstructed it bit by bit and most of them ended up looking like mumbling fumbling twats by the end of it and had to be rescued by the presenter.

[HaydnNUFC]

A few people mentioned the Neil Custis rant on Sky Sunday Supplement in support of Rafa in the pre-match thread and tbf, he absolutely nailed it. Just watched it properly now and he said everything we've been saying for the last couple of years. He even called out the Sky pundit support for Ashley and deconstructed it bit by bit and most of them ended up looking like mumbling fumbling twats by the end of it and had to be rescued by the presenter.

The mumbling and laughing by the presenter and the other two there is what annoyed me tbh. The pro Ashley narrative completely and utterly picked apart and their response was that. Irked me for some reason.

[Bimpy474]

Fans who go and are silent can hate Ashley as much as the next person, doesn't mean they don't care because they're not shouting. He who shouts loudest is better than all the rest it seems, the quietest suck on Ashley's bellend.....seems a good fair way to look at it.

[levelsevenlee]

How many millions a year for that?

 

Easy fucking money in reality. Fucking abysmal.

Get to fuck you predictable predictable cesspool.

I feel your pain and I truly understand your angst.

It was truly and utterly deplorable any manager paid a wage can up with that utter shit.

 

Rafa out.

 

Hi Keith.

[ToonArmy1892]

Just watched the end of the game again and man, you can tell how gutted he is about the whole situation (obv the result aswell)

 

The way he clapped the fans was like he was saying "you don't deserve this".

 

Its so fucking gutting man, this guy could bring us success and he knows it, but not with this owner.

 

 

[Ketsbaia]

Was slightly disappointed with the tactics to be honest. Thought it was a winnable game and we have a good home record v Chelsea.

 

They're certainly no Man City, when I thought those tactics were a bit more acceptable.

 

He gets a pass this time though because we had no Kenedy, Lascelles or Shelvey. Such a shame that he's been hamstrung to the point where he feels this is the only way to get points. But I think we could've had Chelsea.

 

[ToonArmy1892]

It's going to be an absolute honour next week to hear the pundits say, after we get thumped 4-0, "at least Rafa had a go"

 

[marki]

if i was rafa i would engineer a 10 game losing streak,sitting adrift at the bottom will make them squirm abit 

[Jaqen]

Was slightly disappointed with the tactics to be honest. Thought it was a winnable game and we have a good home record v Chelsea.

 

They're certainly no Man City, when I thought those tactics were a bit more acceptable.

 

He gets a pass this time though because we had no Kenedy, Lascelles or Shelvey. Such a shame that he's been hamstrung to the point where he feels this is the only way to get points. But I think we could've had Chelsea.

 

We definitely showed Chelsea too much respect today Their defence is very suspect with Luiz in a 2 man CB partnership. Playing 5atb and no number 10 meant we had nobody anywhere near Rondon on the rare occasions we had the ball, and had no other threat on the counter.

[Kanj]

Hindsight is something isn’t it. We go out and have a go and we get moved aside by multiple goals.

[54]

Can we separate the tv watchers from those who pay the hard cash to watch that s***.

 

I'd be quite flippant if my investment wasnt a grand plus every season.

 

 

Hate it when the TV c***s try to tell me it's an acceptable scenario that I should accept that s**** today.

So you're saying my opinion is worth less just because I live the other side of the country? Get to fuck

[Zero]

I don't understand. Rafa did a very professional job in trying to grab something out from nothing. Look at our team and if you think "we can have a go" then you need an IQ test.

 

And yes, please blame the one who create this mess.

[Dokko]

Of any of the big teams to have a go at home it’s chelsea. Our previous 5 games prove so. 19% possession is dreadful but if we nicked a point we’d have been happy. It’s a tough call.

 

Mind I’m glad I don’t pay to watch this, imagine paying the fat man your hard earned cash for 19% possession. 

 

Anyway, long season ahead. Going to be a couple of months before we equal the points Watford already have and I’m sure people were saying they’ve a good chance of going down. Thankfully Huddersfield and Cardiff are worse than us, but we’re in massive danger of becoming the 3rd team. When the inevitable happens, we go down and or lose Rafa at the end of the season I hope we find a way of balancing the budget and playing decent football. I don’t see why the 2 have to be mutually exclusive to each other. If Rafa is still here it’s his job to find a better balance imo, yesterday was nothing different to a Sam allerdyce setup, same shit he was hounded out for. Football is about entertainment, it’s ironic how Ashley runs it like a business off the pitch and on it yesterday was the business of staying in the league, nothing more, no ambition. I’m guessing the retort is that’s down to Ashley, he’s forced him in to this.

 

Rafa has had his hands tied, but not that tied, for me it was another message to the board of what he’s got to work with, but it was him saying all week we have to move away from that and get going. I can see why lascelles was pissed (but if reports are true he’s totally in the wrong with his reaction) he knows we should be aiming higher than that, and if not why should he hang around when there are more ambitious clubs out there? Just because Ashley has no ambition doesn’t mean Rafa should, and why should s player not have it if a manager doesn’t? Do we all just accept surviving year on year? If we do we don’t keep JL or any other decent player, we can’t complain when they want to leave. Rafa is a great general off the field for this club, but yesterday lacked bite on it. We can’t go all out against real quality, but chelsea didn’t deserve that level of respect (we rightly didn’t give it to Tottenham who were better than them last season) not this close to the start of the season with a new manager and being an unknown quantity.

 

It’s telling we were all a lot happier at the manner we lost to Tottenham than chelsea, at least we had hope throughout, yesterday there were 5mins of beleiving we could undeservingly get something out of the game. It’s no wonder some are unhappy with that for what they pay.

 

Going forward I do expect the same for our next game, and that’s fine, but I hope in future (game after) when a top 6 comes to sjp the plan isn’t what we saw yesterday, because if that’s football then what’s the fucking point? I’d rather be playing decent stuff in the league below than just surviving.

 

 

[UncleBingo]

Of any of the big teams to have a go at home it’s chelsea. Our previous 5 games prove so. 19% possession is dreadful but if we nicked a point we’d have been happy. It’s a tough call.

 

Mind I’m glad I don’t pay to watch this, imagine paying the fat man your hard earned cash for 19% possession. 

 

Anyway, long season ahead. Going to be a couple of months before we equal the points Watford already have and I’m sure people were saying they’ve a good chance of going down. Thankfully Huddersfield and Cardiff are worse than us, but we’re in massive danger of becoming the 3rd team. When the inevitable happens, we go down and or lose Rafa at the end of the season I hope we find a way of balancing the budget and playing decent football. I don’t see why the 2 have to be mutually exclusive to each other. If Rafa is still here it’s his job to find a better balance imo, yesterday was nothing different to a Sam allerdyce setup, same shit he was hounded out for. Football is about entertainment, it’s ironic how Ashley runs it like a business off the pitch and on it yesterday was the business of staying in the league, nothing more, no ambition. I’m guessing the retort is that’s down to Ashley, he’s forced him in to this.

 

Rafa has had his hands tied, but not that tied, for me it was another message to the board of what he’s got to work with, but it was him saying all week we have to move away from that and get going. I can see why lascelles was pissed (but if reports are true he’s totally in the wrong with his reaction) he knows we should be aiming higher than that, and if not why should he hang around when there are more ambitious clubs out there? Just because Ashley has no ambition doesn’t mean Rafa should, and why should s player not have it if a manager doesn’t? Do we all just accept surviving year on year? If we do we don’t keep JL or any other decent player, we can’t complain when they want to leave. Rafa is a great general off the field for this club, but yesterday lacked bite on it. We can’t go all out against real quality, but chelsea didn’t deserve that level of respect (we rightly didn’t give it to Tottenham who were better than them last season) not this close to the start of the season with a new manager and being an unknown quantity.

 

It’s telling we were all a lot happier at the manner we lost to Tottenham than chelsea, at least we had hope throughout, yesterday there were 5mins of beleiving we could undeservingly get something out of the game. It’s no wonder some are unhappy with that for what they pay.

 

Going forward I do expect the same for our next game, and that’s fine, but I hope in future (game after) when a top 6 comes to sjp the plan isn’t what we saw yesterday, because if that’s football then what’s the fucking point? I’d rather be playing decent stuff in the league below than just surviving.

 

Seriously, minus our 3 best players/3 making their debuts and with what we had available yesterday....what do you think would have happened if we'd gone toe to toe with Chelsea?

 

 

[Dokko]

Of any of the big teams to have a go at home it’s chelsea. Our previous 5 games prove so. 19% possession is dreadful but if we nicked a point we’d have been happy. It’s a tough call.

 

Mind I’m glad I don’t pay to watch this, imagine paying the fat man your hard earned cash for 19% possession. 

 

Anyway, long season ahead. Going to be a couple of months before we equal the points Watford already have and I’m sure people were saying they’ve a good chance of going down. Thankfully Huddersfield and Cardiff are worse than us, but we’re in massive danger of becoming the 3rd team. When the inevitable happens, we go down and or lose Rafa at the end of the season I hope we find a way of balancing the budget and playing decent football. I don’t see why the 2 have to be mutually exclusive to each other. If Rafa is still here it’s his job to find a better balance imo, yesterday was nothing different to a Sam allerdyce setup, same shit he was hounded out for. Football is about entertainment, it’s ironic how Ashley runs it like a business off the pitch and on it yesterday was the business of staying in the league, nothing more, no ambition. I’m guessing the retort is that’s down to Ashley, he’s forced him in to this.

 

Rafa has had his hands tied, but not that tied, for me it was another message to the board of what he’s got to work with, but it was him saying all week we have to move away from that and get going. I can see why lascelles was pissed (but if reports are true he’s totally in the wrong with his reaction) he knows we should be aiming higher than that, and if not why should he hang around when there are more ambitious clubs out there? Just because Ashley has no ambition doesn’t mean Rafa should, and why should s player not have it if a manager doesn’t? Do we all just accept surviving year on year? If we do we don’t keep JL or any other decent player, we can’t complain when they want to leave. Rafa is a great general off the field for this club, but yesterday lacked bite on it. We can’t go all out against real quality, but chelsea didn’t deserve that level of respect (we rightly didn’t give it to Tottenham who were better than them last season) not this close to the start of the season with a new manager and being an unknown quantity.

 

It’s telling we were all a lot happier at the manner we lost to Tottenham than chelsea, at least we had hope throughout, yesterday there were 5mins of beleiving we could undeservingly get something out of the game. It’s no wonder some are unhappy with that for what they pay.

 

Going forward I do expect the same for our next game, and that’s fine, but I hope in future (game after) when a top 6 comes to sjp the plan isn’t what we saw yesterday, because if that’s football then what’s the fucking point? I’d rather be playing decent stuff in the league below than just surviving.

 

Seriously, minus our 3 best players/3 making their debuts and with what we had available yesterday....what do you think would have happened if we'd gone toe to toe with Chelsea?

 

You’ve missed my point. We didn’t go toe to toe with Tottenham, we defended but had enough on the pitch to counter. We didn’t have that at all yesterday so just sat and defended. We were lucky to score. It’s about finding the balance, that wasn’t balanced against chelsea like it was Tottenham and like I’ve said, Tottenham were a bigger threat than chelsea last season. I don’t mind it against any of them away, citeh at home, maybe even Liverpool if they are on fire. But chelsea, Tottenham and arsenal we should be treating the same. We did it right first game, yesterday should have been the same again.

 

Far too much respect was shown to chelsea, we beat them 3-0 only a few months ago. Not sure if Rafa let his relationship with Sarri climb inside his head, but that was far too much respect.

[Gallowgate Toon]

Rafa is managing this opening fixture list as well as the goal difference, IMO. He knows results will likely not go our way so keeping some level of confidence (defensively, in particular) is going to be important.

 

There are far bigger things to focus on than Rafa's tactics.

[UncleBingo]

Of any of the big teams to have a go at home it’s chelsea. Our previous 5 games prove so. 19% possession is dreadful but if we nicked a point we’d have been happy. It’s a tough call.

 

Mind I’m glad I don’t pay to watch this, imagine paying the fat man your hard earned cash for 19% possession. 

 

Anyway, long season ahead. Going to be a couple of months before we equal the points Watford already have and I’m sure people were saying they’ve a good chance of going down. Thankfully Huddersfield and Cardiff are worse than us, but we’re in massive danger of becoming the 3rd team. When the inevitable happens, we go down and or lose Rafa at the end of the season I hope we find a way of balancing the budget and playing decent football. I don’t see why the 2 have to be mutually exclusive to each other. If Rafa is still here it’s his job to find a better balance imo, yesterday was nothing different to a Sam allerdyce setup, same shit he was hounded out for. Football is about entertainment, it’s ironic how Ashley runs it like a business off the pitch and on it yesterday was the business of staying in the league, nothing more, no ambition. I’m guessing the retort is that’s down to Ashley, he’s forced him in to this.

 

Rafa has had his hands tied, but not that tied, for me it was another message to the board of what he’s got to work with, but it was him saying all week we have to move away from that and get going. I can see why lascelles was pissed (but if reports are true he’s totally in the wrong with his reaction) he knows we should be aiming higher than that, and if not why should he hang around when there are more ambitious clubs out there? Just because Ashley has no ambition doesn’t mean Rafa should, and why should s player not have it if a manager doesn’t? Do we all just accept surviving year on year? If we do we don’t keep JL or any other decent player, we can’t complain when they want to leave. Rafa is a great general off the field for this club, but yesterday lacked bite on it. We can’t go all out against real quality, but chelsea didn’t deserve that level of respect (we rightly didn’t give it to Tottenham who were better than them last season) not this close to the start of the season with a new manager and being an unknown quantity.

 

It’s telling we were all a lot happier at the manner we lost to Tottenham than chelsea, at least we had hope throughout, yesterday there were 5mins of beleiving we could undeservingly get something out of the game. It’s no wonder some are unhappy with that for what they pay.

 

Going forward I do expect the same for our next game, and that’s fine, but I hope in future (game after) when a top 6 comes to sjp the plan isn’t what we saw yesterday, because if that’s football then what’s the fucking point? I’d rather be playing decent stuff in the league below than just surviving.

 

Seriously, minus our 3 best players/3 making their debuts and with what we had available yesterday....what do you think would have happened if we'd gone toe to toe with Chelsea?

 

You’ve missed my point. We didn’t go toe to toe with Tottenham, we defended but had enough on the pitch to counter. We didn’t have that at all yesterday so just sat and defended. We were lucky to score. It’s about finding the balance, that wasn’t balanced against chelsea like it was Tottenham and like I’ve said, Tottenham were a bigger threat than chelsea last season. I don’t mind it against any of them away, citeh at home, maybe even Liverpool if they are on fire. But chelsea, Tottenham and arsenal we should be treating the same. We did it right first game, yesterday should have been the same again.

 

Far too much respect was shown to chelsea, we beat them 3-0 only a few months ago. Not sure if Rafa let his relationship with Sarri climb inside his head, but that was far too much respect.

 

And you've missed my point about our 3 best players missing, and 3/4 making their debut.

With no Shelvey or Kenedy, we have zero creativity.

 

Also the Chelsea we played yesterday weren't the players who had stopped playing for their manager/on the beach/saving themselves for the World Cup.

 

[Guest covmag]

 

lads we don't play this way every week thank god, he had players missing and i wish we'd have a go but thats my opinion, Rafa gave the orders and it nearly came off and we get a point, its not pretty i agree but on reflection this is us now .

 

our season starts in a few weeks.

[Decky]

Can we separate the tv watchers from those who pay the hard cash to watch that shit.

 

I'd be quite flippant if my investment wasnt a grand plus every season.

 

 

Hate it when the TV cunts try to tell me it's an acceptable scenario that I should accept that shite today.

 

Get over yourself ffs. The team tried to get a point, had we tried to match Chelsea we would have lost by a few goals. You don't need to be in SJP to know that.