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Rafa Benítez (now unemployed)


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Guest reefatoon

Anyone remember when we played for a point against hapless Derby Coonty?

 

It was the way we tried to do it at hapless Reading that sent me over the edge (we lost that 1-0 too). Just can't watch that type of football at all. Probably why i gave Sunday's game 15 minutes before switching it off and doing something else instead.  Football like that only has one outcome.

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Guest Howaythetoon

Our possession stats are worrying, you can still have more of the ball and not be gung ho. We clearly don’t practice much with the ball in terms of possession. Rafa used to be big on possession when he was at Valencia who would pass the ball to death, I wish I still had all those old PDF files he wrote about possession and other tactics which used to be available on the UEFA coaching portal. I don’t even know if that still exists.

 

Playing the way we do will keep us in games, but will inevitably lead to a loss especially against the better teams or make it difficult for us to get anything out of a game unless we nick something on the counter. We even play like that against lesser teams or teams who are not as good as Chelsea.

 

What gets me is when we do keep the ball, move it quick, get at teams and play a high pressing game we have shown we can beat teams like Chelsea as we did last season. I thought the way we played against Arsenal for example at home was superb and the blueprint to how we should approach all games other than against the likes of City and Liverpool.

 

I didn’t see much of the game, but Chelsea are not a great team and to have less than 20% of the ball is worrying and just as worrying were Rafa’s comments about how possession isn’t important which is a far cry from how he viewed it at Valencia and Liverpool where his teams were often criticised for their ‘nothing’ possession...

 

His methods work though and were what kept us up last season and likely will do this season, but my god, I wouldn’t like to pay to watch that and it’s not my kind of football because it’s ultimately as one dimensional as the fooyball served up by the likes of Allardyce and Pardew and will only ever get you to a certain point.

 

It doesn’t help matters mind when he cannot do more in terms of developing how we play and changing how we play because he cannot sign the players to help that or make that transition a quicker process and a bigger step.

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These tactics would be a problem if we approached every game in this manner, It's not particularly enjoyable, but I think with a more settled forward line and our best 11 fit we would have created more anyway.

 

Bottom line I can take 3 or 4 of these kinds of backs to the wall performances as long as we try and take it to the rest of the teams.

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Our possession stats are worrying, you can still have more of the ball and not be gung ho. We clearly don’t practice much with the ball in terms of possession. Rafa used to be big on possession when he was at Valencia who would pass the ball to death, I wish I still had all those old PDF files he wrote about possession and other tactics which used to be available on the UEFA coaching portal. I don’t even know if that still exists.

 

Playing the way we do will keep us in games, but will inevitably lead to a loss especially against the better teams or make it difficult for us to get anything out of a game unless we nick something on the counter. We even play like that against lesser teams or teams who are not as good as Chelsea.

 

What gets me is when we do keep the ball, move it quick, get at teams and play a high pressing game we have shown we can beat teams like Chelsea as we did last season. I thought the way we played against Arsenal for example at home was superb and the blueprint to how we should approach all games other than against the likes of City and Liverpool.

 

I didn’t see much of the game, but Chelsea are not a great team and to have less than 20% of the ball is worrying and just as worrying were Rafa’s comments about how possession isn’t important which is a far cry from how he viewed it at Valencia and Liverpool where his teams were often criticised for their ‘nothing’ possession...

 

His methods work though and were what kept us up last season and likely will do this season, but my god, I wouldn’t like to pay to watch that and it’s not my kind of football because it’s ultimately as one dimensional as the fooyball served up by the likes of Allardyce and Pardew and will only ever get you to a certain point.

 

It doesn’t help matters mind when he cannot do more in terms of developing how we play and changing how we play because he cannot sign the players to help that or make that transition a quicker process and a bigger step.

 

It's the same old circular argument though.  If we'd opened up then they'd have cut us to pieces and you can't play a high intensity press for 90 minutes, the players would be finished by 60.

 

Sure, i'd love to see us go out and try and get at them.  Right up until the 2nd or 3rd goal went in and everyone is shouting for us to play more defensively.

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Guest reefatoon

Our possession stats are worrying, you can still have more of the ball and not be gung ho. We clearly don’t practice much with the ball in terms of possession. Rafa used to be big on possession when he was at Valencia who would pass the ball to death, I wish I still had all those old PDF files he wrote about possession and other tactics which used to be available on the UEFA coaching portal. I don’t even know if that still exists.

 

Playing the way we do will keep us in games, but will inevitably lead to a loss especially against the better teams or make it difficult for us to get anything out of a game unless we nick something on the counter. We even play like that against lesser teams or teams who are not as good as Chelsea.

 

What gets me is when we do keep the ball, move it quick, get at teams and play a high pressing game we have shown we can beat teams like Chelsea as we did last season. I thought the way we played against Arsenal for example at home was superb and the blueprint to how we should approach all games other than against the likes of City and Liverpool.

 

I didn’t see much of the game, but Chelsea are not a great team and to have less than 20% of the ball is worrying and just as worrying were Rafa’s comments about how possession isn’t important which is a far cry from how he viewed it at Valencia and Liverpool where his teams were often criticised for their ‘nothing’ possession...

 

His methods work though and were what kept us up last season and likely will do this season, but my god, I wouldn’t like to pay to watch that and it’s not my kind of football because it’s ultimately as one dimensional as the fooyball served up by the likes of Allardyce and Pardew and will only ever get you to a certain point.

 

It doesn’t help matters mind when he cannot do more in terms of developing how we play and changing how we play because he cannot sign the players to help that or make that transition a quicker process and a bigger step.

 

It's the same old circular argument though.  If we'd opened up then they'd have cut us to pieces and you can't play a high intensity press for 90 minutes, the players would be finished by 60.

 

Sure, i'd love to see us go out and try and get at them.  Right up until the 2nd or 3rd goal went in and everyone is shouting for us to play more defensively.

 

 

In fairness, that didn't happen in the previous few season's when we played them and got a result.

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Andy Hinchcliffe at the start of the second half...

 

"I'm a little bit bemused really by the comments in the studio at half time, i've been very impressed with Newcastle, i can understand why they are playing this way, yes it's defensive but they are getting players over the half way line, they're not just sitting in their own half kicking it into Chelsea's half and staying there"

 

:clap:

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I'm beggining to just think this is how he is when he has new players settling in.

 

We started the championship very cautiously.

 

We started last season very cautiously, and then in the second half of the season we were very aggressive and in peoples faces.

 

I suspect as the season goes on we'll get more aggressive again.

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Andy Hinchcliffe at the start of the second half...

 

"I'm a little bit bemused really by the comments in the studio at half time, i've been very impressed with Newcastle, i can understand why they are playing this way, yes it's defensive but they are getting players over the half way line, they're not just sitting in their own half kicking it into Chelsea's half and staying there"

 

:clap:

 

Refreshing. Overall I felt we could have been more positive but the suggestion (particularly only halfway through the match) that we simply weren't taking part was bollocks IMO.

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I thought we were quite considerably poorer in the second half than the first. Felt like we barely got over the half way line until we scored in the 2nd whereas we got into some good positions 1st half

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We were five minutes from getting a very good point all said and done. It wasn't pretty but it took a couple of scrappy goals to beat us, and on another day we could have been 2-0 down and out of the game within half an hour.

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Guest Howaythetoon

Our possession stats are worrying, you can still have more of the ball and not be gung ho. We clearly don’t practice much with the ball in terms of possession. Rafa used to be big on possession when he was at Valencia who would pass the ball to death, I wish I still had all those old PDF files he wrote about possession and other tactics which used to be available on the UEFA coaching portal. I don’t even know if that still exists.

 

Playing the way we do will keep us in games, but will inevitably lead to a loss especially against the better teams or make it difficult for us to get anything out of a game unless we nick something on the counter. We even play like that against lesser teams or teams who are not as good as Chelsea.

 

What gets me is when we do keep the ball, move it quick, get at teams and play a high pressing game we have shown we can beat teams like Chelsea as we did last season. I thought the way we played against Arsenal for example at home was superb and the blueprint to how we should approach all games other than against the likes of City and Liverpool.

 

I didn’t see much of the game, but Chelsea are not a great team and to have less than 20% of the ball is worrying and just as worrying were Rafa’s comments about how possession isn’t important which is a far cry from how he viewed it at Valencia and Liverpool where his teams were often criticised for their ‘nothing’ possession...

 

His methods work though and were what kept us up last season and likely will do this season, but my god, I wouldn’t like to pay to watch that and it’s not my kind of football because it’s ultimately as one dimensional as the fooyball served up by the likes of Allardyce and Pardew and will only ever get you to a certain point.

 

It doesn’t help matters mind when he cannot do more in terms of developing how we play and changing how we play because he cannot sign the players to help that or make that transition a quicker process and a bigger step.

 

It's the same old circular argument though.  If we'd opened up then they'd have cut us to pieces and you can't play a high intensity press for 90 minutes, the players would be finished by 60.

 

Sure, i'd love to see us go out and try and get at them.  Right up until the 2nd or 3rd goal went in and everyone is shouting for us to play more defensively.

 

No one says we have to open them up or be gung ho, that’s what I hate about the game today in terms of the parking the bus or all out attack debate, there can be a middle ground as Wolves demonstrated against City and as we have done many a time even under Rafa.

 

Away from home I don’t really care about performances, well I do, but it’s the points that matter most so if we were to scrape a last minute winner to win all away games 1-0 having sat behind the ball for 90 minutes with 20% possession or whatever, I wouldn’t be critical.

 

At home I expect us or rather to want to see us take the game to whoever we are playing more because I feel we always get better results at SJP or unexpected results when we do. I’m not asking for KK style attacking football, but more of how we played at home to Chelsea, Man Utd and Arsenal for example last season, especially against weaker or compatible sides.

 

We would stand a better chance of either winning or not losing or relying on thin margins like own goals going against us or dodgy pens to point to how unlucky we were not to get something.

 

I get why Rafa has us set up that way and again as I’ve said it works, but only to a degree and it’s the same one dimensional hit and hope almost type of football Allardyce and Pardew play or played, only we are better organised, less likely to be thrashed and are of course tactically more astute so we don’t lose as many or struggle as much. That and Rafa has a huge line of credit and good will on the stands...

 

Can we play better? Of course we can and even though we are limited by the quality or lack of within our squad, we should not use that as an excuse or to go soft when we perform bad or lose or question our tactics and methods.

 

20% possession at home? Chelsea are not Man City and we are not Cardiff. I think we are better or could be having more of the ball and taking more chances going forward than we are not having the ball and allowing the opposition to s we stay in the game because it puts so much pressure on the players to keep them out and then our forwards to nick a goal.

 

There is a balance or middle ground, we showed that at times last season.

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Wolves centre midfield was Neves and Moutinho, our was Diame and Ki, Wolves had better players in those positions, far better in fact and their distribution to their wide players in Costa and Jota to break in behind Man City's full backs, was a million times better than ours trying to do the same against Chelsea.

 

And Wolves still only had 29% possession, did they care about that as they walked away with a point, did they fuck. They used the ball better than we did when they had it, simple as that, and they only scored from a set piece fwiw.

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Wolves centre midfield was Neves and Moutinho, our was Diame and Ki, Wolves had better players in those positions, far better in fact and their distribution to their wide player in Costa and Jota to break in behind Man City's full backs, was a million times better than ours trying to do the same against Chelsea.

 

And Wolves still only had 29% possession, did they care about that as they walked away with a point, did they fuck. They used the ball better than we did when they had it, simple as that, and they only scored from a set piece fwiw.

 

The lack of quality in certain areas of the pitch is killing our passing game, and it's a direct result of signing cheaper players rather than spending on quality. Rafa must feel like he has one hand tied behind his back taking on quality opposition with players not worth a tenth in comparison. Even Mitro's goals at Fulham are probably coming a lot easier when they've spent £100million on putting quality players behind him.

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Wolves centre midfield was Neves and Moutinho, our was Diame and Ki, Wolves had better players in those positions, far better in fact and their distribution to their wide player in Costa and Jota to break in behind Man City's full backs, was a million times better than ours trying to do the same against Chelsea.

 

And Wolves still only had 29% possession, did they care about that as they walked away with a point, did they fuck. They used the ball better than we did when they had it, simple as that, and they only scored from a set piece fwiw.

 

The lack of quality in certain areas of the pitch is killing our passing game, and it's a direct result of signing cheaper players rather than spending on quality. Rafa must feel like he has one hand tied behind his back taking on quality opposition with players not worth a tenth in comparison. Even Mitro's goals at Fulham are probably coming a lot easier when they've spent £100million on putting quality players behind him.

 

Exactly and that's another thing being ignored, we've spent nowt on average players. Wolves, Fulham etc have spent money on better players (imo) a lot of money, yet we're getting stick for not playing like the fucking Harlem Globetrotters.

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