Rafa Benítez (now unemployed)

[TRon]

The squad is just shite, i'm sorry that's all there is to it. I'm struggling to find teams in the Premier who I would be confident of beating, Leicester and Palace coming up and they are better than us man for man as well.

 

palace have zaha and that's it like, lets not go overboard

 

Zaha is a pretty special player though, the type who wins games single-handed. They have that other fella called Townsend as well, they are a danger to anybody.

 

kenedy is having a rough patch but he's a better player than townsend, for example and will likely produce much more on the pitch if he pulls himself together

 

Last season's Kenedy was better, this season's version got dropped for Murphy. I'm going off what we are seeing currently. We might well get a result against Palace, but it's a tough game for anyone when they have a matchwinner like Zaha in the team.

[mrmojorisin75]

The squad is just shite, i'm sorry that's all there is to it. I'm struggling to find teams in the Premier who I would be confident of beating, Leicester and Palace coming up and they are better than us man for man as well.

 

palace have zaha and that's it like, lets not go overboard

 

Zaha is a pretty special player though, the type who wins games single-handed. They have that other fella called Townsend as well, they are a danger to anybody.

 

kenedy is having a rough patch but he's a better player than townsend, for example and will likely produce much more on the pitch if he pulls himself together

 

Last season's Kenedy was better, this season's version got dropped for Murphy. I'm going off what we are seeing currently. We might well get a result against Palace, but it's a tough game for anyone when they have a matchwinner like Zaha in the team.

 

i'm not arguing it'll be tough, i'm arguing you said they're better than us man for man and i don't agree

 

zaha aside there's probably very little between us but keeping him quiet will be hard

[thenige]

The squad is just shite, i'm sorry that's all there is to it. I'm struggling to find teams in the Premier who I would be confident of beating, Leicester and Palace coming up and they are better than us man for man as well.

 

palace have zaha and that's it like, lets not go overboard

 

Zaha is a pretty special player though, the type who wins games single-handed. They have that other fella called Townsend as well, they are a danger to anybody.

 

kenedy is having a rough patch but he's a better player than townsend, for example and will likely produce much more on the pitch if he pulls himself together

 

Kenedy may be good on his day, but honestly think you'll get a lot more product from someone like Townsend over the course of a season.

[TRon]

The squad is just shite, i'm sorry that's all there is to it. I'm struggling to find teams in the Premier who I would be confident of beating, Leicester and Palace coming up and they are better than us man for man as well.

 

palace have zaha and that's it like, lets not go overboard

 

Zaha is a pretty special player though, the type who wins games single-handed. They have that other fella called Townsend as well, they are a danger to anybody.

 

kenedy is having a rough patch but he's a better player than townsend, for example and will likely produce much more on the pitch if he pulls himself together

 

Last season's Kenedy was better, this season's version got dropped for Murphy. I'm going off what we are seeing currently. We might well get a result against Palace, but it's a tough game for anyone when they have a matchwinner like Zaha in the team.

 

i'm not arguing it'll be tough, i'm arguing you said they're better than us man for man and i don't agree

 

zaha aside there's probably very little between us but keeping him quiet will be hard

 

Aye you're probably right, just feels like we are a lot worse than we look on paper at the moment, those shit performances against Cardiff and Forest are probably skewing my view a bit.

[Dave]

Only saw the first 40mins but thought we looked decent enough. It certainly wasn't the same tactics of being ultra-cautious. Genuinely wouldn't surprise me if we sacked him.

 

Ultimately I don't care.

[mrmojorisin75]

The squad is just shite, i'm sorry that's all there is to it. I'm struggling to find teams in the Premier who I would be confident of beating, Leicester and Palace coming up and they are better than us man for man as well.

 

palace have zaha and that's it like, lets not go overboard

 

Zaha is a pretty special player though, the type who wins games single-handed. They have that other fella called Townsend as well, they are a danger to anybody.

 

kenedy is having a rough patch but he's a better player than townsend, for example and will likely produce much more on the pitch if he pulls himself together

 

Kenedy may be good on his day, but honestly think you'll get a lot more product from someone like Townsend over the course of a season.

 

erm aye, he played half a season for us last year and probably wasn't far off townsend stats at a guess

 

 

[mrmojorisin75]

Only saw the first 40mins but thought we looked decent enough. It certainly wasn't the same tactics of being ultra-cautious. Genuinely wouldn't surprise me if we sacked him.

 

yeah i thought the first half was quite telling, he obviously doesn't rate arsenal as highly as he does chelsea and man city so we pressed a bit higher and played with a little more freedom

 

arsenal came out and showed their quality, getting the goals at the right time for them and worst times for us, that's about it imo...we did well to compete with that team 1st half in all honesty

[Yorkie]

Aye I reckon they'll sack him if we're in the relegation zone around Christmas time.

[Pilko]

Aye I reckon they'll sack him if we're in the relegation zone around Christmas time.

 

Every game up until Boxing Day is winnable so we should theoretically be nowhere near.

[ToonArmy1892]

Imagine if he actually sacked him man 

[Guest firetotheworks]

Wouldn't surprise me in the slightest. I felt like it was going to happen last year tbh. Ashley's the sort that would cut off his face to spite his nose.

[mrmojorisin75]

if he sacks him it'll be february and we all know it

[Tubestationatmidnight]

Needs to leave for his own sake. He's far too good to put up with all this shit and grief that's coming his way thanks to Ashley

[Guest firetotheworks]

You've said.

[Tubestationatmidnight]

As I said in the match thread he couldn't have done any better since he came here. Champions then 10th. All down to Ashley who has shafted him. He looks pig sick and can't wait to leave. Looks like whoever the 2 I bet with will be getting my £50 in May

[wormy]

Needs to leave for his own sake. He's far too good to put up with all this shit and grief that's coming his way thanks to Ashley

 

This is an interesting, fresh perspective you seem to have. Please, tell us more.

[Tubestationatmidnight]

Also turns out to be the correct perspective an all, like usual

[Guest neesy111]

All of our issues are to do with our dear owner, but I feel Rafa is making small mistakes here and there due to probably not caring as much as he would if he were fully committed and because of the circus going on at the club.

[Vinny Green Balls]

Needs to leave for his own sake. He's far too good to put up with all this shit and grief that's coming his way thanks to Ashley

 

This is an interesting, fresh perspective you seem to have. Please, tell us more.

 

[Vinny Green Balls]

All of our issues are to do with our dear owner, but I feel Rafa is making small mistakes here and there due to probably not caring as much as he would if he were fully committed and because of the circus going on at the club.

 

Probably. Somebody like Guardiola can afford to make little mistakes, but Rafa has absolutely no room for error anyway.

[wormy]

Also turns out to be the correct perspective an all, like usual

 

I don't think you'll find many people that disagree with him being too good for the club in it's current state. Although we won't get into your obsessive wish for him to leave. It's just boring as shit; you're near enough just copy and pasting the same message in here every day FFS.

[tmonkey]

I'm never going to be a fan of Rafa's tactical mindset on match day purely because I'm biased towards free flowing attacking football where players are given creative freedom and flair players are accommodated. That has never been, and will never be, Rafa.

 

Beyond that preference for seeing a different style of football, Rafa is absolutely the best manager for the job, and in terms of how we're doing this season I don't think for a second the table or even match day performances reflect how good a job he's doing despite everything Ashley and his entourage have done to damage the club. We've lost 2-1 to Arsenal, Spurs, Man City, and Chelsea, despite having a really poor, imbalanced squad that bears all the hallmarks of having zero strategy to squad building because we always buy the cheapest 5th/6th/7th choice target. At least half the players shouldn't be playing in the PL (not regularly at least), we can barely string passes together and some players struggle to control a football at this level without losing their balance or the ball. And yet we're actually somehow managed to compete with some of the best sides in the league who have fielded teams where one or two of their players have cost more than our entire first team combined.

 

He's performing miracles right now, even though we're playing shit and losing. Get Shelvey back in the team, hope Kenedy finds his feet, get Rondon up to speed, and we'll be OK again.

[ToonArmy1892]

As if people are having a go at Rafa (the most successful manager we have ever appointed) instead of the one person responsible for this mess.

 

I fucking despair and i don't even know how to respond to them because it's so ridiculous

[Mattoon]

All of our issues are to do with our dear owner, but I feel Rafa is making small mistakes here and there due to probably not caring as much as he would if he were fully committed and because of the circus going on at the club.

 

Probably. Somebody like Guardiola can afford to make little mistakes, but Rafa has absolutely no room for error anyway.

This is exactly what I said in the match thread. Rafa is not infallible, he will absolutely make mistakes, he's human. The major problem is that he's working with such fine margins that the smallest mistake is make or break with this squad, one wrong sub, wrong starting player, slightly wrong tactic or minutes late on a sub will put us in a no win situation. However if he was fully backed like any other manager in this league then those slight mistakes would still see him win because he's superior to most other managers. He's trying to sculpt the next Venus de Milo with a sledge hammer and a toothpick.

[Raconteur]

I'm never going to be a fan of Rafa's tactical mindset on match day purely because I'm biased towards free flowing attacking football where players are given creative freedom and flair players are accommodated. That has never been, and will never be, Rafa.

 

 

I think that's a bit rough; there are certainly times when Rafa sets us up in a way that makes us torturous to watch, but the first half was good viewing (one of the few times this year). We're not very good, but we attacked in a way that was pleasing, and pushed forward in ways we didn't against Citeh and Chelski. Murphy's rubbish, but can make things happen, and even though half the board hates him, I love what Ayoze does (most of the time).

 

We miss Shelvey enormously - Hayden and Ki are such a huge drop in quality that it's no wonder our forward play is ugly.