Rafa Benítez (now unemployed)

[afar]

Seeing Rafa get more criticism from our fans for being 16th with this side, than Pardew got for being 16th with an actual decent PL squad makes me want to vomit blood.

 

What a load of shit man.

[ilikenewcastle]

Seeing Rafa get more criticism from our fans for being 16th with this side, than Pardew got for being 16th with an actual decent PL squad makes me want to vomit blood.

 

What a load of s*** man.

 

Let me make it clearer, this applies to some fans, not our fanbase generally.

[wormy]

Seeing Rafa get more criticism from our fans for being 16th with this side, than Pardew got for being 16th with an actual decent PL squad makes me want to vomit blood.

 

Is this happening? I heard one freak comparing him to Joe Kinnear at the match. Hoping it was a joke. Otherwise everyone was still chanting his name while we were losing. I'm sure there's idiots out there calling for his head because dipshits. But im sure it's an insane minority.

 

It's a minority, but it shouldn't be happening at all. It's at it's worst on social media

 

Dipshits be dipshits. It's like trying to reason with the Ian Ws of the world over Pardew. Ignore them.

 

FWIW I feel like Rafa has made mistakes lately but that's the least of our troubles, and if he was allowed to manage the way he wants (including transfers) we wouldn't be anywhere near this situation.

[Bimpy474]

Seeing Rafa get more criticism from our fans for being 16th with this side, than Pardew got for being 16th with an actual decent PL squad makes me want to vomit blood.

 

The argument always seems to be pardew,rafa, ashley transfers etc etc.

 

Burnley have a totally average squad and a far less decorated manager who is making the best of it.

 

Burnley are a big well organised side who defend well. Newcastle fans would never accept if Rafa went down that route, far more expectation here.

 

We already do don't we ? We're not an exciting team in any way, we play fairly defensive football a lot of the time, don't we ?

[triggs]

Seeing Rafa get more criticism from our fans for being 16th with this side, than Pardew got for being 16th with an actual decent PL squad makes me want to vomit blood.

 

The argument always seems to be pardew,rafa, ashley transfers etc etc.

 

Burnley have a totally average squad and a far less decorated manager who is making the best of it.

 

Burnley are a big well organised side who defend well. Newcastle fans would never accept if Rafa went down that route, far more expectation here.

Eh? That's exactly what he was doing when we were actually doing well this season

 

There's more to Burnley than just that btw, they can keep it well when they get it

[TRon]

Seeing Rafa get more criticism from our fans for being 16th with this side, than Pardew got for being 16th with an actual decent PL squad makes me want to vomit blood.

 

The argument always seems to be pardew,rafa, ashley transfers etc etc.

 

Burnley have a totally average squad and a far less decorated manager who is making the best of it.

 

Burnley are a big well organised side who defend well. Newcastle fans would never accept if Rafa went down that route, far more expectation here.

 

We already do don't we ? We're not an exciting team in any way, we play fairly defensive football a lot of the time, don't we ?

 

 

Yeah but at the moment the defenders who can actually defend are missing. I don't think the two midfielders is helping either mind, and that's on Rafa, but everyone was screaming for 442 last season. Personally I've been saying for the last month we have to get back to defending for our lives even if it's boring to watch. Unfortunately you need defenders with some spine to do it.

[mighty__mag]

Seeing Rafa get more criticism from our fans for being 16th with this side, than Pardew got for being 16th with an actual decent PL squad makes me want to vomit blood.

 

The argument always seems to be Pardew,Rafa, Ashley or transfers etc etc.

 

Burnley have a totally average squad and a far less decorated manager who is making the best of it.

 

You can’t compare our squad with theirs FFS! They have average PL players, we have good Championship players. They also have a shitload more experience than we do, which makes a huge difference.

 

People want to make the argument hes making the best of what shit hes got. Leaving Shelvey out in my opinion isnt making the best. Shelvey is lethargic at times but he can change a game.

 

Burnley have a load of championship players. They just work harder and are unified.

[TRon]

Seeing Rafa get more criticism from our fans for being 16th with this side, than Pardew got for being 16th with an actual decent PL squad makes me want to vomit blood.

 

The argument always seems to be Pardew,Rafa, Ashley or transfers etc etc.

 

Burnley have a totally average squad and a far less decorated manager who is making the best of it.

 

You can’t compare our squad with theirs FFS! They have average PL players, we have good Championship players. They also have a shitload more experience than we do, which makes a huge difference.

 

People want to make the argument hes making the best of what shit hes got. Leaving Shelvey out in my opinion isnt making the best. Shelvey is lethargic at times but he can change a game.

 

Burnley have a load of championship players. They just work harder and are unified.

 

That's probably why they wouldn't play Shelvey though isn't it? He's not exactly hard working.

[Greg]

Burnley have better players than we do in core areas I'm afraid. Heaton, Pope, Defour, Brady, Cork even the likes of Jeff Hendrick. 

[mighty__mag]

Seeing Rafa get more criticism from our fans for being 16th with this side, than Pardew got for being 16th with an actual decent PL squad makes me want to vomit blood.

 

The argument always seems to be Pardew,Rafa, Ashley or transfers etc etc.

 

Burnley have a totally average squad and a far less decorated manager who is making the best of it.

 

You can’t compare our squad with theirs FFS! They have average PL players, we have good Championship players. They also have a shitload more experience than we do, which makes a huge difference.

 

People want to make the argument hes making the best of what shit hes got. Leaving Shelvey out in my opinion isnt making the best. Shelvey is lethargic at times but he can change a game.

 

Burnley have a load of championship players. They just work harder and are unified.

 

That's probably why they wouldn't play Shelvey though isn't it? He's not exactly hard working.

 

I was referring to the whole side, not one player.

 

All sides will have a luxury player. In our case and I mentioned my opinion Shelvey should start games. Theres many many players who perform poor and still get a pass. Merino has been fairly poor since he returned from injury. Maybe I should have said work harder for each other.

 

No point arguing, its easy to see Rafa loves punishing certain players over others. Bringing Mitrovic on for 6 minutes

 

Love the instant come backs, now Burnley have a mutch better squad, really? They just grind results and dont fear sides.

[steve_69]

Burnley have better players than we do in core areas I'm afraid. Heaton, Pope, Defour, Brady, Cork even the likes of Jeff Hendrick. 

 

Chris Wood, Jonathan Walters, Sam Vokes, Ben Mee, James Tarkovski, Charlie Taylor - the list goes on.

[Dave]

Lots of people on here were complaining about us being boring earlier in the season like, even when we were getting results. I like how the weekly insistence that playing two strikers was the answer to all of our problems has been conveniently forgotten as well.

[Guest firetotheworks]

Lots of people on here were complaining about us being boring earlier in the season like, even when we were getting results. I like how the weekly insistence that playing two strikers was the answer to all of our problems has been conveniently forgotton as well.

Wish Rafa would forget 442 now, ironically.

[toon25]

My feeling is Rafa is too good a manager to managing this shower if shit. It’s no wonder he can’t get a tune from them.

[Guest Open_C]

Lots of people on here were complaining about us being boring earlier in the season like, even when we were getting results. I like how the weekly insistence that playing two strikers was the answer to all of our problems has been conveniently forgotton as well.

Wish Rafa would forget 442 now, ironically.

to both of these

[joeyt]

The 4-4-2 thing is an absolute mystery.

 

Last season we never, ever played 4-4-2. I think it occurred for the last 20 minutes a couple of times but never from the start of matches. It was extremely frustrating because like in 09/10 I think if we'd wanted to we could have got at teams a lot more and used a more expansive set-up to win more comfortably.

 

However the saving grace was that Rafa was probably planning for the top flight where we'd need to be solid and well-drilled in a system ready for a struggle in the PL. Early few weeks of the season it seemed that way. We were s**** but we didn't concede many goals and looked good enough to stay up. Since the terrible display at Burnley we've been playing 4-4-2 (and 3-4-3 at Chelsea) and looked massively open because of it.

 

It's really odd. Now we're stuck in a bit of a hard place because the side have absolutely zero confidence, and reverting to type might dent it even further rather than sure us up. I think we have to do it though. This is f***ing car-crash at the moment.

 

Think Rafa knows Gayle is our best chance of scoring a goal but doesn't think he'll be able to hold the ball up or win headers which is why we see Joselu next to him and 4-4-2

[Sima]

You need two absolute powerhouses if you are to play 4-4-2 these days.  Any combination you make out of Hayden, Shelvey and Merino aren’t good enough.

 

Gray and Mahrez caused havoc today by moving around behind Vardy.  Yedlin in particular had no idea how to cope.

[wormy]

The 4-4-2 thing is an absolute mystery.

 

Last season we never, ever played 4-4-2. I think it occurred for the last 20 minutes a couple of times but never from the start of matches. It was extremely frustrating because like in 09/10 I think if we'd wanted to we could have got at teams a lot more and used a more expansive set-up to win more comfortably.

 

However the saving grace was that Rafa was probably planning for the top flight where we'd need to be solid and well-drilled in a system ready for a struggle in the PL. Early few weeks of the season it seemed that way. We were s**** but we didn't concede many goals and looked good enough to stay up. Since the terrible display at Burnley we've been playing 4-4-2 (and 3-4-3 at Chelsea) and looked massively open because of it.

 

It's really odd. Now we're stuck in a bit of a hard place because the side have absolutely zero confidence, and reverting to type might dent it even further rather than sure us up. I think we have to do it though. This is f***ing car-crash at the moment.

 

Think Rafa knows Gayle is our best chance of scoring a goal but doesn't think he'll be able to hold the ball up or win headers which is why we see Joselu next to him and 4-4-2

 

Funny thing is I swear I saw Gayle win as many headers as Joselu today.

[Hanshithispantz]

The 4-4-2 thing is an absolute mystery.

 

Last season we never, ever played 4-4-2. I think it occurred for the last 20 minutes a couple of times but never from the start of matches. It was extremely frustrating because like in 09/10 I think if we'd wanted to we could have got at teams a lot more and used a more expansive set-up to win more comfortably.

 

However the saving grace was that Rafa was probably planning for the top flight where we'd need to be solid and well-drilled in a system ready for a struggle in the PL. Early few weeks of the season it seemed that way. We were s**** but we didn't concede many goals and looked good enough to stay up. Since the terrible display at Burnley we've been playing 4-4-2 (and 3-4-3 at Chelsea) and looked massively open because of it.

 

It's really odd. Now we're stuck in a bit of a hard place because the side have absolutely zero confidence, and reverting to type might dent it even further rather than sure us up. I think we have to do it though. This is f***ing car-crash at the moment.

 

Think Rafa knows Gayle is our best chance of scoring a goal but doesn't think he'll be able to hold the ball up or win headers which is why we see Joselu next to him and 4-4-2

That makes sense judging off today, Gayle was great because pretty much every time the ball came to him he got it under control, played it to someone and made a run. If he's isolated that's a lot harder.

 

Not that I think 4-4-2 is the only way to not leave a striker isolated like, and tbh we looked far better when we couldn't buy a goal from open play but also didn't concede, than now were we sort of can score but we concede like 3 goals a game.

[xLiaaamx]

I think taking Murphy off was the wrong call today. We missed him as an outlet straight away.

[Rich]

I love Rafa like the chubby Spanish uncle I never had, but he’s got me scratching my head a lot lately. I can’t be the only one who was bang up for this until I saw the team selection. Think he needs to get us back to basics and of course he needs some help from those above, because when you look at the players’ body language and ability and it’s a miracle we started the season so strongly. Give the man something to work with for fuck’s sake.

[sh74]

I know we are in the situation we are in because of Mike Ashley and i’m not one who has followed Rafa’s career very closely but I just can’t see what all the fuss is about with him. He just seems very stubborn and a bloke without a plan b when going through a bad spell. No doubt i’m going to be shot with shit.

[Vinny Green Balls]

The fuss may have a little to do with all of the accolades for some odd reason.

[Greg]

I know we are in the situation we are in because of Mike Ashley and i’m not one who has followed Rafa’s career very closely but I just can’t see what all the fuss is about with him. He just seems very stubborn and a bloke without a plan b when going through a bad spell. No doubt i’m going to be shot with s***.

 

http://www.rafabenitez.com/web/index.php?act=descargar&co=1418&cam=3

[sh74]

He’s had big money to spend or there were already big players at the clubs he’s managed. Put him in a situation with mediocre players and he struggles.