Rafa Benítez (now unemployed)

[UncleBingo]

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.

 

Exactly.

 

They are an established PL side with a solid squad, we've just come up from the Championship, spent next to nowt in the Summer and suddenly we have better players than them.

 

Some people need to get a grip.

 

Their side is mostly made up of championship and football league signings. More recently they got players with prem experience but nothing to shout about in Bardsley Cork and Walters. Equally they lost two huge players for them in Michael Keane and Andre Gray.

 

They are nothing superior to us, they have just managed to make things click gritty determined and not afraid to play any sides big or small, the fact they are doing well is down to their manager and mental approach to games. Suddenly pretending to ourselves they are a team of world beaters is a bit far fetched, all This established premier league players, fair enough we spent a season out of the league when they had one extra, is it such a gap they opened in that time. f***ing hell at the start of the season if we went for Cork instead of Merino, and Walters, or Bardsley instead of other signings we would have had some moaning.

 

Florian Lejeune

Christian Atsu

Jacob Murphy

Javier Manquillo

Mikel Merino

Joselu

 

Their big buy was Wood who was championship top scorer.

We had a player who was on a similar tally carrying the same sort of goalscoring form up from the championship from the same season (Gayle). Their last season they just managed to survive with 40pts and close to the relegation.

 

I don't beleive us and Burnley are suddenly worlds apart. We just haven't managed to get it right with our new signings. Most of our championship side or if you put out our best championship side from last season would probably perform better. I cant see much in the new signings that made any drastic improvements.

Merino is a tidy player but lately this week and last week he has been responsible for two goals shipped. And his form is w*** since he returned from injury.

 

Anyways f*** it I need to get a grip

 

Which of our players would get into the Burnley side?

[r0cafella]

Problem with Gamez he’s colossally slow, you can get away with that in the championship but not in the premier league where most wingers are pretty fast.

 

The keeper situation can’t be solved until January sadly too bad we couldn’t get Reina in.

[Darth Crooks]

Problem with Gamez he’s colossally slow, you can get away with that in the championship but not in the premier league where most wingers are pretty fast.

 

The keeper situation can’t be solved until January sadly too bad we couldn’t get Reina in.

 

Aye there's no escaping that.

[Guest Howaythetoon]

Some dissent amongst fans in the pubs afterwards with one or two ‘he needs to go’ type remarks.

 

On reflection I thought the team he started with were capable of the win, but individual mistakes and poor decision making have cost us again. His subs... Atsu was the right decision and caused them problems, Perez did some good stuff, but Shelvey should have came on because there was huge gaps in midfield where his passing could have helped us.

 

Where he goes from here with these players I do not know. We could do with a clean sheet and a boring 1-0 win...

[HaydnNUFC]

'he needs to go'

 

Fucking hell, man.

[LV]

Yeah that’s absolutely crazy talk ffs

[xLiaaamx]

He needs to make subs earlier. How he still doesnt realise this. Sometimes it feels like they're all worked out on running and fitness rather than performance.

[Guest Howaythetoon]

'he needs to go'

 

f***ing hell, man.

 

Aye, heard it a few times. One bloke, clearly pissed, season ticket for 30 years, used to play at a decent standard yada yada was particularly upset and said the players are clearly not being coached because none of them can whip a ball in. To be fair he did recognise that we have a Championship team when pointed out to him and that Ashley is the main culprit, but Rafa has to go he said. I haven’t been to a game all season and rarely go to the Town for a drink so it came as a bit of a surprise to hear some dissent from match day going folk and although I should know better, some of the moaning in the East stand surprised me too.

[HaydnNUFC]

'he needs to go'

 

f***ing hell, man.

 

Aye, heard it a few times. One bloke, clearly p*ssed, season ticket for 30 years, used to play at a decent standard yada yada was particularly upset and said the players are clearly not being coached because none of them can whip a ball in. To be fair he did recognise that we have a Championship team when pointed out to him and that Ashley is the main culprit, but Rafa has to go he said. I haven’t been to a game all season and rarely go to the Town for a drink so it came as a bit of a surprise to hear some dissent from match day going folk and although I should know better, some of the moaning in the East stand surprised me too.

We unfortunately have a decent proportion of relentless mongs to level headed fans, both at SJP and on social media. How anyone can say that, pissed or not, is beyond me.

 

Yesterday kinda showed how ignorant some of the fans are. The classic 'if this was Pardew/Carver/McClaren' line despite the circumstances of those three Clampets being incomparable to the one this season, 'these are his signings' even though he didn't want the vast majority of the players we brought in during the summer. We needed bodies and we have what we have because of that. Plus many more.

[Guest Howaythetoon]

Rafa for me as NUFC manager right now is like a Ferrari with a Diesel engine. I’m confident if he is giving the right funding, he can transform us into a top side. With this team he’s basically won the Championship and kind of giving it a footing in this league. We are struggling and badly so at the moment and he has made mistakes himself, but there are some good things and it’s not a case of all is lost like it would be under Pardew or McClaren. What upsets me is that he identified what we needed in the summer to make the step up less challenging and the owner failed to back him, thus risking our PL status. And we are seeing that now. Individual mistakes are costing us though and that’s down to a combination of confidence being low and players simply showing their true colours at this level. Again looking at our team that started yesterday, I’d say Yedlin, Merino, Murphy and Gayle are the only players I have enough confidence in to do their job to a reasonable standard. Atsu when he came on too. On the bench even though I don’t rate him, I think Shelvey is capable at this level too. Lejune it’s too early to judge, but the rest, those starting and those on the bench, well they are garbage I’m afraid.

[xLiaaamx]

They've seen their team get 1 point in 7 games. I like him and sympathise with his situation, but he's been getting it wrong a lot lately.

[Guest Howaythetoon]

They've seen their team get 1 point in 7 games. I like him and sympathise with his situation, but he's been getting it wrong a lot lately.

 

Agreed. It shows how highly he is regarded though, because anyone else and they would be getting stick big time, on the stands and in the media. Thankfully it seems the majority are being sensible and thinking logically about all of this because as fans we must not panic and start getting on the backs of anyone.

[LV]

They've seen their team get 1 point in 7 games. I like him and sympathise with his situation, but he's been getting it wrong a lot lately.

 

But not easy to get it right when you weren’t given the funds you were promised to buy the players you had identified to make the team competitive in the Premier League.

 

He said we would struggle with the team we had and he was right. There wouldn’t have been a Joselu if he’d had the funds and there would have been a better keeper too.

[Incognito]

I thought Joselu wasn't so bad yesterday. Manquillo however is , was and always will be dogshit. His insistence on playing him confuses the fuck out of me.

[TRon]

I thought Joselu wasn't so bad yesterday. Manquillo however is , was and always will be dogshit. His insistence on playing him confuses the fuck out of me.

 

We were 1-0 up and on course for 3 points. Was Manquillo responsible for the equaliser? Or any of the other goals for that matter?

 

 

 

[Skeletor]

I thought Joselu wasn't so bad yesterday. Manquillo however is , was and always will be dogshit. His insistence on playing him confuses the fuck out of me.

 

We were 1-0 up and on course for 3 points. Was Manquillo responsible for the equaliser? Or any of the other goals for that matter?

 

 

 

 

For their winner he was in their box with the ball and just gave it up to them which allowed them to counter at pace and left us scrambling to recover before Perez scored the own goal.

[U2]

 

 

Problem with Gamez he’s colossally slow, you can get away with that in the championship but not in the premier league where most wingers are pretty fast.

 

Another turd signing.

[TRon]

I thought Joselu wasn't so bad yesterday. Manquillo however is , was and always will be dogshit. His insistence on playing him confuses the fuck out of me.

 

We were 1-0 up and on course for 3 points. Was Manquillo responsible for the equaliser? Or any of the other goals for that matter?

 

 

 

 

For their winner he was in their box with the ball and just gave it up to them which allowed them to counter at pace and left us scrambling to recover before Perez scored the own goal.

 

Yeah he was, but if that's going to count against a full back, then they should never go beyond the halfway line as there's always a chance they'll be caught at the wrong end of the pitch if possession is lost.

[Shearergol]

 

 

Problem with Gamez he’s colossally slow, you can get away with that in the championship but not in the premier league where most wingers are pretty fast.

 

Another turd signing.

 

I’m genuinely interested, who do you think we should get as a manager?

[Guest Howaythetoon]

 

 

Problem with Gamez he’s colossally slow, you can get away with that in the championship but not in the premier league where most wingers are pretty fast.

 

Another turd signing.

 

I’m genuinely interested, who do you think we should get as a manager?

 

Howay man, criticising a signing doesn’t equate to wanting the manager out!

[NEEJ]

As if people want to bin Benitez. Who on earth is going to come in and replace Rafa? Who on earth would get this current lot going? It's a very poor squad that desperately needs improving in Jan.

[Zero]

No matter how wrong Rafa is doing, he can't be replaced. No question. Those calling Rafa out should be expelled from this world.

[Sean]

Some of our fans are doing their best to keep the deluded tag going tbh.

[TRon]

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.

 

Exactly.

 

They are an established PL side with a solid squad, we've just come up from the Championship, spent next to nowt in the Summer and suddenly we have better players than them.

 

Some people need to get a grip.

 

Their side is mostly made up of championship and football league signings. More recently they got players with prem experience but nothing to shout about in Bardsley Cork and Walters. Equally they lost two huge players for them in Michael Keane and Andre Gray.

 

They are nothing superior to us, they have just managed to make things click gritty determined and not afraid to play any sides big or small, the fact they are doing well is down to their manager and mental approach to games. Suddenly pretending to ourselves they are a team of world beaters is a bit far fetched, all This established premier league players, fair enough we spent a season out of the league when they had one extra, is it such a gap they opened in that time. Fucking hell at the start of the season if we went for Cork instead of Merino, and Walters, or Bardsley instead of other signings we would have had some moaning.

 

Florian Lejeune

Christian Atsu

Jacob Murphy

Javier Manquillo

Mikel Merino

Joselu

 

Their big buy was Wood who was championship top scorer.

We had a player who was on a similar tally carrying the same sort of goalscoring form up from the championship from the same season (Gayle). Their last season they just managed to survive with 40pts and close to the relegation.

 

I don't beleive us and Burnley are suddenly worlds apart. We just haven't managed to get it right with our new signings. Most of our championship side or if you put out our best championship side from last season would probably perform better. I cant see much in the new signings that made any drastic improvements.

Merino is a tidy player but lately this week and last week he has been responsible for two goals shipped. And his form is wank since he returned from injury.

 

Anyways fuck it I need to get a grip

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I think this is a false equivalence, Burnley are a small club with limited attraction for top players. Dyche has done a great job of organising them, but in a way, his lack of funds has helped him. He's got a bunch of hard working players with solid temperament which is easily overlooked. We wouldn't want to be buying a lot of their signings if they were available at the time, and you could argue Dyche wouldn't want them either if he was at a bigger club.

[Benwell Lad]

Although it will be a tiny minority saying it, wanting to replace Benitez right now is quite ridiculous.

However equally perplexing is the see no wrong Kim Jong Un type devotion some on here appear to have towards him.

The facts are that a squad which looked very hard to beat just a couple of months ago now looks like the softest touch in the league and are sleepwalking to relegation.

We don't see what goes on on the training ground but his team selection, tactics and substitutions continue to puzzle most of us. While his squad is undeniably limited there was a lot of money on the bench yesterday. 

How Shelvey cannot get into that midfield, especially for a winnable home match is the biggest mystery of all.

Saying he should go is crazy but any criticism he is receiving at the moment is probably justified.