Rafa Benítez (now unemployed)

[TRon]

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.

 

I disagree that we are sleepwalking to relegation. I do agree that Rafa's got it wrong with the formation last few games, but I think he's the right man to address it so am hopeful we'll steer clear of the bottom three.

[Guest firetotheworks]

 

 

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!

It does in this case. U2's been telling us in most match threads for 2 seasons that Rafa's not good enough.

[huss9]

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.

 

the shelvey issue is perplexing to say the least.

 

its not as though hayden is a defensive rock.

[HaydnNUFC]

 

 

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!

It does in this case. U2's been telling us in most match threads for 2 seasons that Rafa's not good enough.

U2 won't give an answer because he's a blatant WUM, just like Chris Babalooba.

[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?

 

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

 

You not seen his other posts? He does want Rafa out.

[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!

 

You not seen his other posts? He does want Rafa out.

 

Can’t be arsed to look through his posts, it’s Sunday Bloody Sunday FFS.

[Tiresias]

We need to shore up at the back and be better prepared for front 3s that seem to tear us apart. I think if we can't get 2 centre backs and 2 holding mids to work we have to shift to a back 3. The big problem is we don't have wing backs but I think we have to make do. I doubt this will happen but it is the big shakeup we need imo. Hayden should drop back into the centre back to solidify it and allow Merino and Shelvey to make up a much more passing capable holding pair. And quite frankly none of our pure CBs apart from Lascelles are good enough anyway.

 

                              Elliott

 

            Lascelles    Hayden    Clark

 

  Hayden    Shelvey  Merino    Mbemba (Cos fucking hell)

 

                          Atsu

 

                  Gayle    Joselu (should probably be Mitrovic but not going to happen)

 

 

 

 

   

[CPL]

We need to shore up at the back and be better prepared for front 3s that seem to tear us apart. I think if we can't get 2 centre backs and 2 holding mids to work we have to shift to a back 3. The big problem is we don't have wing backs but I think we have to make do. I doubt this will happen but it is the big shakeup we need imo. Hayden should drop back into the centre back to solidify it and allow Merino and Shelvey to make up a much more passing capable holding pair. And quite frankly none of our pure CBs apart from Lascelles are good enough anyway.

 

                              Elliott

 

            Lascelles    Hayden    Clark

 

  Hayden    Shelvey  Merino    Mbemba (Cos fucking hell)

 

                          Atsu

 

                  Gayle    Joselu (should probably be Mitrovic but not going to happen)

 

 

 

 

   

 

Hayden so good he can play in 2 positions.

[Sean]

I don't think the players are good enough to deal with learning a new system to be honest, whilst playing against better teams too, and could see us getting absolutely hammered if we do. The main issue is the squad isn't up to scratch sadly.

[Tiresias]

Yeah I sort of agree, but we have to ditch Ritchie imo and find a way of playing Merino and Shelvey to get even a bit of passing going

[Sean]

Hard to argue against those points at the minute.

[HaydnNUFC]

Really need to ditch this 4-4-2. Leaves us far too open because we don't have the players for it. Imagine if we played against Liverpool playing that formation.

 

Need to return to 4-2-3-1 and being resolute. Almost everything post Burnley has been pretty shit.

[TRon]

We need to shore up at the back and be better prepared for front 3s that seem to tear us apart. I think if we can't get 2 centre backs and 2 holding mids to work we have to shift to a back 3. The big problem is we don't have wing backs but I think we have to make do. I doubt this will happen but it is the big shakeup we need imo. Hayden should drop back into the centre back to solidify it and allow Merino and Shelvey to make up a much more passing capable holding pair. And quite frankly none of our pure CBs apart from Lascelles are good enough anyway.

 

                              Elliott

 

            Lascelles    Hayden    Clark

 

  Hayden    Shelvey  Merino    Mbemba (Cos fucking hell)

 

                          Atsu

 

                  Gayle    Joselu (should probably be Mitrovic but not going to happen)

 

 

 

 

   

 

 

Going to a back three sounds logical in theory, only problem is, if it's Mbemba, Lejeune and Clark, all three of them are capable of giving goals through individual errors.

[Interpolic]

3 at the back looked alright for a while against Chelsea. Yedlin is surely perfect as right wing back, arguable who would be best on the left.

[Kanji]

Might as well go with the stoke style 4 CBs at the back tactic. I’d happily play Mbemba Lascelles Lejeune and Clark as our back 4 until Dummett returns. Yedlin and Manquillo are playing so poorly man.

 

Midfield it has to be Merino and Shelvey. Murphy and Atsu wide. With Ayoze or Joselu as a 10 centrally. Can Murphy play as a 10 like Gray did?

 

Gayle as the CF?

[mighty__mag]

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.

 

Do they have a much better side than us or are things just going well for them at the moment?

 

 

[huss9]

I genuinely think not having a PL level keeper is maybe hurting us the most. I feel like concede a fair amount of saveable goals.

 

even if we'd had a top level championship keeper, a lot of the goals would have been saved.

[Guest firetotheworks]

Brady, Hendrick, Pope, Heaton, Defour, Cork are all better than what we have imo

The "Do X have a better squad than us?" question, is obviously meant to imply that they don't have a better squad and that Rafa should be doing better, but in almost every example I can think of, it should be an honest question asked by people who don't know anything about the players in the X squad.

[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.

 

Do they have a much better side than us or are things just going well for them at the moment?

 

 

 

I don't think their form is a fluke, they are a tough, well organised side. Note the emphasis on tough.

[The College Dropout]

The team just isn’t good enough.  We lack quality.  A lot of our better players have huge hols in their games. Seemingly the best pure defenders at our club are injured.  Our best passer has no engine.  Our best finisher has poor build up play. All of our wingers lack quality. 

[TRon]

We could probably build a more effective team  with our budget to avoid relegation if we went the Allardyce/Pulis route, I don't know if that's what Mighty Mag is getting at. I think Rafa has bigger ambitions than that though, and his sides eventually would be a bit more sophisticated.

[TRon]

There again, I'm not sure Ashley would sanction a lot of the experienced player signings that Allardyce or Pulis like to buy.

[wormy]

There again, I'm not sure Ashley would sanction a lot of the experienced player signings that Allardyce or Pulis like to buy.

 

He did it for one summer then sacked Allardyce and we never saw money spent again.

[Guest ElCid]

He is making errors with both tactics and team selection the form in the last 11 games including a number of winnable games shows this. I do have major sympathy with the fact that he was under the impression he would be able to replace last years players with premiership quality standard. Never going to happen with fat c*** in charge. Should he of signed the players he did in the summer.

 

I’ve heard the argument saying he needed numbers but I don’t agree with this if you buy poor players you then have to play poor players. At the moment I think the problem is that he knows he has a lack of quality and is trying to pick a team he thinks will give him the energy and focus to put pressure on the opposition. It’s not currently working though in fact we look the worst team in the division by a long way currently. We cannot keep the ball for any length of time and as such the long ball is coming more and more into the teams play resulting in the ball coming back more and more and increasing pressure. Roll on this takeover otherwise I can’t see a hope in hell of staying up as the fat c*** won’t make the necessary purchases.

[mighty__mag]

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.

 

Do they have a much better side than us or are things just going well for them at the moment?

 

 

 

I don't think their form is a fluke, they are a tough, well organised side. Note the emphasis on tough.

they have just managed to make things click gritty determined and not afraid to play any sides big or small

 

Pretty much said similar to that in the rant. So we agree there.

 

The argument stems from me questioning why we cant manage this with a side I personally don't see as worlds apart from Burnley and also we have the more decorated manager.

 

So are you saying our side is full of whimps?

 

I might guess Rafa is to technical and precise and overlay detailed. And we carry to many thick cunts that cant manage to play and think at the same time, and of course id say many are whimps. If we are talking tough players, then I could only include Lascelles and Matt Ritchie although things may seem to not be going well for Ritchie,he does take the game seriously not afraid to shout at others who are sloppy.(but his form lately is questionable)

 

I think we are better than what we are showing. Earlier in the season there didn't seem to be a massive issue. Like I said though he's trying stuff out and the players just dont seem to get it atm.

 

Maybe time to revert back to what he knows best.