Okay I'm beelin'.......

I honestly think we will NOT get promoted this year now and here are my reasons why:

Rafa Tactics
He seems to persist with a formation, and more importantly personnel who are either out of form, in need of a rest, or simply not up to it. The two biggest liabilities right now are Lascelles and Ayoze. Both were piss poor again last night. If we had Chancel at the back and Gayle or Diame bearing down on goal instead of those two, mark my words the score would have been more like 4-0. It's not just last night, it's been happening for weeks now. His system is too inflexible too IMHO. Love Rafa to bits but it has to be said that he is making tactical mistakes.

Our Fans
The way our fans get on the back of the players is shocking. They should put as much energy into cheering the team as they do with that embarrassing 17th minute (and the other one?) clap they do. I noticed the Strawberry corner trying intentionally to turn that clap into more of a 'clap/chant thing' to dilute it so fair play to the lads and lasses in that corner.

Our fan base seems either to sit in silence... or give the players ****. No wonder they look like startled rabbits at home at times... there's 52,000 on their back. Contrast this with away games and there's a massive gulf. At away games we sing like **** and really support the team... and guess what.... our record away is better than at home.... coincidence? I think not.

Our fans on Twitter are just as bad too... constantly flinging ****e towards our players and demonising Ashley... when Charnley is the one with the NUFC purse strings (most media outlets... plus Rafa and Ashley have confirmed this).

Charnley
I'm now starting to suspect, by Rafa's reaction last night that Penfold has indeed ****ed him over big time. Never seen Rafa like that. It worries me immensely. We've just saved £50k a week on Tiote's wage so if Palace were indeed taking the piss asking for another £2m then we should have just ****ing paid it.

Other Teams
There's about 4 teams outside of Brighton who are in the ascendancy and seem to be mounting a real push for the automatic play off places. They've also strengthened in January too. This does not bode well.

Prediction
I hate to go all Mr T on you... but........
We will not get into the automatic play off places and will fail to win the play off final at Wembley. At this point Rafa will walk and we will sell the likes of Ritchie, Shelvey, Gayle and Lascelles. We will then see (as predicted by Nev) our club drift along as a mid table Championship team for several years to come.

I know the above goes against my usual positive outlook but I saw a team and manager last night running out of ideas and inspiration fast. They were like rabbits in headlights and have been at home for quite some time now.

I'll still follow the lads home and away of course... but it doesn't stop my arse twitching like a rabbits nose right now......

KTF...

 

You say they get on their backs, but Perez got a lovely round of applause when he went off despite playing like a ****hawk. Its a two way street too, they have got to be better and not go through the motions. I do think some fans are fickle but generally we are pretty good given what we have to watch at times. Admittedly where I sit they are bit quiet but quite a few of them are posh ****s who are there for the food and drink.

 

I can see us winning every game this month and everything being fantastic

 

Plenty others were booing prior to and during those few in the Strawberry corner clapping and singing for him though. That's why Perez went all huffy and chucked his writsband down.

Twats round me do nowt but moan and this isn't helping the team. We have a job to do too.

 

I think we will fail to get promoted and sell all of our best players.

 

I agree but I just think good supporters far outweigh bad. Its pretty unusual for clubs with 50K plus fans most weeks not to have a few knackers.

 

We're two inches from your post not existing, mate. If Clark jumped a split second earlier it spins out for a corner. (not his fault, I hasten to add!!)

We're nervy at home, this is true. I think we'll be better at home in the Premier League (we'll have to be, 'cos we'll be considerably worse away!!)

Gayle's back soon. Atsu offers threat from the bench. Diame is considerably better than Perez. Mbemba might get a shot instead of Lascelles. Ditto Lazaar/Dummett. The squad is deep enough to keep us in the top two. I do admit it's nervy though.

The fans aren't great, sure, but as Big Ern says the players should have gone for the jugular against QPR. Look at Man City against West Ham - if I was Rafa, that's what I'd be showing them. They went at it, they scored. They then smell blood and go for it, whack, 2, 3, and eventually, at 4-0, they sit back and play possession football. At 4-0, the game is won. Not fcking 1-0 with a minute on the clock, as our morons seemed to think.

I do think Rafa needs to step up the urgency. We're down to about a third of the season - NOW is the time to really go for it, this IS the run in. The players don't need to be fresh for their Summer holiday, ffs. I want to see an urgency against Derby and when we score a fcking goal I want us to score MORE goals. Only Ritchie/Shelvey seem to understand this, it's why Ritchie gets so fckng irate; he knows we have to bang another in or we won't win the game, but his game/situational awareness is far greater than that of, say, Perez, Hayden or the entire defence (bar Yedlin, who kept going forward, sensibly). More shame Rafa here because the record screams WE CANNOT KEEP A CLEAN SHEET. He must know that if we don't score AT LEAST 2, we won't win a game, yet every week we seem to play pragmatic, dull, stifling football.

I get there's a "job to be done", but at this point there's no such thing as an easy game. A dozen teams could get promoted still, a dozen could go down. Everyone's playing for something. He's got to wake up and smell the coffee - we've got to see a repeat of most of the second half, intensity, pressing, forward passing, quick movement. This lethargic garbage has got to stop; it's one thing when you have Gerrard, Alonso and Riise in your side (Istanbul 2007), who can change a game, but we simply aren't playing to strengths anywhere near enough.

I'm annoyed because I've been hoping for an "identity" for Newcastle United under Rafa; sadly he's plumped for this 4-2-3-1 and it doesn't work for us at all.

 

Who are they?

 

I was thinking that, not many would go to Premier League Clubs and most Championship Clubs couldn't afford them.

 

I would honestly stop playing Ayoze, Lascelles and Dummett. Hayden's is not far off that list either

The only problem is who do you bring in. Mbemba is clearly our best CB but is lacking confidence, Rafa needs to manage him right, build him back up so he can be formidable again.

It's all good getting Ayoze out, but who in? Diame can be equally frustrating, but to be fair can score and pass so its definitely a benefit! or go 2 up front? Play Diame in a CM role?

Drop Dummett, Tell Haidara and Lazaar the position is up for grabs and let them have a few games each to battle it out, or even play Gamez, you know the guy who was in Atletico Madrid's squad, the champions league runner ups?

I would personally play two up front for all first half home games, I would aim to batter teams as quickly as possible and blow them away, try and get 2 or 3 -0 up and then go one up top. Mitro and Murphy to battle it out to partner Gayle.

The confidence of the team last night was for all to see, sloppy play, scared. Commentators said it was complacency, but I fear it's much worse!

 

The thing that really pisses me off about this whole thing is that it obvious to everyone that certain players just aren't performing in games. Perez, Dummett, Lascelles are absolutely shocking. Can someone please tell me what Mbemba [our best defender by an absolute mile] has done wrong? It would have been like Man Utd dropping Rio Ferdinand/ Jaap Stam in their prime for John O'Shea. Mbemba and Clark would shore up our defence in an instant.

Dummett - We all know he is crap. Why is Lazaar not at least being given a chance to establish himself?

Perez - How he continually plays is a mystery.

Rafa - Sorry, but he needs to change his tactics at home. You don't play one up top at home in the Championship with the players we have. We should be attacking teams at will and destroying them.

 

At this point, I'd just like to see basic 4-4-2 deployed. Bollox to having a dedicated DM, that's a Premier League tactic, just stick our best CM's together - Diame/Shelvey - and see what happens. Big man/little man up top, Murph/Gayle, with Mitro/Perez behind. Sammy/Ritchie left/right, Lazaar/Yedlin full back, Mbemba or Hanley with Clark in CB.

Our team is the best in the league. All this fannying around can't be helping. Murph was so isolated against QPR and the lad Luongo just kept mopping up.

 

I'm sick of hearing all this moaning we were unlucky ffs

We're still doing well

We knew it would be tough

We could win the next two games and be laughing

 

After Chippy wrote

"I...think..."

I just knew the rest of it was fiction and therefore didn't bother reading it.

 

did feel a little sorry for perez , to be honest ..where gouff in my eyes was just fooking about and most of the others .

anyway if players can not take pressure ...why be a footballer ...full stop go and do a different job or retire ..

good players get motivated by nerves and pressure ...

last night was alot of pissy passy slow rubbish ...simple as . what happened to hi tempo football ..

would not panic yet but some **** and home truths have to be spoken within this team or group of players

 

This and it is a two way street. Even though he got a loud round of applause HE DIDNT EVEN ACKNOWLEDGE THE FANS.... He kept his head down and walked off stomping his feet because Ritchie told him off.

The boy needs to get a grip and some balls. The players need to take a long hard look at themselves.

The boo boys in the stadium maybe dont help, but some of the basic mistakes that Lascelles and Perez where making last night deserved the boos.

 

Proper harsh that, subjecting Mitro to perez, I would play Mitro/Gayle as Mitro is better in the air and has better hold up play and would therefore complement Gayle more, whereas Murphy is more clinical, which we don't need if Gayle is there.

 

I didn't see that to be honest. The bench is directly below me, I rarely pay attention to the departing player bar clapping them off.

Perez is starting to cut a frustrated figure though. His body language suggests his confidence has fallen through the floor now. As I've said many times I'd prefer to see him in a 343 with a bit of freedom. He looks like he could do with coming out of the side for now.

I still think we should have brought Arma back.

 

Sorry, I meant Mitro behind Murphy who I think just offers more in this division. Perez as an alternative to Gayle, nothing more. Unlike Rafa, I wouldn't rotate for the sake of it. Given the injuries and form yesterday, I think rotation should be binned.

 

Our strongest 11, played in a formation that works for all of them would be formidable in this division. There's no arguments about that. We should at the very least be playing 4-4-2 with either Mitro/ Murphy alongside Gayle, Diame either in CM with Shelvey or playing behind the front two with Atsu and Ritchie on the wing. Back four would be Yedlin, Clark, Mbemba and Lazaar. Only change that for injuries/ suspensions. It's simple really.

Perez, Dummett, Hayden, Lascelles are for me are complete liabilities at the moment and should only play as back ups.