Match Day Thread Toon v Wigan

Oh come on - you go to the games to be entertained. You make it sound like some prison sentence that you have to perform. Having said that we all get different things from the game. - its nice to see loads of attacking football but having played as a defender I enjoy watching a well drilled defence keeping a clean sheet. Its been a weakness of ours for ages and I think its an area Rafa has improved and will continue to improve.
I also think that he was under tremendous pressure this year. His reputation was on the line. We had spent money and if we didnt get promoted he would/will find it very difficult to get another top job.
I judge him more on the way we played at the end of last season when we looked much more solid in defence combine with attacking flair. I still have faith that if we go up he can give us much better times in PL.

 

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^^^ proof of Albert kerb crawling

 

Well you can want to be entertained, but you pay your money for a seat to watch the team play and you have to accept the performance in front of you, good or bad. You didn't pay for entertainment as defined by Hank, you paid for a seat. And I still think too many fans think this set of players are better than they actually are.

 

At this stage of the season, we'll take whatever grim efficiency that gets us the points.
But we all want some entertainment. And at home we're not getting much. I'm old enough to have had a season ticket when KK's team were at their max, and although we won no silverware I would queue all night in the rain any time you like to win nothing year after year with that style of football in front of me.
Everyone could run with the ball back then, even in the second tier.

That's the trouble - the likes of me are spoilt!

 

So its no different to going to the cinema, theatre or a concert. I go because I want to enjoy myself and be entertained. Only difference is I will keep going back whether I enjoy it or not whereas If I dont like a film I wont go to the same one again. The joy of watching footy is that no matter how **** it is one week it could be much better the next week.
Only game I have been to this season was against Ipswich and we were sublime. Our first goal we scored without them touching the ball and every player in our team was involved in the move. Never seen that before and probably never will again. Worth going for that moment alone.

 

And on top of that I got to see Albert's cock in the Earl.

 

Well, no day is ever perfect!

 

And I'm old enough to remember us being so far ahead in the old second division by Christmas that the bookies had stopped taking bets on us being promoted. I think we finished 9th that year!!

 

Are you old enough to remember when Sunderland were invincible in the good old days before money ruined football?

 

My dead grandpa isn't old enough to remember that!!

 

I do pay. Its a family business which I help run so it comes directly out of all of our pockets essentially. I go to football to support my team and be entertained. I don't watch football to be bored to sleep. Allardyce tried this on me and I didn't like it. Closest I got to packing the whole thing in.

We will have to disagree. We set up and play football which I consider slow and with an emphasis on not losing. I prefer to try to win, with one eye on not losing if winning is not possible that day. Subtle difference. If you start a home game with 4 defenders, 2 sitting midfielders - you're setting up negatively in my opinion. Unsurprisingly the home results having spent significantly more than almost every other team back this (regardless of what was recouped we spent 57m to build a team)

I don't pay or go to watch my team pass the ball slowly sideways. You see it differently and think a supporter should just watch whatever is served up. Previously I'd agree. But once they turned this into a business and ****ed off all notion of a relationship with fans, I ****ed off the ideal that football was about more than just business. So if they want to rinse me week in week out for extortionate fees not in line with other countries, then they better serve up something worth being rinsed for Rafa is not managing that.

 

Yep. If you are not going to enjoy it then what is the point? Being entertained is enjoyment. I too love watching a good defensive unit. I'm not even sure we've seen that at home this season. We've been fantastic away. We're getting better defensively under Rafa overall. Hopefully a better class of player will aid us to improve performances, particularly at home. I just think though a lot will depend if Rafa can alter his home tactics to get the best out of those better players. He will certainly need to.

 

I'm with Hank. Some level of attacking play with a team set up to score first seems the minimum the supporters should get.

 

Think that lacks perspective of here to the last few seasons. To me seeing a team win is entertaining enough this season as i thought we'd struggle more than we have. Do i prefer this to watching pardew (excluding 5th), carver, McLaren? yes. You can't beat a winning feeling. Get you about Allardyce, hated him from beginning to end. But at the time he represented our fall, don't see it like that with Benitez. I think next season the football will be better, the type of player he can attract through reputation will mean he's got better options to take those attacking chances with.
Don't agree on the 57m thing, was he suppose to just spend a pittance on replacing cisse, janmaat, wij, sissoko, colo and all the useless ****s that hopfooted it on loan (cabella, de jong, krul)
That already averages out 7m a player

 

I think Hank just likes moaning!

 

Personally I think your reasoning lacks perspective. We are paying the guy a small fortune. The highest of any manager in the division and probably more than most PL clubs, with a likely whacking bonus for going up. We have provided him with a massive warchest. We have given full autonomy to do as he pleases. Hence when further spending was blocked in the January window quite rightly, he didn't kick up much of a fuss. He knew.

The answer to how Benitez is doing is not to look at people who failed miserably with the exception of Pardew. Don't misunderstand me, Benitez is doing a whole lot better than Allardyce, McClaren and Carver. I've been to the majority of games this season however and it has not been entertaining. Sure if you are taking McClaren as the bar, its been great - but ****ing hell McClaren was an absolute disaster. There have been games where its been good and the handbrake has come off - we've tended to win those games too. Mainly because we have better players than every side in the division. You say 7m a player, I think its more like 5.1m - bar Villa if you offered any manager in the division that sort of budget to buy 11 players, 90% of them would say "I will get you promoted comfortably". 60% of them would probably achieve it too.

I don't think he is doing a particularly better job than Pardew at this stage. In truth it will be difficult to ever compare the two as Benitez is working with a much better budget than Pardew, and with a completely different level of control. The goal was different. Pardew was there solely to see us through a difficult financial period as a yes man. He managed to do that. Pardew's best was far more entertaining than Benitez has been so far of course. Again though that is an unfair comparison to Benitez who is the embryonic stages of his time here. He's done a hell of a lot right.

This misunderstanding of the budget as I see it that people have I will never understand. It does not matter what we sold. If you look at what we had left before our splurge and after our sales, we had more than most sides in the division anyway. To then spend 57m on improving a championship side? Come one lets be completely realistic, we spent enough money to guarantee promotion provided it was spent correctly. It was. To suggest otherwise is utter rubbish to me. I'm not criticising his transfer work. He bought players to get out. Its his management of resources that deserves some criticism. He has done a fair job but no more.

I still have faith that at some stage he will remove some of the shackles. I just see the shackles as having been completely unnecessary. As I have said time and again I'm willing to give Benitez time before judging him. I've said already I hold out hope that better players will see him put more emphasis on attacking football. I just don't see why he is seen by some as beyond criticism?

 

I think you just like avoiding the real issue on these boards. Your prediction update.

 

Couldn't be arsed reading that. I ****ing hate long posts!

 

I'll shorten it for you:

• We spent a fortune, anyone who thinks otherwise isn't eating enough muesli
• Benitez has done an average job, anyone who thinks otherwise isn't getting enough protein
• We are not entertaining, anyone who thinks otherwise deserves to be the first exterminated by the andromedans