Listen you lot. The quicker you all bend the knee to Rafa the sooner you will feel part of the Rafalution. Rafa got dis blud.
Don’t really know fella. Heard some black urban homies using that particular word outside the local Tesco Express the other night.
Hey, he knows a world class player when he sees one. Rafa has a lot of work to do to stave off Marcelo!
That was more down to Atsu not playing him in earlier giving the defender a chance to get a foot in. Perez's chance on the other hand........... I dread to think how many points we've lost this season simply because we don't have someone who is clinical in front of goal.
1 - Shelvey's attitude was disgraceful for the two goals should be dropped, granted Ritchie didn't help for the first but hands on knees should be a sackable offence 2 - Rafa's subs and game management were worse - he has cost us so many points now with poor team selections, tactics and game management 3 - Gayle is still average at best and not cut out for this league, don't let those two goals fool you 4 - Mitro still is the best striker on the clubs books and I doubt we will see Fat Boy Slimani more than 4/5 times this season - what a waste of wages 5 - After a great performance vs ManU and a reasonably positive 60-70mins on Saturday that last 10 mins was unforgivable for both players and manager
Was reading the updates on the BBC and shouting at my phone. Couldn't believe what was happening! Sub's were terrible (bar Gayle if he was injured) and we just seemed to drop deeper and deeper. Defended with literal balls on the line vs ManU at 1-0 but can't defend a two goal lead vs Bournemouth? That is a blatant lack of concentration and management from the players and manager for me. If we stay up I'll forgive them but if we go down by a point or two that will be the 10mins that cost us...granted though there are other games that we've thrown away this season but 2-0 up with 10 to go, we should see that out for me.
Don't worry about it mate, we're definitely staying up. We just need to stay positive and attack each game with real vigour. Manager, players and supporters. If we stick together we'll do this. I woke this morning a massively positive Newcastle United fan. We need to change our ways and get right behind the club - Ashley, Charnley, Rafa, the players, everyone.
God I hope you're right, desperately hope you are right, but its so tight down there I'm a bag of nerves constantly. As soon as the Liverpool game draws in I'll probably forget all about it but was so ecstatic up until the 70th min on Saturday then it just got worse and worse from there, feel like I'm on a comedown after a 5 day rave. Feel like a broken record complaining about subs and game management but moaning on here ain't gonna do nowt about it.... but i'm going to do it anyway... Kenedy off for Atsu - a LB/LW who looks like he could handle himself in a fight swapped for a tiny, paperweight lad who could be blown over by an ants fart? Ritchie for Manquillo - A workhorse who let one player get away from him for the first goal - again between him and Shelvey they should have picked up their men - for our worst player, can't figure that one out bar the Spanish biased. Gayle for Hayden - I'd have (through very gritted teeth) got Joselu on just to be the out ball OR put Merino on for the last 15m but Hayden was the wrong sub at that point for that man. Kenedy and Ritchie should have played 90 - Shelvey (after the first goal as Ritchie was) and Perez should have been hooked. This isn't hindsight either (I guess it is to a certain degree but I was saying these things to my mates as the game was going on) this is ****ing common sense.
This is the thing with Rafa, someone needs to ****ing tell him that just cos you're allowed to make 3 subs, doesn't mean you have to use them......any of them! Unless Kenedy, Ritchie or Gayle were injured they should have stayed on, all 3 of them. This "fresh legs" bollocks winds me right up, if they can't last 90 mins as a professional footballer then they need to have a long hard look at themselves. Atsu for me just simply has no football brain. He's meant to have a bit of pace about him, but every time he's back defending all he does is just ****ing hoof it back to the opposition. We were clearly on the back foot for the last 10mins of the game, why oh why people can't just get their acts together and keep to the simple things that got us 2-0 up and kept it that way for 80mins is beyond me. Can we give Chelsea Atsu back in exchange for Kenedy?
Maybe just send Atsu back and see if they notice? might be a tough sell... please log in to view this image please log in to view this image
I think he is right. We're ending games saying "wow, we should have won that easily". It's not even close to the **** McLaren served up. Subs were wrong, and frequently are. I do wonder again if it was all quite pre-meditated. It may even just be the way Rafa manages, perhaps he tells the three subs who they are before the match. It might be a psychological thing that's meant to better prepare the players for the match. Who knows, but it does seem incredibly consistent (and poor) to be just guesswork or bad in-game choices time and time again. Shelvey actually turned out to have hurt his knee - perhaps he might have said something at the time - the team should manage the game better on the pitch. This has been said by Benitez about 25 times already this season. I completely agree with pouchy that positive support will see this team survive. There's so much rancour around the relegation fighters, everyone's moaning and unhappiness everywhere. Stoke, West Brom, Southampton in particular. Swansea are optimistic even in relegation I expect, I think Palace fans are getting very restless as another Zaha injury might well do for them. Huddersfield get the odd result but are really, really poor and with -23 GD will definitely be down there. West Ham - couldn't happen to a nice club. We need to just be unequivocal in support and we'll be fine. For all the disagreements, it could be markedly worse than having a debt free club in the Premier League with Rafael Benitez in charge.
debt free? Think Ashley may have something to say about that. We could get gifted £200m, make £100m on selling players, increase all our income and reduce our wage bill to the point players were paying us and the accounts would still show £120M+ owing to Ashley. He's not giving up that, it's his stick to beat away buyers he doesn't really want sniffing around.
