I don't know what you're thinking Rafa, but don't... - My thoughts on the Blackburn game.

That was awful. Utterly awful.I really don't understand what Rafa's plan was today but it was really poor management to make such a change to our squad.

Shelvey is in no way shape or form a captain. That was the worst decision Rafa has made since coming here. It should have been Lascelles on the pitch with Ritchie vice.

I see no reason why he waited so long to make a change when it quite obviously wasn't working after the first half.

Long balls to Mitrovic is a wet dream for the likes of Blackburn. We could have used someone more like Gayle.

I also don't see why Ritchie was put on the right wing to cut in while we relied on Atsu more to create things and cross the ball. It should have been the other way around.

I also don't see why Lascelles was dropped, Mbemba has done nothing to warrant being started above Hanley and Lascelles.

Ratings -

Darlow - 6 - Some good ariel work and commanding on the box. Decent kicking.

Yedlin - 4 - Got caught out a few times by balls over the top, lost his man completely at times. Not much going forward.

Mbemba - 3.5 - More silly runs forward.

Clark - 5 - He was ok but not great. Challenged hard and well when trying to press for an equalizer.

Gamez - 5 - Good work rate, not a bad game until his injury.

Shelvey - 4 - This guy is definitely not a captain. Some decent balls but it didn't come off today for him and those around him.

Hayden - 3 - I want to see more from him. Wanted too much time on the ball.

Ritchie - 5 - Tried hard but nothing came off for him. Wasted a couple of good chances.

Perez - 3 - Anonymous.

Atsu - 4.5 - Tried but just smothered by Blackburn players. Decent work rate and got stuck in though.

Mitro - 4 - Pwned by Blackburn....

Gayle - 4 - Two good opportunities missed.

Benitez - 4 - Poor.

 

Even god has an off day.
Hence the bog dwellers of Wearside existing..... plus arse hairs.
Rafa has won 9 out of the last 10 games..... it's just a bad day at the office.
He got it wrong today... we move on.

 

Dummett made much more happen than Gamez did. I thought he was one of our poorer players. But he was in good company.
When the officials let rather physical tactics go unpunished, we do seem to suffer.
And that keeper, with his time wasting tactics was in full control of the ref.

 

Blackburn manager Owen Coyle:
"We stuck to the game-plan, we asked them to stand toe-to-toe, we marked them man-for-man all over the park.
We knew we would have to do a lot of dirty work."
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extract from FIFA

Time-wasting is one of the worst forms of unsporting behaviour, because it attempts to deny opponents a fair chance of using the full allotted time to use their skills to win the game. As the FIFA General Secretary has frequently said, spectators do not go to football matches simply to see the goalkeeper standing still with the ball in his hands and waiting for nothing in particular before playing it; they want to see real skills, passes, dribbles, tactical moves, shots and of course brilliant saves by the goalkeepers.

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says it all really, but got away with it from a very poor ref

 

What a ridiculous reaction!

We could've won and you'd be giving 7s and 8s

We've played worse and won this season

 

You forgot your 2 out of 10 for Dummett, you psuedo-football manager you.

Mbemba was nothing like a 3.5 either. You could add a couple of points to most of those score to be honest. We were a bit flat and things didn't really go our way but Blackburn parking the bus was the biggest problem today and you've got to give them credit as they played very well when not in possession.

 

Tash....get a grip lad, are you Fredor's love child because quite frankly I don't give a sh!t about about your take on the game.
We've all got opinions on the game but don't make a weekly thread about it.

 

Wow, don't think he would have done, it was awful. We got what we deserved today, Blackburn are team who will very probably get relegted and we never looked like scoring. Play like that and forget promotion. Just shows that we have a few players who are not good enough to play for this club. Atsu was so far out of his depth today it was untrue how he got a 4.5 off Tash I don't understand. Hayden, Gamez and Yedlin are concerns for me. Don't forget we've got to play the rest of the top 7 away from home. Today and Wolves could come back and haunt us.

 

To be fair I don't mind him posting his opinion but I don't see why it can't be posted on the match thread along with everyone else's. That's where I post all my psuedo-intellectual guff. Saying that, a player rating thread after a match is fairly traditional so that part of it is fair enough. I don't suppose the poll threads on the forum can handle a rating system can they?

 

I like Tash's reviews.

 

What you think he was worse? Looked shakey today and always looked like he was going to cost us a goal. Clark was the only for me who had a half decent game today.

 

Probably a 5 or a 6. Get a grip mate. We weren't that bad.

 

We were crap against Preston and Cardiff

 

1st half against Preston we were, we were lucky to win that one. 2nd half against Cardiff was poor, thought today was our worst display of the season along with the Wolves game. Certain fringe players don't look good enough to get us out of this league.

 

Watched him first half guy looked badly off the pace, Clark was impressive, WE WERE 2ND BEST TO BLACKBURN WHO ARE ****, that is not acceptable. Full praise for the last 9 games but today was not good and a wake up call that there is still a lot of work to go. Can't get confident cos every time I do we lose and play ****. Atsu's not good enough only had one good game so far at Rotherham.

 

****s sake, we've lost a game. We're not going to win every one. We'll win on Tuesday.

What an over reaction.

 

You must have missed the Preston cup game then. Atsu played out of this world. He can be very good, although I'll say I'm not 100% convinced and I certainly would have subbed him for Gouffran in the second half.

You talk as if Blackburn steam-rollered us today. They did no such thing. It was a classic opposition performance from a visiting team to St James' Park. Teams are always doing this to us. Difference is this time our chances didn't go in and Blackburn's did. Our performance was flat but it really wasn't that bad.

 

I didn't at all say it's doom and gloom, I didn't give everyone a 1/10, I just stated I thought we were poor and there was disappointment shows from quite a few of them today. Others were average.

I think that's a fair review.

 

Losing a game? Meh.

Losing to Blackburn? Bad.

Not scoring? Terrible.

Dropping the Gouf? UNFORGIVABLE

 

Rafa rolled the dice with the cup game coming up in midweek. He tried to play the weakest team he could that would still snatch a win. We weren't good but we created a few chances. In the end it went the other way. If it hadn't we would be writing about what a genius he was. That's the thing about rolling the dice though - you're taking a chance, and today it didn't come off.