I don't think any of our strikers are any good at this level, and I'm throwing Perez in that mix. I think we'd have been better off giving Murphy a shot. He's better than Glenn Murray. Think Rafa fcked that up - and also mis-spent what little he did have on Jacob. If it wasn't for Merino....
Agreed I wanted Murphy to stay as well, but he is an off the bench player at PL level at this stage of his career.
I reckon if we'd have had funds to improve midfield and get an actual LB, to do Left-Backy things, then we might have kept Murphy and never bothered with Joselu. If we had more quality in that team it wouldn't matter if he didn't have the legs to track back. Also think when Rafa got Jacob in he was expecting more money to spend, which is nuts. To be honest i cant believe that he's stuck around with conditions unbefitting of his status. I'd like to see Gayle be given a start. See if he magically regains some confidence from a goal, but yes, if our options weren't so bad I wouldn't even be contemplating it.
Yeah, but, he is actually. Play Joselu when Mitro is suspended. Just get the ****ing ball in the back of the net, first and foremost, and Mitrovic will do that more than Joselu. To be honest, considering Rafa sees Joselu as fitting his system the best at the moment, all I'm actually asking is to have Mitrovic on the bench and give the lad a sub appearance or two.
I think you are probably right about buying Jacob Murphy thinking he had more to spend, but also we have to acknowledge that some players don't always hit the ground running and need some coaching before you can pay them regularly in the first team. More true of foreigners to be fair, but it's far too early to write the lad off as a bad buy or think he won't be a good player for us. It's fair to say that Rafa's options were pretty limited and players were turning us down left, right and centre.
Źzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzźzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz nothing is happening here zzzzzzzzzzz zzz half time. Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz still nothing happening here zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz at last Burnley score zzzzzzzzzzzzz that's the great rafa for you.
Baz im only accepting the bold in this post cos I'm not sure you have a ****ing clue about what happens after half time. Guna stick about til 70 when you get Pardew?
Yeh there's still time and I'm not writing him off. Confidence looks low but this system isn't reyt familiar to him and he spent his career at Norwich so expected really. Arma seems to be doing naff all at Bolton currently by the way, shame that.
So that would be about where we are at now if Mitrovic had started some matches, as for Mitrovic putting the ball in the back of the net that's as rare as rocking horse **** in league football, why we keep buying donkeys is beyond me, young, dumb and cheap seems the only criteria rather than able to score goals but costly.
Our team is crying out for Mitrovic at present. Some of the play has been decent but after the initial run about from Joselu in the early games, Mitrovic would offer so much more. Unfortunately, and he only has himself to blame, I think Benitez feels let down by him and has blackballed him. I think he'll move him on in January regardless of the takeover and buy a new striker. Personally I think it is obvious he needs to play between now and then, or Gayle maybe, but I think Rafa will just stick with what he is doing. He is fairly stubborn.
Ah Stats, how about this one, NUFC lose more games than they win when Mitrovic plays, so far when Joselu has played we have won more games than we lose, non of our strikers are good but to think that all of a sudden Mitrovic is gonna turn into some sort of Serbian Shearer is a joke, I don't blame Rafa for not trusting him because he can't, Mitrovic's ban for what was an assault on another player just shows his complete lack of a brain in this regard, he lacks pace, is a yard off in football brain at least and is a fizzing grenade.
Rafa won't change, that's for sure. So it's 4-2-3-1 with a need for a strong CF who can hold the ball up. Joselu....I'm not entirely sure what he's supposed to be. I guess a tall finisher rather than a target man? Either way it's not working for him and his finishing is pretty much on a par with Mitrovic, so his value to the team is akin to Perez, really negligible. Not that great a defending from the front, and useless when attacking. The key difference is Mitrovic could be worth £20m, if he was playing, whereas Joselu is £5m or less and not getting any better. Rafa sees considerably more than us, so we have no idea if Mitro is applying himself in training, or just being petulant. Whatever he is doing isn't working for Rafa so we have to respect the manager in that regard. The bench thing I understand as all Mitro is going to do is the same job as Joselu, so if the gameplan isn't working there's little point in having like-for-like subs. I'd like to see Mitrovic given game time, even if just to get some money back. But I do agree that Mitrovic is an abysmal finisher, we cannot forget the appalling part he played in relegation. Hell, even the one bright spark - hammering Tottenham - happened without him!!! Joselu isn't really anything other than a squad place, he should not be first choice up front when we have Mitrovic who, at the very least, has some talent. In an ideal world, I'd literally get rid of the entire front four and replace with decent players, it's kind of gotten that bad.
Think that Mitrovic has scored 7 in his last 9 appearances for Serbia. I'm sure i read somewhere that his goals to starts ratio is something 1 goal in every 1.75 games he starts. People judge him [wrongly] on his sub appearances. This useless tag is easily banded about because people like a scapegoat. Well here is one - Joselu. Bought to score goals and him hitting the target is about as rare as a Sunderland home win. He's a Spanish Riviere.
2017/2018 Newcastle United EPL 0(2) 1 2016/2017 Newcastle United EC 11(14) 4 2015/2016 Newcastle United EPL 22(12) 9 He has only actually started 33 league games in 2 and half seasons (almost). He has managed 14 goals. He has made a further 28 appearances from the bench. Quite simply the lad hasn't played much. So any judgement either way is purely driven by personal preference rather than stats. The stats don't actually tell you a lot. You could say he did ok in his first season when he got a few more chances. We were relegated of course but I don't think anyone is stupid enough to suggest that was down to him. Ignoring his age etc, the problems of course ran a whole lot deeper. The biggest one being to have an inept manager in charge for a large portion of the season. Similarly it would be harsh to suggest we lose because Mitrovic plays. Personally I'd like to see Mitrovic and Gayle in tandem as it looked really good. Personally I think if anyone thinks Joselu is better than Mitrovic then they are mad as a ****ing *****ose
That unfortunately highlights the utter inflexibility of Benitez, he'll always play a loan striker; when we turned around the Norwich game to win 4-3 last season, it showed how lethal those 2 could be together, and Norwich couldn't cope at the end with Mitro terrorizing their defenders allowing Gayle to get the goals. While I would say Mitro is probably better than Joselu, I don't think there's much in it, and I don't get the Mitro love in and Joselu hate band wagon.
I don't think there is much of Mitrovic love in now. Even those asking him to be considered are pretty much fed up of his antics in terms of behaviour. I think it is more just a case of considering him a much better option than Joselu. To be honest I'd rather have retained Murphy if we were going to spend 5m on Joselu. He's a better finisher.
EPL goals per game stat say he is I'm afraid: Gayle 1 goal every 4.9 games Joselu 1 Goal every 6.5 games Mitro 1 goal every 3.8 games Rather a Striker who scores and misses a few games than one who misses goals and plays constantly. In regards to Joselu's defensive work - he needs to be in the box, how many crosses were aimed at Atsu (our smallest player) on Monday because Joselu was still jogging up from linking play further back?
I think it must be Rafa insisting on this though because Mitrovic ended up doing the same and being criticised for it.
Yeah me too. And I get that the defensive work Joselu does is part of the game plan and we have conceded the 4th least goals in the division but we have scored the 5th least goals and there are 10 other players behind the striker to do that work, the strikers are there to score goals.
