They are best our combo I reckon. We desperately miss Shelvey when he's out the team, though. Only player we have who can pick a pass and create anything.
Definitely (and I hate Shelvey)! Hope Rafa asks Shelvey to mentor Lobby - they have very similar traits!
Really not convinced by Ki. In the second half the **** received the ball a couple of times in our half off the CBs and under no pressure just knocked it back to them. Looked like he doesn't want the ball. We need the CMs to open their bodies when they receive it and look to get the ball forward. Very disappointing.
This being a premiership multimillion pound football club is making matches like this an absolute doddle. We can spunk millions on top quality players to blow aside championship squads with ease under our management class and sheer quality. We won right..... at a canter.... did we...\\!’n oh ****..../!23! We didn’t. Again..... since the first game of pre season we have won zero games. This season is ****ing epic. Can’t wait for the fanny farts to come out with crap........
Tell you what, if Pardew had produced an effort like tonight he’d be ****ing castigated. Rightly so, cos he did it enough. But the Rafa love in needs a reality check.
Rafa's not going to get anywhere near the same treatment, and to be fair his record in the game kind of demands it compared with Pardew. We have not played well in any of the first few games. We lack creativity in attack and even though Rafa had drilled them entirely to defend, they keep switching off there too. Recipe for relegation? Definitely. Palace lost loads at the beginning of last year and got out of it, and we were behind the run rate at half time last season and survived comfortably, so there is a certain length to be given to Rafa. Surviving last season was a miracle, and it looks like doing so again will be another one if we can manage it. Ashley will get the main stick, but Rafa has got clout in terms of picking his players with the funds that are available, and he has bought very poorly by and large. Would any of his signings be here next season if we had a new manager with fresh funds? No. Is there dressing room strife? The club seem to be working overtime with the press to insist there are no issues, but I think there is something worryingly wrong. Ultimately though the reality is, and Rafa knows this... We won't replace him with somebody better. I don't think you'll find one person who ever wants him out, based on that fact alone.
The players that Rafa has moved out, Haidara (even as a cover LB), Mbemba, Mitrovic, Colback, Mbabu even Saviet, would have provided more. We looked clueless in attack and fragile in defence, with no control in the middle of the park. Park the bus as a preventative and controlling measure, but we need an outlet and structure for when we do have the ball.
Whole thing feels ****ed top to bottom. Rafa doesn’t seem with it or interested, bunch of mystery injuries to our best and most influential players, morgue atmosphere at home, weird and ineffective tactics/selections, no comment (as usual) from MD or owner. It cannot go on. If relegation happens we won’t come back up; fan unrest/apathy is at its worst for 30 odd years. It’s one of those where you genuinely feel like just looking away until the bad bits are over.
You sounded exactly like this last season and probably the season before. At the exact same stage, every time.
Who should he have bought wen making the club profit and moving onto his 4th choices, which is guaranteed gash for a team like us? Fresh funds suggests there were funds before and rafa hadnt made profit on transfers in his 3 year here
We had a team that completely over-achieved last season and we spent the princely sum of minus 20 mil improving it this time round. People surprised by the football are surprising me right now.
Let's not get sucked into saying he hasn't spent any money because of net spend stats, that's a very Spurs outlook. Our transfer spend might be comparatively less than other premier league teams, but we may very well have spent as much in the last 3 years as Wolves or Fulham, and definitely more than championship clubs like Forest. Do we look better than any of them? Not at the moment. We have spent £15 million on Jacob Murphy and £9.5 million on Muto, and £6 million on Joselu. All Rafa decisions. That is nothing to do with Ashley. We have also bought Mitrovic, who we all thought we were too good for, and sold him... Only he has proven much better than we subsequently bought! We all know that the squad lacks serious invetment, but so does Burnley's. It's about making the right calls on players within your budgets, and we don't look like we have often enough in the last 2 years. My worry is, when we go down again, the players who were once championship quality will have declined with age, and the others might not be good enough full stop! But, that's just my reflection on the games to date.
It's the usual people with the usual histrionics. The sky is caving in every time something isn't perfect at the club or in a game.
And yet the first target with this type of fan is always the manager. Players can't pass the ball 5 ****ing yards - manager's fault. Players couldn't trap a bag of cement - manager's fault. If Newcastle fans can't cut Rafa some slack given his track record, both here and at every club he's managed in the past, then they will never cut any manager any slack.
Look it’s not just rafas fault but come on. The tactics and style of play atm is bloody awful. We had one shot on target. Against Nottingham Forrest. Bloody hell. Ok let me ask. Who do we blame for this tepid boring terrible football. When will we actually win a game this season. Last season we survived and got 10th by some miracle but surely we should be hoping for a little better than it being a miracle?
Something has to. Give. Could you imagine a third relegation What a cracking job the owner would have done. Eh
Utter bollocks. Utter and complete bollocks. The problem is the owner. The players by extension aren’t that good. But theres a third factor here in an insipid formation and tactic, a lack of identity. That been pervasive for a while. Don’t go all ‘Jose’ and say that current issues cannot be the managers fault because he won a load of trophies. That’s just plain ****ing ignorant.
Yeah I have no qualms that Rafa is being hamstrung by Ashley but to be completely out played all across the park yesterday was embarrassing, some of their build up play from the back and getting out of trouble in their defensive third was class - we showed no quality and every time we came under pressure just hoofed the ball long. As others have said (and some of the muppets in the media) if Allardyce was doing this there would be revolt in the stands! It is plain as day that we have a weakened squad this season - that is BOTH Ashley's fault for not investing but also Rafa's for the poor transfer windows he's overseen. Would you have rather made a net profit of £20m selling 4/5 and buying/loaning 7 players or done a Tottenham and not bought anyone but not sold either. TBH Id rather Mbemba than any of the defenders who started last night, Mitro over any of our strikers at the club.
Murphy is a colossal waste of cash, and we have been building a squad of low-quality automotrons who will blindly follow orders. It’s not beyond the realms of possibility that those daring to challenge are being dropped. I mean, Rafa has mentioned ****ing Manquillo when talking about the City game. Another piece of crap purchase he keeps picking. Yes, he’d rather be picking between Walker and Trippier, but if he’s pissed about that he shouldn’t be here, leave and let us have Megson or - if we’re super lucky - Pardew back. Nobody is under any illusion that once he goes we can’t even imagine the next level of crap Ashley will leave us with. But that’s not to say Rafa is beyond criticism for the dross we are seeing against some oretty average opposition. I mean, could we not afford or find the likes of Joe Lolley? Dias? Carvalho? Watford are tearing up the league with superb football and had a positive net spend. I’d never heard of their purchases. None of them were super expensive. But it looks like good scouting and progressive management has them in a good position. They fear nothing and play with freedom. Fulham are similar, as are Wolves, and a good number of others. As I say I don’t deny and will never suggest the blame lies away from Ashley. But to think we cannot get to the same level as Watford is nuts.
