2021/22 Rafael Benitez

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They have been very average. But the results have been good. I want performances to be better but understand there's caveats, especially with injuries, and it's early in Benitez's tenure. I'm not wanting him sacked. But at some stage the results will match the level of performances so performances will have to pick up.

Not asking for Man City or prime Barca, just wanting us to string together a decent hour of footy which I've seen us do v Brighton and, for the most part, Leeds.

We’ve been average in patches, show me a team that isn’t. As someone said, we’ve deserved all our points. But before the season started & seeing the fixtures, most of us were saying we should be winning the majority of them, we did & now you’re complaining about level of performance. New manager, new ideas, new tactics, new players & we’ve mostly did ok. Ideal set of fixtures for the players to get to know what is expected of them. Yeah, things will get tougher but. IMO, no one can have a go at Benitez………..yet.
 
We’ve been average in patches, show me a team that isn’t. As someone said, we’ve deserved all our points. But before the season started & seeing the fixtures, most of us were saying we should be winning the majority of them, we did & now you’re complaining about level of performance. New manager, new ideas, new tactics, new players & we’ve mostly did ok. Ideal set of fixtures for the players to get to know what is expected of them. Yeah, things will get tougher but. IMO, no one can have a go at Benitez………..yet.
We've been more than average in patches though, haven't we. All I'm saying is I've not really seen these signs of a sustainable way of playing that others have. I'm pleased with the intensity/effort etc, but I think we're missing a lot of quality (injuries not helped there) and also look a bit hap-hazard defensively from certain situations.

But we've been poor as much as we've been good, and that's why I said it's a 7/10 for me, cause the results have at least been there.
 
We've been more than average in patches though, haven't we. All I'm saying is I've not really seen these signs of a sustainable way of playing that others have. I'm pleased with the intensity/effort etc, but I think we're missing a lot of quality (injuries not helped there) and also look a bit hap-hazard defensively from certain situations.

But we've been poor as much as we've been good, and that's why I said it's a 7/10 for me, cause the results have at least been there.
Its 9/10 for me, results are all that matter, he loses 1 point for us getting utterly bummed at Villa, the QPR result is nothing to me.
 

How many pages will this thread get to until he gets the sack/leaves the club. Place your bets....
dr-evil-one-billion.gif
 
Its 9/10 for me, results are all that matter, he loses 1 point for us getting utterly bummed at Villa, the QPR result is nothing to me.

Fair enough

I just think too many people took the 'results all that matter' approach in winter last year when we got properly bogged down with the 4 CBs etc and then came out of that spell looking like a team that had no other way of playing.

I'm not saying that's definitely the case here, btw, I just think we're gonna have to show more quality for longer in matches to push on this year.
 
We've been more than average in patches though, haven't we. All I'm saying is I've not really seen these signs of a sustainable way of playing that others have. I'm pleased with the intensity/effort etc, but I think we're missing a lot of quality (injuries not helped there) and also look a bit hap-hazard defensively from certain situations.

But we've been poor as much as we've been good, and that's why I said it's a 7/10 for me, cause the results have at least been there.

There's a good reason for that. We havent really got any.
 

When we interviewed Benitez for the job ,it reminds me of the old joke .A School advertised for a caretaker and handyman ,when this guy whent to the interview ,he was asked ,are you good at plumbing he said no ; what about joinery no , brick laying no ,What makes you handy ,I ONLY LIVE OVER THE ROAD
Sometimes the security of punctuality is all you need to get a start.
 
We've been more than average in patches though, haven't we. All I'm saying is I've not really seen these signs of a sustainable way of playing that others have. I'm pleased with the intensity/effort etc, but I think we're missing a lot of quality (injuries not helped there) and also look a bit hap-hazard defensively from certain situations.

But we've been poor as much as we've been good, and that's why I said it's a 7/10 for me, cause the results have at least been there.

Interesting take re the sustainable way of playing. To me the sustainability of how we've played so far has miles more longevity to it than how we started last season.

The xG stats for this season suggest we are doing well, rather than being lucky. They also suggested the Villa game was incredibly close. Only City and Liverpool have a higher expected points than us so far. The caveat is that we haven't had many "difficult" games yet, so it's too early to judge. The xG stats were also equally as good at this point last season.

What I would say is that I think we look a lot worse from set pieces so far this season than we did last year. That could be an issue. The structure and shape of the team, while not perfect, looks far better than at any point last season to my eye though.

I'd go about 7 to 8 out of 10. The QPR game was an issue for me. The Villa game was a bit unlucky. There have been patches in games where we've not impressed, but there's a definite plan there.

I'm mostly encouraged, but I'd rather be scoring this after at least a dozen games or more
 

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