2021/22 Rafael Benitez

[Zatara]

That game will be horrific if he’s in our dugout and we’re getting leathered.

Late kick off as well.

Dreading it.

If nothing else, it will be one of lifes experiences.

 

[whiteshadow]

Who's asked him to go out and spend money?

He's picked players who are bang out of form continuesly, despite having other options on the bench ( very limited options at the moment ) BUT options.

Rondon played 90 minutes about 6 games in a row and genuinely didn't do anything, not a single thing in those games that was even remotely decent l.

Iwobi is a mess of a footballer, am absolute myth, yet when fit he seemingly always starts over Gordon who to me has actually been one of our only decent performers of the last month or so.

Micheal Keane started the season with about 8 mistakes and still kept playing the next game.

Coleman should be banished out of the club.

Again the options to replace these out of form players arent great and in some cases are very raw/equally bad. But when someone plays rancid for a number of games he shouldn't play again for a few games regardless of how bad the options are.

But kudos for you effort.

Agree about Rondon, although Simms hasn't been fully fit and RB doesn't seem to fancy playing Dobbin due to his age.

Agree about Iwobi being selected.

8 mistakes is an exageration, and his other main options Godfrey and Holgate are just as likely to mess up. In fact, I'd be suprised if Godfrey hasn't made more mistakes recently as he doesn't win headers coming in to the box. We need Mina back as him and Keane seem to work together but not much he can do about out current injury crisis.

Coleman should be back up, banished from the club is a bit strong. He's played decent this season. We didn't sign a RB when we should have though, so not sure what RB can do about us having no money and a rubbish DoF.

If he had played the other options and we were doing badly you'd be slating him for that.

To you and many others, he can't win, no matter what he does.

It's ridiculous that people want to sack him whilst having no solution. If we did sack him we'd have to pay him off and have no money to give to whoever we got in. I doubt that would make us an easy sell to any prospective manager as they'd know we'll have to sell at least one of our best players next summer to give them any money.

The way some people are carrying on is deluded.

We've wasted £500m on players over the last few years, yet our squad is rubbish.

We'll have almost no money for transfers if we get rid of Rafael to give to any new manager.

We only finished 10th with the most decorated manager in our history last season and he had money. (Yet the haters think we should be qualifying for Europe, despite giving Rafael only 1.7m)

Any new manager is going to have all the exact same problems both Ancelotti and Rafael was and are having, yet will most likely be way less experienced and have won less.

Imo, that's a far bigger risk than giving Rafael the time and respect to see if he can turn the team around.

If we get rid of him and it goes badly for the new manager we could end up in real trouble. You can see how weak the mentality of some of our players is.

Be careful what you wish for.

 

[Efcjake]

Without Mina and Doucoure = 6
With Mina and Doucoure = 10-12

I said it a week or so ago: we WILL be bottom half for a spell. How could we not be with the lack of firepower and other key personnel being out?

The squad is a shambles. We cant get results other than by having all out best players out on the pitch.

And if we are on 20 points by Christmas heads are going to fall dave.

 

[Calvin Aldi]

I think the Derby will be his last game

we won’t pick up any points before that and getting beaten by the RS will be the final nail in his fat coffin

Can you imagine how smug the travelling RS customers will be?. It was bad enough against Watford but this will be on another level.

 

[Calvin Aldi]

Agree about Rondon, although Simms hasn't been fully fit and RB doesn't seem to fancy playing Dobbin due to his age.

Agree about Iwobi being selected.

8 mistakes is an exageration, and his other main options Godfrey and Holgate are just as likely to mess up. In fact, I'd be suprised if Godfrey hasn't made more mistakes recently as he doesn't win headers coming in to the box. We need Mina back as him and Keane seem to work together but not much he can do about out current injury crisis.

Coleman should be back up, banished from the club is a bit strong. He's played decent this season. We didn't sign a RB when we should have though, so not sure what RB can do about us having no money and a rubbish DoF.

If he had played the other options and we were doing badly you'd be slating him for that.

To you and many others, he can't win, no matter what he does.

It's ridiculous that people want to sack him whilst having no solution. If we did sack him we'd have to pay him off and have no money to give to whoever we got in. I doubt that would make us an easy sell to any prospective manager as they'd know we'll have to sell at least one of our best players next summer to give them any money.

The way some people are carrying on is deluded.

We've wasted £500m on players over the last few years, yet our squad is rubbish.

We'll have almost no money for transfers if we get rid of Rafael to give to any new manager.

We only finished 10th with the most decorated manager in our history last season and he had money. (Yet the haters think we should be qualifying for Europe, despite giving Rafael only 1.7m)

Any new manager is going to have all the exact same problems both Ancelotti and Rafael was and are having, yet will most likely be way less experienced and have won less.

Imo, that's a far bigger risk than giving Rafael the time and respect to see if he can turn the team around.

If we get rid of him and it goes badly for the new manager we could end up in real trouble. You can see how weak the mentality of some of our players is.

Be careful what you wish for.

I cringe when I think of the money we've spent paying off managers. We'll probably appoint Pardew on an 8 year deal after Benitez.

 

[Papa Shango]

None of that matters.

Benitez wont be sacked this season unless we enter a relegation fight in the new year...HIGHLY unlikely I'd say.

Somewhat unlikely...

 

[Carloblues]

Agree about Rondon, although Simms hasn't been fully fit and RB doesn't seem to fancy playing Dobbin due to his age.

Agree about Iwobi being selected.

8 mistakes is an exageration, and his other main options Godfrey and Holgate are just as likely to mess up. In fact, I'd be suprised if Godfrey hasn't made more mistakes recently as he doesn't win headers coming in to the box. We need Mina back as him and Keane seem to work together but not much he can do about out current injury crisis.

Coleman should be back up, banished from the club is a bit strong. He's played decent this season. We didn't sign a RB when we should have though, so not sure what RB can do about us having no money and a rubbish DoF.

If he had played the other options and we were doing badly you'd be slating him for that.

To you and many others, he can't win, no matter what he does.

It's ridiculous that people want to sack him whilst having no solution. If we did sack him we'd have to pay him off and have no money to give to whoever we got in. I doubt that would make us an easy sell to any prospective manager as they'd know we'll have to sell at least one of our best players next summer to give them any money.

The way some people are carrying on is deluded.

We've wasted £500m on players over the last few years, yet our squad is rubbish.

We'll have almost no money for transfers if we get rid of Rafael to give to any new manager.

We only finished 10th with the most decorated manager in our history last season and he had money. (Yet the haters think we should be qualifying for Europe, despite giving Rafael only 1.7m)

Any new manager is going to have all the exact same problems both Ancelotti and Rafael was and are having, yet will most likely be way less experienced and have won less.

Imo, that's a far bigger risk than giving Rafael the time and respect to see if he can turn the team around.

If we get rid of him and it goes badly for the new manager we could end up in real trouble. You can see how weak the mentality of some of our players is.

Be careful what you wish for.

Dobbin or Simms ( more so Dobbin because he was fit ) should have started the last couple of games when rondon had done nothing got 5/6 games prior,.regardless how young he is we had zero upfront, even that bit of energy one of the kids would have brought would have been more than what rondon was offering.

Of course 8 was an exaggeration but it was genuinely about 4 goals conceded directly from him, I do agree about our other CBs being a bit crap apart from mina, however most of the goals we've conceded have come direct from set pieces and whatever way you slice and dice it that's something that can definitely be avoided with good coaching.

Coleman hadn't been decent for me, he's been shocking as he has been for years, I also happen to think Kenny is shocking but I'd have given holgate or even a youth a go at RB because Coleman is a shadow of his former self.

People are carrying on because people didn't want him on the first place, it's all good saying it's ridiculous to sack him, and I can see why you would think that but he should never have been appointed.

Im sure most other managers wouldn't be getting hounded out as quickly as Rafael is. And that's something he would have known about when he joined.

 

[whiteshadow]

I cringe when I think of the money we've spent paying off managers. We'll probably appoint Pardew on an 8 year deal after Benitez.

Me too, it's crazy how many times we've messed up over the last decade or so.

Wouldn't suprise me if it was someone like Pardew either.

That's actually my biggest worry if we do sack RB. I'm not sure our project is that easy a sell to a 'quality' manager with our finances being a mess.

 

[Papa Shango]

Benitez is not infallible and there are fair things to criticise him for, but some are going WAY over the top to call for a sacking right now

Absolutely he should not be sacked at this point. It would be utterly ridiculous.

This reaction was always going to happen though. If only we could have seen it coming eh?

 

[Papa Shango]

Me too, it's crazy how many times we've messed up over the last decade or so.

Wouldn't suprise me if it was someone like Pardew either.

That's actually my biggest worry if we do sack RB. I'm not sure our project is that easy a sell to a 'quality' manager with our finances being a mess.

Moshiri will put himself in charge. It's the next step.

We would probably still come 8th-13th.

 

[whiteshadow]

Dobbin or Simms ( more so Dobbin because he was fit ) should have started the last couple of games when rondon had done nothing got 5/6 games prior,.regardless how young he is we had zero upfront, even that bit of energy one of the kids would have brought would have been more than what rondon was offering.

Of course 8 was an exaggeration but it was genuinely about 4 goals conceded directly from him, I do agree about our other CBs being a bit crap apart from mina, however most of the goals we've conceded have come direct from set pieces and whatever way you slice and dice it that's something that can definitely be avoided with good coaching.

Coleman hadn't been decent for me, he's been shocking as he has been for years, I also happen to think Kenny is shocking but I'd have given holgate or even a youth a go at RB because Coleman is a shadow of his former self.

People are carrying on because people didn't want him on the first place, it's all good saying it's ridiculous to sack him, and I can see why you would think that but he should never have been appointed.

Im sure most other managers wouldn't be getting hounded out as quickly as Rafael is. And that's something he would have known about when he joined.

The zonal marking, and defending from set pieces has been gash. Totally agree with any criticism on that as, like you said, it's about coaching. Noticed Townsend marking Kilman from some corners against Wolves, which is mental as Kilman is 193cm.

I can understand why people don't like him, just getting rid of him isn't guaranteed to improve our results, we could even end up in a worse position if it goes wrong, which is likely with our current squad.

 

[ForeverBlue92]

The zonal marking, and defending from set pieces has been gash. Totally agree with any criticism on that as, like you said, it's about coaching. Noticed Townsend marking Kilman from some corners against Wolves, which is mental as Kilman is 193cm.

I can understand why people don't like him, just getting rid of him isn't guaranteed to improve our results, we could even end up in a worse position if it goes wrong, which is likely with our current squad.

The Zonal Marking is the only thing I can criticise him for at this point.

The 2/3 man midfield argument is redundant as Carlo largely played with a 442 and 2x in the middle. It wasn't an issue with Doucoure fit when we out played Brighton and Utd away from home.

Soon as Doucoure was out that was it for us - same as last season winning just 1 in 8 when he was injured.

Irreplaceable at present.

 

[Kev The Rat]

tap tap tap on his keyboard goes @ForeverBlue92 - spouting nonsense in a constant attempt to defend the waiter

yet on one topic he is strangely silent - should the waiter take us down, should he or should he not be fired?

 

[Dharma]

I think the Derby will be his last game

we won’t pick up any points before that and getting beaten by the RS will be the final nail in his fat coffin

All the Kopites singing the Kopites name.
Hard to see as a club we can sink lower, not sure it's something I want to witness.

 

[maccavennie]

The Zonal Marking is the only thing I can criticise him for at this point.

The 2/3 man midfield argument is redundant as Carlo largely played with a 442 and 2x in the middle. It wasn't an issue with Doucoure fit when we out played Brighton and Utd away from home.

Soon as Doucoure was out that was it for us - same as last season winning just 1 in 8 when he was injured.

Irreplaceable at present.

But Benitez said he watched the squad before he even signed for us so he would have surely then noted that whwn Doucoure is out we are absolutely crap with 2 in the middle. Ancelotti screwed up by doing it, surely Benitez would have noted that it doesn't work and pack that midfield with 3 and make us harder to walk through.

It's lazy management, not looking to find an alternative and he had the pleasure of being able to look back at the arse end of last season and see how utterly crap we were with a 2.