2021/22 Rafael Benitez

[blueloon]

One thing that impresses me about Benitez is the way he talks with the young players about their game, Gordon , Branthwaite and Simms have mentioned this recently and in the aftermath of last night‘s game he could be seen talking animatedly to Dobbin , moving his hands and looking like the conversation was all about what he’d just achieved ,what more is expected of him. You’d expect that of most managers , but it seems a long time, maybe back to Martinez , since we’ve had somebody do this.

 

[Kev The Rat]

Utter free fall under this pig.

Throwing a load of balls in the air and seeing if a few of them come up trumps is no strategy.

 

[Kev The Rat]

One thing that impresses me about Benitez is the way he talks with the young players about their game, Gordon , Branthwaite and Simms have mentioned this recently and in the aftermath of last night‘s game he could be seen talking animatedly to Dobbin , moving his hands and looking like the conversation was all about what he’d just achieved ,what more is expected of him. You’d expect that of most managers , but it seems a long time, maybe back to Martinez , since we’ve had somebody do this.

The second part of your user name is extremely apt

 

[Kev50]

The second part of your user name is extremely apt

and so is yours

 

[Nymzee]

One thing that impresses me about Benitez is the way he talks with the young players about their game, Gordon , Branthwaite and Simms have mentioned this recently and in the aftermath of last night‘s game he could be seen talking animatedly to Dobbin , moving his hands and looking like the conversation was all about what he’d just achieved ,what more is expected of him. You’d expect that of most managers , but it seems a long time, maybe back to Martinez , since we’ve had somebody do this.

It’s all well and good talking to young players but would rather see him actually use them.

 

[Legend78]

I agree with all that and I can't stand Benitez but I'm not sure that there was any other way to play that game with the team we had out.

The worry , for me , is that he would have played the same way against Chelsea with our first XI

Well if he gets two or three transfer windows.. gets to bring in his own players, gets the team playing the way he wants to with those players and he is still playing that way then your concerns will be fully justified.. at present he is being judged on previous managers players which is not right.

 

[Nymzee]

Well the trio of doom are awake and rimming Benitez so that’s me off out to the pub.

 

[davek]

Last night we saw Gomes Gbamin Iwobi all on the pitch busting a gut at times to try and close down Chelsea. I’m not saying any of them were particularly good quality wise but the fact that they are fit, and actually running for the team, at a top away ground when we were behind, shows the difference already.

I’ve seen this group of players give up so many times. Whole games when they’ve barely broken a sweat, or just stopped as soon as they’ve gone behind. Some of the moments even in games we’ve lost have been heartening seeing previously useless players for us actually wanting to put a shift in.

This foundation will reap benefit in time if people can keep their pitchforks away for long enough.

Imagine an improved first team (Gray DCL Richarlison, Doucoure Allan, new signings) all doing that sort of effort, every game, with quality options on the bench to rotate in, all with more time under their belt learning the system. That scenario may only be a window or two away.

The defending second half was superb. Great lines held in front of Chelsea with one of them every now and again peeling off and pouncing on a loose ball across our lines. Energy levels right up there and also handing Chelsea a headache on the break. Mount may have scored, but I thought Branthwaite did very well against him.

TBF to you, you were seeing the green shoots a few weeks back in the bleak period. It's there and it needs nurturing, not a load of people walking over it with hobnail boots on screaming blue murder and destroying confidence.

The ones who are desperate to get Benitez out need to ask themselves whether they care more about that than the well being of this team and club.

 

[blueloon]

The second part of your user name is extremely apt

Cheers for that, most people are a bit thick and don’t realise that in the dialect in my part of the world the word “ loon “ means a young male person e.g “ There‘s Kev and his loon off to the match”. I’m impressed that you obviously know that.

 

[ToffeeTim]

One thing that impresses me about Benitez is the way he talks with the young players about their game, Gordon , Branthwaite and Simms have mentioned this recently and in the aftermath of last night‘s game he could be seen talking animatedly to Dobbin , moving his hands and looking like the conversation was all about what he’d just achieved ,what more is expected of him. You’d expect that of most managers , but it seems a long time, maybe back to Martinez , since we’ve had somebody do this.

He should have used them earlier. He waited until he had no other choice.

If he goes back to Rondon next week then he's learned nothing

 

[davek]

Well the trio of doom are awake and rimming Benitez so that’s me off out to the pub.

Dont kid yourself we're in the minority.

 

[BirkenheadBlue]

he could be seen talking animatedly to Dobbin , moving his hands and looking like the conversation was all about what he’d just achieved ,what more is expected of him.

My god, that's like something out of Alan Partridge.

"But his eyes glazed over and he just took another bite of his boiled egg. It was a bite that seemed to say, ‘Son, I don’t want to talk about war, because I’ve seen soldiers decapitated like in Saving Private Ryan.’

‘The only soldiers I want to talk about are the ones I dip in my boiled egg, which coincidentally has also been decapitated!’ his next bite seemed to add. This was typical of my dad – or would have been if he’d said it"

 

[Nymzee]

The ones who are desperate to get Benitez out need to ask themselves whether they care more about that than the well being of this team and club.

The irony here will be lost.

I would expect and hope we get beat against Chelsea.

 

[Nymzee]

Dont kid yourself we're in the minority.

You are the minority but nice you realised I was talking about you.

 

[Marius57]

Exactly. We’ve been rubbish for so long that most people seemed to accept that any repair job here was a long term one, multiple seasons, fixing the underlying issues of player fitness, poor recruitment, poor mentality etc,

Instead there’s people going berserk because we lost to Palace (who also beat City) or Brentford (who beat Arsenal), or getting incensed because Rondon gets game time over Simms, or if you select ten specific games of the season we’ve got relegation form.

It’s all just small beer. Patience is required for the bigger picture changes and these inconveniences at the moment are irrelevant. We’re not looking likely to go down at all, therefore every effort now should be directed to fixing the big problems at the club, not trying to get managers fired because he lost against a certain team or played a certain player. None of these things are any rationale to sack a manager given the conditions he walked into here.

It's not selecting 10 specific games. It's selecting the last 10.

Do you not think our form is abysmal? A few results at the beginning of the season (results not performances) seem to have convinced you he is doing a good job.