2021/22 Rafael Benitez

[Lee Smith]

Ha ha ha

This laughable Tweet should not come as any surprise.

It’s a widely ridiculed Spanish journalist defending a widely ridiculed Spanish manager and close friend.

 

[Rothanaa]

We have essentially the same side as last season minus James, Bernard and our number 10. Keep in mind Ancelotti also had injuries to Digne, Allan, Docoure, James and Mina throughout the season. However, we managed to stay in the top half of the table pushing for an European spot until that horrible run towards the end. Ancelotti knew how to get the best out of this limited squad.

With Bentiez, we look lost defence and attack. Never takes accountability for his game plans and deflects the onus back to the players. His falling out with Digne shows that he is an egotistical maniac. He is the Spanish Koeman.

 

[lancs blue]

Should have been punted weeks ago to let a new boss have a run on transfer window

Oh well can't distract Billy whizz and Denise thr mouth from their game of scrabble

 

[sageyefc]

tactical genius apparently.

 

[MACCA75]

His ego will stop us playing 3 in midfield, his ego will stop us man marking at corners, his ego will see us playing right footed players on the left, and his ego will get us relegated.

 

[Rothanaa]

While Ancelotti definitely shared the struggles of the others, he also had Keane looking like a great defender and Godfrey a real prospect. They are two of the most alarming examples of drops in quality under the new regime.

That basically leaves Mina as our best senior defender and he’s made of marshmallows. Holgate is truly abysmal; he should be so far past his last chance now that it’s unreal. I’d genuinely be starting academy players ahead of him.

Hopefully the new FBs provide a bit of balance but while there’s still a massive leak in the middle I can’t imagine that’ll be the case.

Great post, Ancelotti made Godfrey and Keane look like solid PL players. He even got Holgate playing well the season prior. We need a new CB to pair with Mina in the summer if we want to move forward with the club. I would sell Keane and Holgate to facilitate this and promote Branthwaite.

 

[Zatara]

Yes he played a 5-4-1 and we got mullered, Gordon and Gray came out in the second half and gave us some life and pushed up

He played Coleman as left wing back, absolutely indefensible.

He’s supposed to be cautious manager yet cannot set up a defensive unit to save his life. He could easily grind out results in these games, but he’s set on his ways from 2003 that won him a league with Valencia

Theres zero chance Benitez gets any change from the team in his 4231 type formation (im ignoring the back 3/5).

The players dont fit it...

Positively he has brought in wingers + Gordon now getting games.

Bringing in full backs.

I think he needs a centre back and a defensive midfielder before the 11 can play his system.

Yes its annoying, yes i dont like him or the system but on the positive side we should see a change in personnel. For starters only 1 or 2 midfielders are suited to 2 in the middle.

While Ancelotti definitely shared the struggles of the others, he also had Keane looking like a great defender and Godfrey a real prospect. They are two of the most alarming examples of drops in quality under the new regime.

That basically leaves Mina as our best senior defender and he’s made of marshmallows. Holgate is truly abysmal; he should be so far past his last chance now that it’s unreal. I’d genuinely be starting academy players ahead of him.

Hopefully the new FBs provide a bit of balance but while there’s still a massive leak in the middle I can’t imagine that’ll be the case.

Only shining light at centre back may be the emergence of Branthwaite over the rest of the season.

 

[COYBL25]

Have to say as a defender I wouldn't fancy playing in front of Pickford. Yesterday on that first goal he came flying out jumping as the ball rolled along the ground, he is a good shot stopper no questions but his overall game is awful imo and I doubt it inspires confidence in the rest of the back line who are not much better.

In defence of Pickford, imagine having those clowns in front of you, knowing how flaky they are and add to that the fact that the defence still don`t appear to know what they`re doing. Then add to that, the fact that you know that the opposition are going to steam through the non existent midfield at will, you`d be a bit twitchy too.

 

[ForeverBlue92]

As it stands we are absolute bottom on the form table. Newcastle will definitely spend, Burnley will grind out results and they all have to play us. Norwich aside, I'm not confident we are capable of beating anyone in the league.

We were saying this weeks ago then picked up 4 points from Chelsea/Arsenal whilst the bottom 3 have remained the bottom 3.

 

[Saint Domingo]

Yes he played a 5-4-1 and we got mullered, Gordon and Gray came out in the second half and gave us some life and pushed up

He played Coleman as left wing back, absolutely indefensible.

He’s supposed to be cautious manager yet cannot set up a defensive unit to save his life. He could easily grind out results in these games, but he’s set on his ways from 2003 that won him a league with Valencia

No manager out of our last 5 has easily ground out results though? The only exception was Ancelotti for a period. Even then though there were numerous games in his first 12 months when the fans were saying ‘that one was all down to Ancelotti’

We had one of the best managers of all time, a tactical genius trying to steer us to wins over bottom half premier league teams at home that we were often getting bested in in terms of possession.

Benitez is nowhere near Ancelotti sadly. Koeman Silva Allardyce didn’t grind out routine wins with a lot of these players. That’s why they got fired. Ancelotti was struggling to do it by the end as well. Why do we think Benitez should magically start?

We just can’t have any arrogance now with this squad. We don’t have a divine right to beat Brentford, Norwich, Newcastle, Brighton or frankly any team in the premier league. We’re not better than any of them by virtue of us being in the league for ever, and we’re certainly not automatically better than any of them based on the quality of our squad, that is certain. Yet still fans expect that we should win every game against the bottom 13, all the home games against the top 6, and a few of the away ones also. Based on what? I genuinely don’t know because this group of players ain’t winning many games of football at any level.

Last season I watched Rotherham pass an Everton team managed by Carlo Ancelotti off the park at Goodison, and we only won because he brought in James Rodriguez and Doucoure. Rotherham. People really need to get this into their heads, this is not a decent squad that can be expected to just routinely win premier league games.

If I had to list the squads I think have more quality than us in order:

City
Chelsea
Liverpool
United
Arsenal
Spurs
Leicester
West Ham
Wolves
Villa

That puts us in 11th in my book. I think we have the 11th best squad, and honestly I don’t think there’s much between us Palace and Leeds in 12th and 13th. They have players that walk into our team.

We’re under performing at the moment, yes, but I think we’ll end up where our squad quality roughly has us, smack in the bottom half. No way is this a top half squad, just absolutely no way. It hasn’t been since Silva had Zouma and Gueye down the spine.

 

[nsno-chris]

Theres zero chance Benitez gets any change from the team in his 4231 type formation (im ignoring the back 3/5).

The players dont fit it...

Positively he has brought in wingers + Gordon now getting games.

Bringing in full backs.

I think he needs a centre back and a defensive midfielder before the 11 can play his system.

Yes its annoying, yes i dont like him or the system but on the positive side we should see a change in personnel. For starters only 1 or 2 midfielders are suited to 2 in the middle.

AD and Allan need a third; their best work is breaking forward and pressing the ball up high. Get a deep lying ball winner, a RB and we would have been ok

But that ain’t happening

 

[Zatara]

He played Braithwaite out of pure necessity the other game; don’t be fooled that he would have played him in any other game

And the point being, if you’ve got play Keane then play to his strength’s

Keane just needs punting.

My hope is that now hes seen Branthwaite he will get more game time. Sometimes young players need some luck to get a game.

Perhaps he sees Godfrey and Branthwaite as two players to keep (i do) while bringing in a super centre back and moving the others out.

It would make no sense for him to keep Holgate from what hes done so far. Keane must have given away 10-15 goals this season and Mina always injured.

 

[ForeverEverton]

I just cant undestand RB`s tactical decisions, absolutely baffling. ALL the top nteams have a set way of playing and rarely deviate from that unless personnel dictates.... I can call them now....

Man City 4-1-4-1 which becomes 4-1-2-3
Liverpool 4-3-3
Chelsea 4-5-2/3-4-3
Arsenal 4-2-3-1
Wes Ham 4-1-4-1
Spurs 3-5-2/3-4-3
Man Utd now 4-2-2-2
Brighton 3-5-2/3-4-3 BUT did surprise us with a 4-3-3, still 3 in the middle as we knew we`d go with 2 in there.
Wolves 3-5-2
Leicester 4-2-3-1
Crystal Palace 4-3-3/4-2-3-1
Brentford 3-5-2
Villa 4-3-3
Everton 4-4-2/4-3-3/4-2-3-1/3-5-2/5-4-1/?-?-?-?
Leeds 4-1-4-1
Watford ??? Not seen to much of them
Burnley 4-4-2
Newcastle 4-3-3
Norwich 4-3-3/4-2-3-1

You get better by being consistent, how can you be consistent when you are changing formations every 5 minutes. I am not a fan of 3 at the back, it is negative and lacks width. 4-2-3-1 or 4-3-3 suits us much much more.

Am I correct in thinking all our wins have come from playing a 4-2-3-1 or 4-3-3, obviously the point at Chelsea was 5-4-1, its almost like doing so well with that formation has cost us the game against Brighton by playing it again.

 

[nsno-chris]

No manager out of our last 5 has easily ground out results though? The only exception was Ancelotti for a period. Even then though there were numerous games in his first 12 months when the fans were saying ‘that one was all down to Ancelotti’

We had one of the best managers of all time, a tactical genius trying to steer us to wins over bottom half premier league teams at home that we were often getting bested in in terms of possession.

Benitez is nowhere near Ancelotti sadly. Koeman Silva Allardyce didn’t grind out routine wins with a lot of these players. That’s why they got fired. Ancelotti was struggling to do it by the end as well. Why do we think Benitez should magically start?

We just can’t have any arrogance now with this squad. We don’t have a divine right to beat Brentford, Norwich, Newcastle, Brighton or frankly any team in the premier league. We’re not better than any of them by virtue of us being in the league for ever, and we’re certainly not automatically better than any of them based on the quality of our squad, that is certain. Yet still fans expect that we should win every game against the bottom 13, all the home games against the top 6, and a few of the away ones also. Based on what? I genuinely don’t know because this group of players ain’t winning many games of football at any level.

Last season I watched Rotherham pass an Everton team managed by Carlo Ancelotti off the park at Goodison, and we won’t win because he brought in James Rodriguez and Doucoure. Rotherham. People really need to get this into their heads, this is not a decent squad that can be expected to just routinely win premier league games.

If I had to list the squads I think have more quality than us in order:

City
Chelsea
Liverpool
United
Arsenal
Spurs
Leicester
West Ham
Wolves
Villa

That puts us in 11th in my book. I think we have the 11th best squad, and honestly I don’t think there’s much between us Palace and Leeds in 12th and 13th. They have players that walk into our team.

We’re under performing at the moment, yes, but I think we’ll end up where our squad quality roughly has us, smack in the bottom half. No way is this a top half squad, just absolutely no way. It hasn’t been since Silva had Zouma and Gueye down the spine.

Has I explained in another post, Ancelotti uses the squad to their ability. Hence he sacrificed possession for sitting deep and sneaking a goal. We were playing good footy before the injuries hit, he tried replacing people and keeping the same style, it didn’t work so he binned it off to be extremely pragmatic.

It had us second at Christmas. Now the fall off in the second half of the season was alarming, but if rumours are true then he’d basically agreed to rejoin Madrid and the players knew.

Point being, the squad can grind out points if the manager is right

 

[Zatara]

AD and Allan need a third; their best work is breaking forward and pressing the ball up high. Get a deep lying ball winner, a RB and we would have been ok

But that ain’t happening

If we had Kamara/Kessie/Zakaria who are all a bit different...next to Doucoure in a 2 we would be fine...IF;

We had better full backs
We had a defender to bring the ball out
We had a '10' to link CM to wings/CF.