2021/22 Rafael Benitez

[Colonel Getafe]

Last night was always going to be a struggle away with our form but we won and maybe we should have won by more if we took our chances.

I'm sure the Hull lot will be saying the same thing if their lad hadn't have hit the post or if Begovic hadn't pulled off a worldie or one of those early headers had have gone in.

A win is a win, but it was far too close for comfort. We'd have not been so lucky against better opposition.

 

[Colonel Getafe]

If we get sucked in any further then he has to go immediately. We obviously need to be drawing up a list of replacements just in case

According to some people on this forum there aren't any replacements available anywhere... (and if there are, they wouldn't come here anyway).

 

[BigDuncTributeBand]

2 of the more important players no doubt, but what's the plan if these 2 lads -who are no stranger to injury- pick up more knocks and are out again?

The entire team is a joke but for 1 or 2. I'm not so convinced there's going to be some magic turn around with these 2 back in the side most weeks. (If only Rafael could do some of that coaching malarky with the strikers and defenders we do have available, that'd be nice).

Two of the more important players for defending zonal from corners definitely. I agree entirely though, they’ve been missing most of the season so what’s the plan without them? Continuing to set up as if they’re there is bonkers. It’s odd for such a reactionary manager, in so many respects, not to react to this obvious issue.

 

[Bluestar]

According to some people on this forum there aren't any replacements available anywhere... (and if there are, they wouldn't come here anyway).

It depends how much budget we have available.

You have to pay for sacking Benitez and his staff, then in all probability, pay another club to take their manager.

I don’t know if we have that much available and if we do, it clearly eats up any transfer budget.

I couldn’t see why anyone above would join us right now and I have no idea who would be interested.

Finally, I don’t think the owner cares what we think. The fact that transfers are happening indicates to me that Benitez is here for a while and is nowhere near being sacked.

 

[Colonel Getafe]

We all now that if he got sacked tomorrow, he would take the payoff, and be chuffed. How could he have wrangled 3 years? 2 years top for a dinosaur like him...

Because the bloke who runs the club is a prize-winning pillock and probably had Jim White tell him it was a good idea. ?

 

[Thomasc]

Not from you they didn't.

Incredible isn’t it.

Koeman got 1 full season then the knives were out from September the next season.

 

[Mikey_Fitzgerald]

The biggest issue with Benitez is that he will never look in the mirror and ask himself what he could have done better

It’s always someone else’s fault or someone didn’t do a good enough job

That’s why everyone should be worried, because it means these tactics and formation won’t be changed, even though we can all see it isn’t working

 

[Colonel Getafe]

It depends how much budget we have available.

You have to pay for sacking Benitez and his staff, then in all probability, pay another club to take their manager.

I don’t know if we have that much available and if we do, it clearly eats up any transfer budget.

I couldn’t see why anyone above would join us right now and I have no idea who would be interested.

Finally, I don’t think the owner cares what we think. The fact that transfers are happening indicates to me that Benitez is here for a while and is nowhere near being sacked.

Yeah I agree with most of that, although the cost of sacking Benitez is a hell of a lot less than dropping out of the richest league in the world if results continue. Sadly, he probably is here for the forseeable future as long as we aren't in the bottom 3.

I was more making the point that some posters seem to imply that because "no one is available" we shouldn't even bother looking or trying to do better. The Prem is the most desired place to work for a lot of managers, and there can only be 20 here at a time. I'd bet there's a hell of a lot more managers who would take this job if it came up than some posters would have us believe.

 

[Colonel Getafe]

The rest has been an absolute car crash thus far though and if he stays we are either down, or will only be saved by how bad 3 other teams are.

Couldn't agree more with this last bit. The fact that we're looking around at what other teams might do to see if we'll be safe or not should speak absolute volumes.

 

[Colonel Getafe]

The biggest issue with Benitez is that he will never look in the mirror and ask himself what he could have done better

It’s always someone else’s fault or someone didn’t do a good enough job

That’s why everyone should be worried, because it means these tactics and formation won’t be changed, even though we can all see it isn’t working

He isn't worried. If the worst happens and we get relegated, he'll be on the first train up to Newcastle to be back amongst his Geordie people, where it always felt like home......

 

[riddick]

It depends how much budget we have available.

You have to pay for sacking Benitez and his staff, then in all probability, pay another club to take their manager.

I don’t know if we have that much available and if we do, it clearly eats up any transfer budget.

I couldn’t see why anyone above would join us right now and I have no idea who would be interested.

Finally, I don’t think the owner cares what we think. The fact that transfers are happening indicates to me that Benitez is here for a while and is nowhere near being sacked.

You don't need to pay for managers not currently employed, like Kovac. Would cost literally nothing and he is a far far better manager than Benitez.

 

[roy vernon]

Average start? Best start in some while methinks.

Well, best start since last season.

 

[Kev The Rat]

Couldn't agree more with this last bit. The fact that we're looking around at what other teams might do to see if we'll be safe or not should speak absolute volumes.

My worry is we may not actually drop into the bottom 3 until the last 10 games - what then if we are saying we won’t sack him until bottom 3 ?

 

[Tommy F]

There's plenty of replacements, why would someone not sign up with us for a massive contract and then walk away a multi-millionaire not long afterwards after we sack them. It's a win win for most managers and a pension pot booster of massive proportions. There are, of course, some managers with principles who would not take up that chance but I just cannot think who they are.

 

[Colonel Getafe]

Three games we’ve had against poor Championship sides this season - all three were very very even games that could have gone either way.

That is pretty frightening tbh.

This x1000.

Makes me chuckle when people say "we'd have won that by 5 if Richy/DCL were playing", whilst ignoring the reality we still couldn't dominate possession, their lad hit the post, our keeper had to pull of a worldie, and they had mutliple chances from balls in the box our half-billion quid Prem team couldn't deal with. I'm sure there's a lot of Hull fans thinking they were a bit unlucky last night.