Monroe Transfer 0 Posted April 17, 2017 Share Posted April 17, 2017 Getting sick of seeing Diame's name on the team sheet. He's utter shit. That number 10 position has been awful all season and it's getting tiresome going from game to game seeing either Diame or Perez put in non-performances each week. Should have kept De Jong at the club. His natural position, has experience, leadership qualities (didn't he captain Ajax before he joined us?), and probably felt he had something to prove to the club after his many injury woes. On paper I can see why he's stuck with Diame (athletic powerhouse) and Perez (more intricate) but they've both simply not been good enough. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rogerbarton 24 Posted April 17, 2017 Share Posted April 17, 2017 It doesn't come in the final week, it comes next week (Tuesday, day after our game against Preston). Oh dear. That will really put the pressure on. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Howay 12458 Posted April 17, 2017 Share Posted April 17, 2017 To drop another 3 points is clearly the fault of Rafa Benitez. And that is my considered opinion, call me what you like. 5 changes from a team that played so well against Leeds, wot the fuck was the maestro thinking of. The first 5 minutes had the looks of a losing game and it got worse ...... and worse as time went on. Is Rafa blind, why didn't he make changes at half time, plan A obviously wasn't working, anyone could see that. It would be hard to pick-out one player that had a good game, overall we were piss-poor throughout. Am I pissed off?...........You bet I fucking am!! Are we looking at the play-offs?..........I hope not. Nah you're spot on today Noelie, Rafa was absolutely at fault. Fucking about with a winning team, many managers use that to defend why they carry on playing lesser players over more talented ones but today he completely changed a winning side and wiped out our momentum. You're also right that he should have made changes at the half imo, we effectively wasted 10 minutes as the team come out looking just as flat 2nd half. I don't understand how Lascelles is so undroppable btw, Mbemba seemingly makes a mistake 7 months ago and is dropped puts in a good performance and dropped again, yet Lascelles drops at least 3 utter clangers every match but he plays every week. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lackie92 1 Posted April 17, 2017 Share Posted April 17, 2017 Lucky to finish second at this rate, we've got a couple of teams breathing down our necks now. The way we have imploded is absolutely fucking ridiculous. Massive investment required in the summer. I think Derby will do us a favour tonight and stop Huddersfield from winning anyway. Still got the majority of the game to go right enough.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Howmanheyman 26835 Posted April 17, 2017 Share Posted April 17, 2017 Getting sick of seeing Diame's name on the team sheet. He's utter shit. That number 10 position has been awful all season and it's getting tiresome going from game to game seeing either Diame or Perez put in non-performances each week.Tough call but I'd say Diame has edged it in the being ineffective stakes. His touch is astonishing for professional player in the 2nd tier of football in this country. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Howay 12458 Posted April 17, 2017 Share Posted April 17, 2017 Tough call but I'd say Diame has edged it in the being ineffective stakes. His touch is astonishing for professional player in the 2nd tier of football in this country. Aye Diame is tragic. Perez gets blown over by a slight breeze but his pace can cause some bother and sometimes his fancy flicks come off. He also can harry people, in the lead up to their 2nd goal I was convinced Diame was going to give a pen away as he just jumps in and with his big lumbering frame the minute he makes contact it looks like a rough challenge. I don't know how you can make it to this level of football with a touch as bad as Atsu and Diame have, it's incredible. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
adios 717 Posted April 17, 2017 Share Posted April 17, 2017 I thought it was odd Rafa wasn't prioritising a #10 in January. What's that about? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
adios 717 Posted April 17, 2017 Share Posted April 17, 2017 Nah you're spot on today Noelie, Rafa was absolutely at fault. Fucking about with a winning team, many managers use that to defend why they carry on playing lesser players over more talented ones but today he completely changed a winning side and wiped out our momentum. You're also right that he should have made changes at the half imo, we effectively wasted 10 minutes as the team come out looking just as flat 2nd half. I don't understand how Lascelles is so undroppable btw, Mbemba seemingly makes a mistake 7 months ago and is dropped puts in a good performance and dropped again, yet Lascelles drops at least 3 utter clangers every match but he plays every week. Aye, said before the match I didn't understand how he couldn't drop Lascelles. I think the changes were probably due to the stage of the season and the recentness of the last match. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Howay 12458 Posted April 17, 2017 Share Posted April 17, 2017 I thought it was odd Rafa wasn't prioritising a #10 in January. What's that about? Maybe he was and we didn't hear about it most the stories were through the Chronicle and they don't really have their finger on the pulse, but you're right that should have been priority even a loan would have done ffs. I suppose there's always the chance he was targeting Townsend so that he could move Ritchie inside. I know it's never going to happen but we should perhaps try playing Perez up top alongside Mitro at least until Gayle is back fit, playing Perez and Diame in that number 10 spot is a waste of fucking time so he might do a bit more further up the pitch off Mitro's knock downs. Again though it's just forum chat as Rafa wont do it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
adios 717 Posted April 17, 2017 Share Posted April 17, 2017 Aye, it's worth a go. 2 wins in 3 required now to guarantee promotion and Huddersfield look in form. Very fucking nervous at this point. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Howay 12458 Posted April 17, 2017 Share Posted April 17, 2017 Aye, it's worth a go. 2 wins in 3 required now to guarantee promotion and Huddersfield look in form. Very fucking nervous at this point. We need to win all 3 to guarantee it don't we? If Hudds win these games in hand they'll be 2 behind with same played, so if we win 2 and lose 1 and they win all 3 they'd go above us. I'm still not convinced Huddersfield will win all 5 games but we need to start picking some fucking points up regardless. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Graing 15 Posted April 17, 2017 Share Posted April 17, 2017 Aye, it's worth a go. 2 wins in 3 required now to guarantee promotion and Huddersfield look in form. Very fucking nervous at this point. And the only real challenge Huddersfield faces now is in Fulham. Our last 3 are teams that should have nothing to play for but are all higher in the table than Ipswich FFS. And we finish with Barnsley who have won more away than at home. Nervous doesn't even capture it now.Why can't we have nice things? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
adios 717 Posted April 17, 2017 Share Posted April 17, 2017 Fuck me, you're right. Was still counting goal difference for some reason. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Howay 12458 Posted April 17, 2017 Share Posted April 17, 2017 Fuck me, you're right. Was still counting goal difference for some reason. Aye that's why I was fuming today tbh, we're now only 1 game away from it no longer being in our hands. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Happy Face 29 Posted April 17, 2017 Share Posted April 17, 2017 NUFC to Score 0 - sammynb 1 - Kevin Carr's Gloves, Happy Face, Graing, Dr Gloom, OTF, TheGingerQuiff 2 - acrossthepond, adios, Kitman, ewerk, Howay, StoneColdStephenIreland, zico martin, strawb, rogerbarton, The Fish, Dougle, MiddleAgeCool, Bizza, LooneyToony, Rayvin 3 - Ant, Andrew, Tom, Anorthernsoul 4+ - wykikitoon NUFC to Concede 0 - Kevin Carr's Gloves, Happy Face, Howay, StoneColdStephenIreland, strawb, rogerbarton, The Fish, OTF, Dougle, wykikitoon, Andrew, MiddleAgeCool, Bizza, Tom, LooneyToony, Anorthernsoul 1 - acrossthepond, Kitman, ewerk, Ant, Graing, zico martin, Rayvin 2 - Dr Gloom, TheGingerQuiff 3 - sammynb 4+ - adios NUFC to Score 0 - sammynb 1 - Kevin Carr's Gloves, Happy Face, Graing, Dr Gloom, OTF, TheGingerQuiff 2 - acrossthepond, adios, Kitman, ewerk, Howay, StoneColdStephenIreland, zico martin, strawb, rogerbarton, The Fish, Dougle, MiddleAgeCool, Bizza, LooneyToony, Rayvin 3 - Ant, Andrew, Tom, Anorthernsoul 4+ - wykikitoon NUFC to Concede 0 - Kevin Carr's Gloves, Happy Face, Howay, StoneColdStephenIreland, strawb, rogerbarton, The Fish, OTF, Dougle, wykikitoon, Andrew, MiddleAgeCool, Bizza, Tom, LooneyToony, Anorthernsoul 1 - acrossthepond, Kitman, ewerk, Ant, Graing, zico martin, Rayvin 2 - Dr Gloom, TheGingerQuiff 3 - sammynb 4+ - adios Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Monroe Transfer 0 Posted April 17, 2017 Share Posted April 17, 2017 (edited) Just desperate for this season to end now - whether we go up, or we stay in this division. I just can't believe how we're managing to make things so difficult for ourselves after being so comfortable for most of the season. Sick of these dreadful mistakes. We've completely bottled it in the last month or so - we were a far better side in the first half of the season, perhaps when there was a lot less pressure on us (and we had a fitter, more complete squad). I think I'm repeating what someone else just said but I do think it'd be job done already if Clark and Gayle weren't out. We've had numerous chances this year to put it to bed more or less and we've either ruined a positive result with an awful mistake (Clark against QPR, Lascelles against Leeds) or just put in a non-performance like today.We're very lucky that even if results don't go our way, it's still in our hands come the game on Monday. Unbelievably if we lose that and Huddersfield win today and against Wolves then by the end of Tuesday week we could be third. Edited April 17, 2017 by Monroe Transfer Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Monroe Transfer 0 Posted April 17, 2017 Share Posted April 17, 2017 (edited) We've pretty much been a good game day (win for us coupled with losses elsewhere) away from more or less sealing it for a while now, but the day we beat WIgan aside results haven't gone our way. Edited April 17, 2017 by Monroe Transfer Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
trooper 940 Posted April 17, 2017 Share Posted April 17, 2017 Dont forget the blame lies at Ashley's door if we dont go up. Its his fault for failing to back Rafa in January Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Howay 12458 Posted April 17, 2017 Share Posted April 17, 2017 Agree with all of that MT. Whichever way it goes it's massively frustrating that Ashley yet again blocked attempts to strengthen from a position of strength, especially as we knew for a fact Shelvey was going to be missing a month of games and Gayle got hurt in Jan iirc. Injuries outside of the windows you can't do much about but we had these issues during a window and he didn't even allow us to get in a loan signing to cover. I think you're right that maybe the pressure is getting to them, I think the home form shows this lot have mental fragility and it has really shown in this recent run where as you say two good results would have put this whole thing to bed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Monroe Transfer 0 Posted April 17, 2017 Share Posted April 17, 2017 I really want to blame Rafa, for making so many changes, but I'd be lying if I said I couldn't see the logic in it (the players worked very hard against Leeds) before today's fixture. In retrospect it's an error on his part although I don't think just keeping the same 11 would have guaranteed an especially better performance than what we put out today. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Monroe Transfer 0 Posted April 17, 2017 Share Posted April 17, 2017 we had these issues during a window and he didn't even allow us to get in a loan signing to cover. Agreed, don't think anyone was demanding we went out and spent massive amounts of money, a couple of loan signings to strengthen the squad would have helped. Rafa isn't a stupid man, surely he realised if you're forced to play the likes of Colback then there's something wrong with your recruitment. Like you say though perhaps if we had spent money we'd be in a better place, to improve the squad from a position of strength. Why not spend a few quid to make it that more likely we'd get promoted? The proceeds from promotion would far outweigh what we could have spent in January. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Howay 12458 Posted April 17, 2017 Share Posted April 17, 2017 Agreed, don't think anyone was demanding we went out and spent massive amounts of money, a couple of loan signings to strengthen the squad would have helped. Rafa isn't a stupid man, surely he realised if you're forced to play the likes of Colback then there's something wrong with your recruitment. Like you say though perhaps if we had spent money we'd be in a better place, to improve the squad from a position of strength. Why not spend a few quid to make it that more likely we'd get promoted? The proceeds from promotion would far outweigh what we could have spent in January. Aye, he's a fucking chancer man. He rolled the dice after we come 5th by only bringing in a midget with a fat arse, that lead to Cabaye kicking his pram over and we went down hill from there. He has done it again this season, we bought in the summer then got a good first half of the season but had obvious weak areas that if strengthened would guarantee promotion, instead he rolled that fucking dice again and now we've got a dreadful side nipping on our heels while our team decide to curl up into a ball and hope instead of taking ownership. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Howmanheyman 26835 Posted April 17, 2017 Share Posted April 17, 2017 We've never spent from strength for years, definitely before Ashley and also going into Shepherd's time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dr Gloom 19825 Posted April 17, 2017 Share Posted April 17, 2017 Yeah, that season when we finished in the top 4 then only bought bowyer the next summer springs to mind Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Park Life 70 Posted April 17, 2017 Share Posted April 17, 2017 Not enough players joining the attack. Trying to get fiddly little wins and taking as few risks as possible. This has caught up with us. You only have to look at the tempo we've played at recently bar the odd game. When the ball goes wide the mf should move up 20 yards and most of the time they don't. It looks like a side that thought the league was done and dusted a few weeks ago and is struggling to get back on the train. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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