Positives from today

[Geordie1974]

Aside from the match.Another positive is on here.Been no sign today of Bill and Ben the over-sensitive men.Even in defeat.

[Zippity]

First half was decent...the gameplan was working well.

Second half was as different as you can get and, if people are heartened by previous 'decent performance, no shame defeats' then I think the second half should get people worried on an equal basis for a number of reasons.

We had absolutely no 'plan B'. Arsenal made a tactical and personnel switch at half time and were like a different team and we had zero answer.

Our players, apart from Yedlin and Fernandez and Dubravka (albeit each of those two made one ***** mistake each for the first goal), were, by and large, poor and, in the case of Joselu and Perez, utter shite.

We didn't make changes early enough-we'd been two nil down for twenty minutes before Rafa made the third change and we were crying out for creativity and someone who would help the ball stick.

Most worrying of all, we seemed to be lacking any fire or spirit until injury time...we should have been trying to get back into the game well before then...look what happened when we did.

Don't think anyone comes out of that game with any credit, tbh.


Me included for being so negative.

[Cannylad]

Have to say, that game was made for the likes of Shelvey, we were bereft of through balls in the middle. Is he still on a sick note ?
Dubravka was sh!t today, it could have been a draw if not for his terrible positional play. Best player for me today was Ritchie.

[Zippity]

Have to say, that game was made for the likes of Shelvey, we were bereft of through balls in the middle. Is he still on a sick note ?
Dubravka was sh!t today, it could have been a draw if not for his terrible positional play. Best player for me today was Ritchie.

Shelvey was on the bench but with Lascelles' injury, it deprived us of a third of our sub options.

I thought Dubravka was decent apart from his admittedly terrible positioning...everyone where we were was saying 'if he hits it top right, it's a goal' because it was such a huge gap; I thought his distribution was good-looking to get us moving.

For me, Fernandez was our best player (minus his challenge which gave away the free kick they scored from).

[toptoon]

Positives: the protest before the game and Ritchie in the first half.

If Dubravka had been his usual self he would´ve saved both goals but I ain´t going to criticise him - he´s been great for us and Arsenal probably would have kept the pressure on and scored again anyway if he´d stopped those two.

I get the feeling that most teams in this league who play well against us will beat us because they have more quailty on the field and bench. Toreia (or whatever he´s called) made a difference when he came on. We just don´t have the quality up front to make it count when we are on top. I´m not as big a critic of perez as many but I thought he was very poor today and I agree with the comment that the first half space in defence that they gave us in the first half was ´made´ for Shelvey.

We need Rondon on fire and Kenedy back to form - and fast.

[pboromag]

Cheers, John. First half was decent, second half was awful so who knows.

first half they didnt need to play
second half their manager out thought ours and made changes to win a game
ours didnt

[pboromag]

rafa from the team selection onwards made no ositives

shelvey and rondon on the bench

diame is next to useles to us without shelvey beside him

so is perez without a ball from the middle

he has had two weeks of to get fit
and surely 2-0 down you bring him on to try and get something

surely 2-0 down you throw rondon on

nope that would be two positive moves

a move any other manager and if people were honest so would they

2-0 down 2 shots on target all game a team we know are suspect at the back (our goal showed that )
AND YET HE KEEPS A STRIKER AND SOMEONE WHO COULD PICK THEM OPEN WHEN THEY WERE TIRING ON THE BENCH

CLASSIC RAFA BENITEZ

CLUELESS DINOSAUR

[ghostrider]

The positives from this were few and far between but seeing as it is a positive thread I'll have a go.

1. We managed (by luck) to keep the score down to 1-2.
2. Clark scored a goal.
3.Ritchie played well and looked hungry.
4.....Oh, there isn't a 4.

[nufcwelsh93]

I almost titled this 'positives and negatives from today' so we'd have something to talk about.

I thought Fernandez played really well other than giving the free kick they scored from away (Dubravka at fault for being SO far over, imo)

Rafa's gameplan worked well in the first half.

Our goal difference was only dented by 1 when at one stage it looked like it could get embarrassing (and when I'm taking a 'well. it could have been worse' as a positive then it's time to stop.

Anyone got anything else???

Anyone?

Anything?

The only positive for me today was the fact its over and i never have to watch that game again, **** me i stayed up to watch that game, fell asleep after the 2nd goal.

I love Rafa but that was tough to watch esp at home, i understand why he does that but argh doesnt make it any better to watch.

[Zippity]

Ok, if I'm being totally honest, whilst I'm a fan of Rafa, I'm not a fan of his style.

There'd be very little to recommend us to a neutral unless they were a big fan of defensive organisation.

I go to our games because I'm a Newcastle supporter-enjoying the football is a bonus.

Unfortunately, it's a bonus that hasn't been evident this season or for large chunks of last season.

Really don't want to sound anti-Rafa, cos I'm absolutely not, but there haven't been many times I've come out of the ground saying 'wow, some of our football was great'. (and yes, of course I'm aware that a lot of that is down to the quality of our players too)