you surely cant keep bleeting the squad is worse

[pboromag]

several games in
we didnt spend a lot
but surely people can see the squad is much better this season than last
not as good as we may have wished for

rondon makes the front line a lot better than what we had last season (koselwho ,my only gripe is ash let gayle go

ki gives us more options than we had last season

fernandez is a much netter player than people think and has been a great buy so far


shar

gives us bite we didnt have last season and hen played has done a decent enough job

so four in who hae all improved the squad

jury is out on the others for me

but i think with these additions we shoule easily finish top 12

there may be other teams who have spent much more than us outsde the top 6

but have those teams improved their squads as much as these four have improved ours
i think not

[ghostrider]

I agree, it actually is a much better squad and the players brought in are proving very capable additions that can definitely gain us an edge.

If everyone at the club work in unison, without being at loggerheads, then we can build on this.

[Geordie_Jacko]

Sad boring ba5tards

[Kingstonbob1]

All players Rafa identified WITHOUT the ‘genius’ Carr and on a cr@p budget. What a top manager.

[ghostrider]

All players Rafa identified WITHOUT the ‘genius’ Carr and on a cr@p budget. What a top manager.

So therefore he can identify quality. All he has to do is play them to the strengths they possess when bought.
He's shown that lately.
The Bournemouth game alone is testament to what the squad is capable of and what Rafa is capable of instilling if he cuts out his over cautious mindset.

[tinostongue]

So therefore he can identify quality. All he has to do is play them to the strengths they possess when bought.
He's shown that lately.
The Bournemouth game alone is testament to what the squad is capable of and what Rafa is capable of instilling if he cuts out his over cautious mindset.

Rafa sets the team up according to the opposition, and that's the way it should be done. Ok KK played the same way against everybody, but he had the players to do that, and entertaining as it was we still didn't win anything. Rafas hamstrung by the choice of players available to him, surely even you must be able to understand that, maybe not!

[ghostrider]

Rafa sets the team up according to the opposition, and that's the way it should be done.

No, Rafa doesn't set the team up according to the opposition. If he did then we would be generally taking many games to that opposition.
Only lately has he changed it up, more down to being forced to change due to injuries, but hopefully he can see how the change up is far better by a million miles for entertainment value and gaining the spoils into the bargain. Something we've done little of in both cases, earlier.

Ok KK played the same way against everybody, but he had the players to do that, and entertaining as it was we still didn't win anything.

We have the players to do that.
keegan's set up was exciting even though we won nothing but Keegan had a pretty good blank cheque at the start of his time as manager and also the adulation of a lot of young players who were fans of his.
A different sort of era in many respects. Not to take anything away from Keegan because in that first spell he was fantastic and it was euphoria for me, regardless of winning nothing.
We had a go playing football that excited me, with players that were allowed to use their abilities for purpose.

That's all I ask of Rafa and we got a glimpse of it against Bournemouth.

Rafas hamstrung by the choice of players available to him, surely even you must be able to understand that, maybe not!

But he's not hamstrung at all.
He is if your mindset is on trying to get into the champions league. Otherwise he's not hampered.

He chooses to hamper himself by his earlier refusal to use players for what they were bought for.
Lately he's seeing what happens if you do use them.
It's no coincidence that many players fell below par having to play a dire system.
Kenedy looked like he'd given up and even fans were getting fed up with him.
The problem wasn't just down to him and others though. The problem was in how they were set up, against their natural talents.

Look what happened when they were basically allowed to run off the leash. Rejuvenation and an end result of a win and feel good factor among the fans, with many great positive talking points.

Why can't we do this all the time?
It's a football game not a chess game.
The players we have are capable. We are not hamstrung any more than about 14 other teams in that league, if we want to go down the hamstrung route.

Just because we don't pay 50/60/70/80/90/100 million in a transfer window for a bunch of players, some of who may be 20/30/40/50 million, etc...doesn't mean we fail.

We are more than a match for most teams in the league if we are played to our potential. That's my belief.
As long as this squad is used for their purpose, we'll be ok and even more ok with a few tweaks here and there.

[ex_pat_magpie]

No, Rafa doesn't set the team up according to the opposition. If he did then we would be generally taking many games to that opposition.
Only lately has he changed it up, more down to being forced to change due to injuries, but hopefully he can see how the change up is far better by a million miles for entertainment value and gaining the spoils into the bargain. Something we've done little of in both cases, earlier.

We have the players to do that.
keegan's set up was exciting even though we won nothing but Keegan had a pretty good blank cheque at the start of his time as manager and also the adulation of a lot of young players who were fans of his.
A different sort of era in many respects. Not to take anything away from Keegan because in that first spell he was fantastic and it was euphoria for me, regardless of winning nothing.
We had a go playing football that excited me, with players that were allowed to use their abilities for purpose.

That's all I ask of Rafa and we got a glimpse of it against Bournemouth.



But he's not hamstrung at all.
He is if your mindset is on trying to get into the champions league. Otherwise he's not hampered.

He chooses to hamper himself by his earlier refusal to use players for what they were bought for.
Lately he's seeing what happens if you do use them.
It's no coincidence that many players fell below par having to play a dire system.
Kenedy looked like he'd given up and even fans were getting fed up with him.
The problem wasn't just down to him and others though. The problem was in how they were set up, against their natural talents.

Look what happened when they were basically allowed to run off the leash. Rejuvenation and an end result of a win and feel good factor among the fans, with many great positive talking points.

Why can't we do this all the time?
It's a football game not a chess game.
The players we have are capable. We are not hamstrung any more than about 14 other teams in that league, if we want to go down the hamstrung route.

Just because we don't pay 50/60/70/80/90/100 million in a transfer window for a bunch of players, some of who may be 20/30/40/50 million, etc...doesn't mean we fail.

We are more than a match for most teams in the league if we are played to our potential. That's my belief.
As long as this squad is used for their purpose, we'll be ok and even more ok with a few tweaks here and there.

Blinkered, blinkered and more blinkered.

[Geordie_Jacko]

Another pointless boring thread to cause argument and aim digs at our manager.

[pboromag]

All players Rafa identified WITHOUT the ‘genius’ Carr and on a cr@p budget. What a top manager.

but he chose not to play them until injury forced him to

numpties were saying the squad was thin and that the frees like ki were just to sell more shirts in asia and infact wasnt rafas choice
which is it

he has loads of opportunities to play ki and sher and rondon
we would probabaly still be in the cup if he hadnt brought him on so late in the forest game

he chose not to bring him on for the last 20 minutes of games to get fit

he kept picking the same team week in week out even when we were getting stuffed and offering so little

injuries picked the last two sides

not rafa