I'm wondering if you are that Five wakner Sunderland Cnut tbh. sh173. We were well in it for 30 mins. Look at the cost of the squads, they were at home and they have blown a lot of teams away at home. We are still 11th. Owt to f00kin complain about. 20 and f00kin counting.
shelvey could have done more to stop 2 of their goals
on one he is ambling back pointing to where there was danger
their goal scorer runs from behind him into the area he shoud have been defending ie the penalty spot
he stops at the 18 yard line allowing the pass into hthat area he should have been taking up
he does it again later on
he just stops at te 18 yard line
so we may as well give up then
what value has rafa brought then
as he isnt improving any of the players
everyone keeps bleeting about what pogba cost etc
he has been out for weeks and still out shone outr lot
they never had to get out of second gear and could even afford the luxury of bringing back injured and players getting fit knowing we are no threat
in jose said rafa set it up to make it hard for them
but once we sorted that it becme easy
when you start a season defending and then realise you cant do that trying to get the players to then understand attacking isnt going to be easy
everyone says shelvey played well
i think we leek to many goals with him in the team
We did well overall to be fair but exceptionally well for the first half, just about, despite losing the two goals.
The problem was, we were basically in top gear and Manutd were only in 3rd with 4th and cruise control of 5th to add, as and when.
We basically sat back and tried to soak up then try to sting them, as and when the opportunity arose.
I don't think we could have done much more against that team that they couldn't have also done extra to us, so a 4-1 beating (not thrashing) did not flatter them but equally did not disgrace us, overall.
When you're up against that quality it's never a level playing field and reliance on a bad day at the office for some of their team is always needed by much less quality opposition like ourselves.
It's nothing shocking and although I go into any game with a hope we win (like we all do) mentality, I also fully expect an outcome like this to rear up, so it's all about taking as many positives from this instead of negatives in this situation.
Another positive is in Rafa willing to take the game to teams.
All we have to do is to sustain it and hopefully reap results of it.
Whilst I think that at times, pboromag does come out with good stuff, definitely controversial stuff and the occasional incisiveness observation, without a decent alternative to Rafa, it falls on deaf ears.
Rafa as said, regardless of what he may or may not have done, is honest in his analysis of the team. You cannot make a silk purse out of a sows ear. He obviously sees things we do not, as we are not privy. At times he baffles us with his choices and formations but you cannot deny the man's intelligence, experience and knowledge of the game.
Twelve games in and he is starting to mix and match due to injuries or other circumstances. A third of the way through and we seem to be solid but lacking in the goal count. Yesterday against ManU, I expected nothing more than what we got, given the squad we have and there is more pain to come against the top 6.
pboromag, in my view seems to have appeared to forget that last year he needed a team to get us out of the Championship (as many on here have mentioned), so to a certain extent Rafa got stuck re transfers due to either financial constraints or slowness in moving in the transfer market for this year. No magic money tree!
I still have faith and whilst I believe that apart from Watford our next 2/3 games are unwinnable, we should survive and next year, with new owners, hopefully, we will rebuild. Setting aside Ashley's help and hindrance, he admits he has had enough, he cannot take us forward so we cannot dwell on his tenure but must look to the future and hope it comes soon.
I could go on but will stop there for the time being.
My concern is that if the takeover isn't completed early enough to provide funds for the Jan transfer window we could be dragged into a relegation battle. I don't think that any team from Newcastle downwards is safe. We are below both the teams promoted with us. What makes me smile is that NUFC fans are often criticised for having unrealistic expectations. We seem to have gone to the opposite pole, desperately trying to pick positives from a 1-4 defeat. I wonder how many fans of other PL clubs would do that. I'm sure that if we got beat 0-5 by Man City some would console themselves by saying 'at least we had two shots at goal.' There's clearly a limit to what Rafa can do with a mediocre squad. Getting beat by Man U doesn't worry me too much but getting beat by Burnley and Bournemouth is a different thing.
just because ashley isn't prepared to put money in, doesn't mean that money isn't available. if the club has generated it's own money, it will be spent. failure to do so would jeopardise any sale of the club and / or any future profit (should he decide not to sell).