Quote Originally Posted by ghostrider View Post
Stats can tell you a lot of things that do not marry up with a visual appraisal of the game.
85% possession could mean 75% passing and going nowhere, yet the 15% opposition can lob a few balls into the danger area and score one. Game over.
Or it could be opposite of that.

However, the issue isn't about percentage or shots on target or shots off target...it's about 90 minutes plus of football in a give and take game for that 90 minutes plus.

Even if it ends 0-0 it can still be entertaining, as long as both teams are taking the game to each other...or if one team takes the game to another, it will be entertaining for their fans but dire as all hell for the opposition.

Rafa's issue was his refusal to change things when it was begging.
You see in most games we had a go in the first half but the second half was an enigma whether we were ahead, drawing or losing, because Rafa generally went cautious, regardless.

He didn't appear to have a plan B to have a go if we were losing or drawing.
He'd appear to have one where he would bring on pacey players or even Mitrovic at the time (Huddersfield springs to mind) yet will literally appear to be shutting up shop with a hit and hope for some kind of half hearted counter attacking when it was super safe to do so.
It beggared belief.

In that time and nearly each game, I was getting depressed. I was losing the will to get excited about any game.
Now and again we'd be treated to a good game where it became a head scratcher, because we come out worthy winners and entertained. (West Ham springs to mind).

Then we'd go right back into dire mode and yet rarely did I blame the players because I saw they were working to a plan and putting in the effort.
Rafa's plan was not working. It was dire football at that time.

People can by all means argue that he was getting things right.
In normal circumstances it can be argued that it takes time to get things to work and tinkering has to happen, plus the rough and the smooth and all that.
I accept that this can be the case...but the football was dire at the time, regardless.

Because of that I vented my feelings.
I was too hasty in wanting him out but not too hasty in having a pop at him and to this day I feel he deserved my digs, regardless of whether people agree with me or not.

Yes of course I went over the top. I was fuming and couldn't see any light at the end of the tunnel with his earlier ways. Seriously.

Has Rafa proved me wrong?
It depends how it's looked at.

If I have to say anything in my favour and in Rafa's favour I'll say this:

Rafa has turned things around and that much is clear by the way the players are responding and being together as one unit behind him, which is a stark contrast to before January with many who didn't appear to be buying into his over cautious approach.

I believe Rafa was stubborn to the detriment of the squad but I also believe he's actually loosened the over cautious reins since Kenedy, Dubravka and Slimani came in by allowing Kenedy to do what he's best at and also allowing the out of favour players to do what they're best at rather than simply just following one plan of action.

Basically speaking I believe they were allowed to play their natural game and to express themselves on the front foot with a mindset on their defensive duties as drilled.

That's what I think.

Now, regardless of what was said earlier on and me being peed right off with him...I'm actually warming to him by the game, because he deserves the plaudits, as do the players and everyone involved...including the fans.

By all means people can call me fickle or a wind up or a contrarian without a cause but anyone that does that needs understand that my Newcastle United experience will ebb and flow as and when situations dictate and my actions will follow that passage, good bad or indifferent.

And also people need to realise that we are all fickle and contrarian but some don't grasp that mass contrarianism is the same as minority contrarianism to the minority.
See what I mean?

Mass beats minority 99.9999999999999% of the time, whether it's correct or not, which leaves the minority as simple trouble makers or a resistance to a potential truth but not a whole truth, necessarily.
Sorry mate, don't have time to read all this so I'll just respond to a point you make early on about the visual appraisal, and taking the game to the opposition...

What the stats tell you is whether you're visually appraising more shots on goal or less - and they backed up the impression I got of us of creating plenty of chances but (often wildly) missing almost all of them, and then later being more clinical. Also, for me at least, taking the game to an opponent means creating chances on goal i.e. actual shots. Your point about possession supports that idea: you can play a really pretty passing game around the opponents box, but if you're not actually taking shots on goal then you just aren't taking the game to them, you're simply keeping possession for the sake of keeping possession. So the stats show we're not taking the game to people any more than we were, but our ability to take the game to them effectively seems to have improved in the second half of the season. You'd expect that with better quality players at your disposal.