Howay

Aye I think he played there a bit for Ajax. I think that's the crux of it, if we had a half decent defence but we were struggling to score buying strikers would be our priority, but our defence was (and although it's better drilled still is) terrible and we spend most of the game chasing shadows and losing out on 2nd balls due to terrible distribution as our defenders hack the ball away rather than look to retain the ball when under pressure. Since our defence have become much better drilled we've definitely been getting our attackers the ball in better positions and not losing out on the 2nd ball all the fucking time, I pointed out to a mate that Rafa has really improved our lot getting to the 2nd ball particularly on the attack and Colback's goal the other week was a good example iirc, under McClaren it seemed like any clearance from the opposition defence resulted in the build up of an attack for them and all pressure we had created ended.

I fully agree, but we've been extremely lucky that he has been a bit of a revelation there. I don't think any of us thought we'd ever find a use for him. I've been scathing of his midfield performances as well, the fact that Rafa has got displays and in fact goals from Colback and Anita is stunning.

We've scored in every game under Rafa (bar the first game where he had 3 games to prep) during which time the defence has looked a lot more solid and organized, as I said in the thread the Fish just linked too a sound defence would allow us to attack more and be more of a threat going forward. For what it's worth I wanted us to bring in a striker (as I still do) but defence was definitely the priority in January, we've got Vurnon Anita playing right back and we've had Sissoko and Colback play left back.

We need just about everything to be fair, although aye CT did try and argue we didn't really need defenders over January.

And our English manager gave the players fucking loads of time off, that's why they're incapable of playing more than 45 minutes of football. Big Sam has amassed 29 points from 31 games in charge of Sunderland though so we best listen to this fucking genius! Out of shape shaven minotaur A bloke whose entire game plan relies upon humping the ball up to a 33 year old dwarf as much as possible shouldn't be doling out advice.

I love that Benitez isn't bothering to respond. Does he still have a 50 man staff? All to get a team to the dizzying heights of 18th place, what a fucking wanker. Pardew was spot on calling him pre-historic, he must be one of the least respected managers in the Premier League (by the other managers).

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-3570242/Rafa-Benitez-blame-Newcastle-injuries-claims-rival-Sam-Allardyce.html?ITO=1490&ns_mchannel=rss&ns_campaign=1490 Nice to see Fat Sam is exactly what he looks like, a bloated idiotic xenophobic cunt. Aye because less training sessions would have worked for our players ffs, the amount of time they were getting off under McClaren was half the problem. He really has no self-awareness whatsoever man, he's acting like what he is doing is actually working .

Palace

To be fair Lascelles did look horrific, Rafa has him much more organized and confident even though he still makes some mental mistakes (like the pass straight to that Man City player, he did then recover well though). I'm very happy to be wrong on him though as I think Colocinni is a total fucking cunt and hope he never plays for NUFC again, hoping for him to come back thinking we were fucked without him was an awful feeling tbh. We still really need CB's if we stay up mind.

Leicester players are all round Vardy's house He's literally having a party. Unbelievable stuff.

Congrats to Leicester, hopefully a few bans follow this result. I think we could see Dier and Dembele banned, which would mean their midfield 3 wont be playing us.

Spurs players losing their heads a bit here, could do with a few bans!

Cracking goal that from Hazard, he actually looks like he did last season this game! Just in time to play the tramps too.

Bloody hell I'd been so focused on our plight I'd not even looked at the Championship pretty exciting that Boro play Brighton at home and the winner gets the final automatic spot, if it's a draw Boro go up on GD.

I'm just glad I was completely wrong about Darlow, the lad has been in fine form in recent weeks. We've been lucky with the goalies stepping up after injuries in that position. I'm still not allowing myself to think we're stopping up, if we win next week and the other two shit munchers lose then a bit of excitement will start creeping in but we're one crappy goalless draw against Villa away from all of this turnaround coming to nowt.

I am aye, Defoe didn't get close to scoring until he was given a really soft penalty in the last minute. Norwich looked okay against Arsenal whereas Sunderland were poor against Stoke, a side many worried would roll over as they had fuck all to play for. As I say I have such disdain for the other two sides that a win against Villa will see us stay up imo but I think we're more likely to see Norwich pick up two wins than Sunderland.

I agree there's no way they would, I was just meaning until it's mathematically in our hands. In all honesty I can see it being enough if we beat Villa, that's how shite the other two are imo and I could very well see both sides getting 2 draws and a loss, or even 1 win and 2 losses, basically I think they'll struggle to get 4 points from their remaining 3 games.

Aye if we go down that will be the major reason for it, he should have been sacked after Chelsea (I would have sacked him well before that but I know the ownership was reluctant) as it was a disaster but it would have also given the new bloke 2 weeks before our next fixture. I've really gotten to the point where I'm sure we're down and will be until we manage to claw our way into a position where it's actually in our hands. I still think Sunderland are too fucking shite to do anything mind, I'm more wary of Norwich. If we do beat Villa and the other two lose their next games I'll start to feel confident in our chances, as things stand despite it being about the best set of results we could hope for it's still a deep hole we're in. Agree 100% with Rayvin that Charnley surely has to get the sack, whether we survive or not he has to go ffs as this season has been an utter shambles, and a good portion of that shambles is down to his unwillingness to make decisions in a timely manner.

Depay came on and did fuck all bar go over ridiculously easy a few times, one of them resulting in getting Drinkwater sent off. Hopefully Spurs fail to beat Chelsea tomorrow.

I hope that is the major turning point and they spend the next 2 years going on about it.

Aye I've been surprised to the degree he has managed to turn this team around. The fact we actually might stay up is astounding.

That would have been shite, pretty good day overall. Same the tramps got gifted a ridiculously soft pen after that 18m Stoke player missed a sitter.

What's up?

Aye we got him in 2011, I actually had to look it up as I can't believe he has been here for 5 years. What a complete waste of millions of pounds