Rafa Benitez

[The Fish 10966]

17 minutes ago, Howay said:

If we go down I would personally fucking hate Benitez coming back. The season under him in the championship was a brutal fucking grind, while it was great in the end and got us to where we needed to be it wasn’t thrilling football which would honestly be the only bright spot about being in that league imo. I’d want to come up like we did under Hughton going into games confident of pissing all over teams. Of course the overall goal of promotion is what matters most but we’d have the means to make it about as odds on as you could ever hope provided you get a manager that could do a good job (which Howe would in that league for sure).

 

I like Benitez, I’m not quite as enamored with him as the twitter lot seem to be but I do like the bloke. I think he belongs in NUFC past now, there’s plenty of managers around we don’t have to go back to him - also I don’t think Howe faces the axe anyway (I know that part of your post was purely hypothetical btw). 

 

What Benitez did in that season was provide solid foundations to improve upon. HAd he had the freedom to build the team that he wanted, I'm sure we could have built upon the midtable finishes. 

 

You're right, it wasn't always thrilling football, but neither was it under Hughton, for the most part. Difference being, Hughton had a midtable PL side in the Championship, and Benitez had a top of the Championship squad. 

 

We still blew some teams away, and played some lovely stuff at times. As an aside, I think there's a misremembering of Benitez' football as some kind of turgid borefest, I don't think that's true. Certainly not in the Championship. It was pragmatic, first and foremost, but if the forwards clicked we weren't a bad side to watch.

[Dr Gloom 22151]

I think Howe will be backed next season even if we do go down. I’d fancy him to guide us back up at the first time of asking once he’s been able to populate the squad with the type of player he needs to play his style of football. 

[Howay 12496]

28 minutes ago, The Fish said:

 

What Benitez did in that season was provide solid foundations to improve upon. HAd he had the freedom to build the team that he wanted, I'm sure we could have built upon the midtable finishes. 

 

You're right, it wasn't always thrilling football, but neither was it under Hughton, for the most part. Difference being, Hughton had a midtable PL side in the Championship, and Benitez had a top of the Championship squad. 

 

We still blew some teams away, and played some lovely stuff at times. As an aside, I think there's a misremembering of Benitez' football as some kind of turgid borefest, I don't think that's true. Certainly not in the Championship. It was pragmatic, first and foremost, but if the forwards clicked we weren't a bad side to watch.

It’s a fair point comparing the ability of the teams but that kind of leads me into that if we went down we’d have more that level of team than the one Rafa had (after windows obviously) but Rafas style wouldn’t change. Even in games we are clear and away favorites it’s a slow, methodical approach, while that’s fine, and it clearly worked, you often left games feeling we could have beaten teams by more or in a more entertaining way. If he was the only way I saw us getting back up and we had to go with that style, then I would take him, but personally speaking I have no interest in it since I think we would (hopefully) pretty much buy our way out and would have other options available (personally I’d keep Howe). 
 

Again to me it’s personal preference, I understand many found entertainment in Benitez’s style but I just didn’t. I enjoyed the games as I could appreciate his plan, how solid the defence was and how we methodically turned the screw in games but I didn’t find it massively entertaining. For that reason, since we are an entirely different proposition I wouldn’t want him back ever. If we go down the aim should be to be rebuilding back to being a side we want to be, one I hope is more on the front foot and attacking rather than the defensive, methodical approach, so appointing a bloke like Benitez is counter to that imo, if he had been the short term stop gap to save us from relegation I would have understood the move, but like I say we need to be building a side in the manner we hope to grow into if we do go down. Maybe that long term approach is the defensive style, I don’t know, I just personally hope it’s not. 

[spongebob toonpants 4134]

I personally got huge enjoyment from watching Benitez's teams being able to defend

[The Fish 10966]

1 hour ago, Howay said:

It’s a fair point comparing the ability of the teams but that kind of leads me into that if we went down we’d have more that level of team than the one Rafa had (after windows obviously) but Rafas style wouldn’t change. Even in games we are clear and away favorites it’s a slow, methodical approach, while that’s fine, and it clearly worked, you often left games feeling we could have beaten teams by more or in a more entertaining way. If he was the only way I saw us getting back up and we had to go with that style, then I would take him, but personally speaking I have no interest in it since I think we would (hopefully) pretty much buy our way out and would have other options available (personally I’d keep Howe). 
 

Again to me it’s personal preference, I understand many found entertainment in Benitez’s style but I just didn’t. I enjoyed the games as I could appreciate his plan, how solid the defence was and how we methodically turned the screw in games but I didn’t find it massively entertaining. For that reason, since we are an entirely different proposition I wouldn’t want him back ever. If we go down the aim should be to be rebuilding back to being a side we want to be, one I hope is more on the front foot and attacking rather than the defensive, methodical approach, so appointing a bloke like Benitez is counter to that imo, if he had been the short term stop gap to save us from relegation I would have understood the move, but like I say we need to be building a side in the manner we hope to grow into if we do go down. Maybe that long term approach is the defensive style, I don’t know, I just personally hope it’s not. 

 

I think a pragmatic approach is a great platform to build upon for any club that isn't elite, nor the richest club on the planet.

 

But having the Saudi money and relying on pragmatism to elevate us is like driving on Rainbow Road and not immediately jumping off to the left.

[Howay 12496]

1 minute ago, The Fish said:

 

I think a pragmatic approach is a great platform to build upon for any club that isn't elite, nor the richest club on the planet.

 

But having the Saudi money and relying on pragmatism to elevate us is like driving on Rainbow Road and not immediately jumping off to the left.

 Good analogy. Agreed on both, given the choice I’d rather make that jump but I wouldn’t be devastated if they went the other way as I’d see the approach as you point out. 

[ohhh_yeah 2991]