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Benitez

Obviously we can agree to disagree on the likes of Atsu and Elliot but Murphy just proved why Rafa says he is one for the future.

There was frustration in the crowd to start off with but him losing his first ball just saw his confidence drain.
 
He had to be brought on, as Atsu injured himself trying to do the job Joselu should be doing - shooting at goal.
 
Reflecting on a couple of season ago going into November with McClaren at the helm, we had played 10 games, just been humped 3-0 by the unwashed and sat second bottom of the Premiership. Next game we drew 0-0 with Stoke to bring our points tally to 7, half what we have now. Rafa is doing a remarkable job with the players he has, whether he could do better if he utilised Mitro and changed formations etc, is all about opinions on here.
 
IMHO, Mitrovic is the next best striker, after Gayle.

Certainly got better than Perez and Joselu. The former doesn't even have a specific role. The latter deserves to surrender his starting shirt until he can a) control a ball, and b) at least shoot at goal.
 
Maybe, had funds been made available to Rafa, then he would have bought in Marks and Sparks rather than Poundstretcher and a striker signed that met the approval of everyone.
 
My thinking exactly Mc - especially for strikers, you need to pay.

I must admit, I was hoping (and expecting) more from Joselu - but frankly, rather than play him we would do just as well giving one of our youth players a chance.

 
It's pretty much common knowledge that Rafa had verbally shaken on Tammy Abraham as well as Willy Cabalero. He also thought he had the likes of Kenedy of Chelsea and 1 or 2 more in the bag before he was shafted by the regime. Apart from Lejeune, every other player brought in wasn't a first choice target but done so for needs sake.

What wont be common knowledge is whether or not he has told every player that he didn't want to stay here. Aside from Colback who has been confirmed by Rafa as being told he wasn't wanted, for all we know, Mitrovic could have been another and his attitude or effort in training may not be up to the expected standard.

We just dont know what is going on but if I could hazard a guess and say that aside from Mitrovic not being deemed good enough, I feel that there is some sort of attitude moulding going on. So far it's not working and I reckon he's gone in January takeover or not. I also think both Joselu and Gayle will be surplus stock if we are sold.
 
Also Toony, we 'dont know what is going on' regards the other inbound players - it might not have been 'a shafting' from 'the regime' but other factors. Chelsea, apparently, didn't want to arm Rafa with Tammy, for example. I simply refuse to go down the route of 'the regime' is to blame for everything, including, and not limited to, global warming. Rafa will have been given a budget. The rest of what happened, will never be known.

I think Gayle will be gone in the window, too (as well as others, perhaps Mitro) - to add / raise funds for the much needed striker who CAN score. More than one, with any luck.