OneMoSalah

Heres a major issue: We should get a coach who is experienced and can please Roman with trophies and philosophy. If Roman's not happy, then a manager won't last, simple as fucking that.

Inter should beat Parma as should Napoli beat Cagliari.

I don't think thats the problem, Roman wants a stellar name to produce good football and win trophies (Guardiola), Robbie was a mere option C or D. If it was Pep in the slump but he had us going towards the football Roman wanted, he'd get as much time as he wants.

As soon as Robbie accepted that full time contract, after 3 weeks of waiting for Roman to give him it, I had a hunch he wouldn't last the season. I'm sure plenty of yous on here had the same gut feeling.

Who do Inter play?

I honestly hope we are scouting Juan Fernando Quintero from Pescara... looks a very good player in the making. 19 year old, full Colombian international, being scouted by Napoli, Inter Milan, both Manchester clubs and Juve apparently. Big talent, playing in Marco Veratti's old role at Pescara in midfield as a deep lying playmaker. Not seen too much of him but read a lot, I'm going to watch a few Pescara games if I get a chance to see if the hypes justified.

Will win this. They don't have Dempsey to score fucking headers. Bebratov is a big problem though. If we defend as well as today we'll be fine. The attack needs to improve but I'm sure it will happen.

Lets be honest, going back to the stats Leif posted about Benitez's Liverpool teams, they were very good at keeping clean sheets and conceding a low amount of goals. Jose's Chelsea was brilliant at keeping clean sheets. Imo to improve offensively we needed to improve defensively, Rafa said he wasn't satisfied with the offensive side of our game, he will improve that eventually, give the man time, that performance is the result of three training sessions. Our defence looked so much better so imagine after 6-8 more training sessions and more games, that back 4 could be brilliant together especially with the wingers dropping back to help out too.

Here comes the wankfest...

Best position at CB. Said this numerous times before, hes showing it now.

Sign him already...

So yeah, we got a clean sheet, first since September 22nd. Major defensive improvement, great work rate from the wingers to get up and down and help the FBs. Better shape than under Robbie by far. If we'd have gotten a few more shots on target or even a goal everyone would be fucking raving about Rafa. Good signs, if we get a win at Fulham and another one against West Ham then half of the people against Rafa will easily be turned within 3 games. Can't believe how embarrassing the chants about Rafa were, give the bloke a chance. Makes some of the fans look like bellends, we sacked a manager last year and won 2 trophies... makes me wonder are our fans spoiled brats? We will win at least one trophy this year under Rafa for sure. Either the Club world cup or Capital one cup.

Calm down, were still in this despite playing shit. Thats the biggest plus we have right now.

All this Anti Rafa chanting is very embarrassing.

Anyone else have a funny feeling Rafa might move for Mascherano and Agger/Skrtel having previously worked with them? Mascherano and one of the two Liverpool CBs would be very very good additions imo. A striker is also a definite tbh. Also talk Rafa wants Paulinho but unsure whether its true or not.

We will play 4-2-3-1 just a bit differently. Rafa likes his teams to control the space in between the midfield and defense, staying compact then basically countering the opposition. Reckon we'll start with a 4-2-3-1 but when we defend it will be a 4-4-1-1 with two banks of four protecting and then a 4-2-3-1 when attacking with the fullbacks a bit further up. Don't expect 3 floating 10's, I honestly think Oscar could be in the pivot as a deep lying playmaker next to Rami or Mikel who will be our aggressive ball winner (suits Rami more due to the fact hes clearly more mobile than Mikel but it would be odd if Mikel didn't play been good for us this season). Then in the three from right to left Moses - Mata - Hazard with Torres up top. Could work, might not though, we'll see tomorrow.

Luiz as an individual has been terrible and has made mistakes but that doesn't mean hes a shit footballer as the Skipper said. Cahill has also made mistakes as has JT this year. Look at the starting 11 we've put out every week and how many times has the whole team defender well together as a unit. Not once. We haven't defended as well bar the Barca games since under Mourinho imo.

http://www.pocket-lint.com/news/48526/rafa-benitez-chelsea-ipad-app interesting read..

Cahill has better decision making, when to go to intercept/tackle, when to stay etc. Luiz beats him at distributing the ball out from the back though but if Luiz could sort himself out and not make mistakes he'd be a great CB. Both aren't our best CBs anyway. Ivanovic imo is our best one.

Congrats Donni Mate!

Rafa wants Paulinho from Corinthians or whoever he plays for. Wants to partner him with Rami.. On TalkSport.

I dont see the massive fuss now after the last day or two, whats done is done. Anyway where was the 50 threads for AVB or Carlo or Scolari etc. Move on. Roman does things his ways, it has brought us success, simple as. If you'd rather have a manager in for 10 years than win trophies your nuts. I was pissed with AVB's sacking but we won two trophies so in the end I wasn't as pissed. I feel we will do something similar with Rafa.

Press them high up... stop them scoring... get at their back three and take our chances... we win the game. Simple. City have been very bad at the back so far this season as have we.

You'd have Luiz as a DM? I'd have him as club mascot at most. Hes fucking shit. Unsure how hes got so bad, he was decent under Carlo..

Think he said tactically, because he went on to explain how they work on pressing and the team shape.