Rafa Benitez has given his press conference at 1:15 pm today for the home game against Swansea City tomorrow and some of his initial comments are coming through from the journalists present.
Rafa has given an injury update and it’s not particularly good and at least he explains what’s up with Fabricio Coloccini, who has had a “reaction” in training.
Rafa Benitez – arriving for press conference
Colo is not available for this game or the game against Manchester City on Tuesday night.
This is some of what Rafa has said this afternoon:
“Dummett is coming back. Taylor, Janmaat and Coloccini are not available. We have to manage with the players we have.”
“The other scores don’t matter. We have to win our game. I think we can win games and get the points we need to stay up.”
“Swansea have confidence. They are organized. They aren’t at risk of relegation so they will play football.”
“In training sessions, the team is doing well. Now is the time to show it and play as a team on the pitch.”
Rafa was happy last week also with the way the players were performing in training, but then we immediately collapsed and conceded after just four minutes at St. Mary’s Stadium.
It’s not good that we have both the experienced Janmaat and Coloccini out with injury – and it looks like our defense is again threadbare – although Paul Dummett is likely to start the game tomorrow.
It will be asking a lot of both Chancel Mbemba and Jamaal Lascelles in central defense tomorrow afternoon. but perhaps the crowd can inspire them to play well – they are both young players but with good attitudes.
The absence of Coloccini has been a key problem for us, because we think he would play well for Rafa – if he ever gets fit before the end of the season.
Comments welcome.
2 comments so far
WestOzMag
Apr 15, 2016 at 2:06 PM
Comment #1Who cares. This club is garbage and it goes hand in hand with the garbage that constantly writes on this blog. This blog has lost it charm of the good Ol days and yet it is now rife with horrible folk that think they know everything about football and the club. They think only their opinions matter and like to belittle folk who are not in the little gang of toads. A massive two fingers up to you bunch of w@nkers!! The good ppl on here know who I’m talking about.
The Vicar
Apr 15, 2016 at 2:48 PM
Comment #2West Oz Mag,
Agree totally about the blog. Some of the people contributing to this site are a crock: not what it was as you say.
Re the club, supporting NUFC is like watching a severely retarded person developing life skills: you want them to succeed but oh my it takes time. So:
1. Alienating your support (even customers) doesn’t help
2. Spend zero £ on development over 5 years plus doesn’t help
3. Stability is good, but stability with the wrong people in charge doesn’t help
4. Handing over the running of the club to guys you meet in your local boozer doesn’t help
5. Thinking a football club can be run like a retailer (of any size) doesn’t help
So the way I read dear old Ashley, is that he has now (after around 7-8 years but seems much longer) decided to put money into the club on a sustained basis. He has started to pay for his advertising. This means that when he spends money from now on, they cannot get the club on the FFP nonsense.
Also the way it looks with Rafa, is that he will get control, and that when we go to the Championship he may well stay. I see Carr and Penfold going the distance, although this might be me reading tea leaves or whatever. Moncur to stay, which is good.
Let’s hope.