When Rafa Benitez first came to Newcastle last March, he stressed the main thing to fight relegation was to keep calm.
And while Rafa was unable to save us from relegation after the completely incompetent Steve McClaren had been left in charge for too long, we still got 12 points from the last six games after getting just one point from the first four games Rafa managed at Newcastle.
Rafa Benitez last night – looks fairly happy
History seems to have repeated itself this season and while we got nothing from our first two games we have won the following six games in all competitions and scored 17 goals and conceding only one.
We are now second top of the Championship one point behind Huddersfield.
In the 18 games Rafa has managed at Newcastle, he has 9 wins (50% win rate) and the cumulative goal difference is +16 – which is amazing.
And after putting in one of our best displays last night for a very long time in dismantling QPR at Loftus Road 6-0 – it is now very important the lads keep their heads down and not get carried away.
Maybe the mantra is “stay calm, concentrate and keep winning.”
Rafa said as much in his post match comments on nufcTV when he smiled only once – a half-smile at the end of the interview.
If you turned the sound off and watched Rafa talking after the game and didn’t know the result – you could have guessed we had lost the game since Rafa came across a little solemn.
But he’s a really smart man and doesn’t want his players to get carried away and get too big for their boots.
It’s very important they keep with the advice Rafa has been hammering into them ever since he arrived on Tyneside.
We must concentrate fully on the next opponent, respect them and try to win any which way we can.
Next up are Wolves who were beaten 4-0 at home last night by Barnsley with all four goals coming in the last 17 minutes of the game.
Barnsley are level on 15 points with Newcastle and one place below us in the league.
We play Wolves at home both on Saturday in the league and on Tuesday night in the 3rd round of the EFL Cup.
The next goal is to win both those two games, but hey – we’re getting ahead of ourselves.
The next goal for Newcastle is to beat Wolves on Saturday afternoon in the league – that’s the only thing that matters right now.
We need 3 more points put up on the board on Saturday.
Howay The Lads!!
Comments welcome.
11 comments so far
barkel
Sep 14, 2016 at 3:04 PM
Comment #1I find it amazing how many people vote in these motm polls. How do people judge there vote? TV, radio or being at the game? Personally I will only vote on gaes I’ve been to or televised games, I think it’s hard to judge how a player does otherwise.
barkel
Sep 14, 2016 at 3:05 PM
Comment #2*their
one Tony Green
Sep 14, 2016 at 3:11 PM
Comment #3I find it amazing how people actually read a blog which states the obvious.
jane
Sep 14, 2016 at 3:13 PM
Comment #4oh no i don’t know what the obvious is 😐
jane
Sep 14, 2016 at 3:16 PM
Comment #5i’ve worked it out now.
the clue was in read the blog
lochinvar
Sep 14, 2016 at 3:19 PM
Comment #6Achraf Lazaar has been interviewed on the TMW web-site and he seems to just love it at Newcastle:
“Playing in England has always been my dream, it is the right season for me.” “In Sicily too many changes, so many situations and then Benitez’ called me.”
“To receive a call from an important coach like Benitez ,and he spoke to me in a truly humble way, was something unexpected and important.”
“I saw the facilities, the environment is very different from Italy.” “This an amazing organisation (Newcastle), a beautiful stadium and fantastic fans.”
“He has won so much, is one of the strongest coaches in the world.” “I could only say ‘yes sir. I am here’.”
Well said that man.
We can only say in reply ” yes sir ( Rafa ) we are here”
jane
Sep 14, 2016 at 3:26 PM
Comment #7KEEP CALM
font size=”2″>and
carry on
WINNING
BeeGuy
Sep 14, 2016 at 3:26 PM
Comment #8Watching all the video I can find, it seems QPR just went to sleep. NUFC had acres of space and room to roam unimpeded. Wolves will have to be tougher than QPR was. I’m sure Rafa realizes that Wolves will be much more alert and dangerous.
Spoof
Sep 14, 2016 at 3:26 PM
Comment #9Confidence in football is vital, at the start of the season we looked nervous, dis-organised and Rafa had too many defensive players on the pitch.
Fulham we had Anita, Hayden and Colback in midfield and against Huddersfield we had Anita, Hayden and Shelvey in midfield.
At that point I was pleading with Rafa to stop playing a side which looked as if it was designed to protect a 2 goal lead in the second leg of a 2 legged cup tie and drop one of the 3 anchor men and have another attack minded player instead.
From that point onwards Anita has been played at RB leaving two DM’s and we have had another attack minded player in their replacing Janmaat, and what a difference it has made, a few wins on the spin confidence sky high and we really do look a good side.
How long did MacClaren persevere with Anita and Colback as a pairing, they were dreadful but McClaren insisted on keeping them together as a pairing, Rafa also got it wrong, but come the 3rd game he changed it around and we have benefited greatly.
That is the difference between a good manager and a poor one, a good manager will see that he has got it wrong and change it quickly, whereas McClaren didn’t change it at all.
jane
Sep 14, 2016 at 3:27 PM
Comment #10KEEP CALM
and
carry on
WINNING
JP...from The Rock
Sep 14, 2016 at 4:19 PM
Comment #11I find it amazing how many people voted for the player with no name! Lol