Newsletter

Get your daily update and weekly newsletter by signing up today!

News

Rafa Benitez names five things he didn’t like about Newcastle 0 Blackburn 1

7 years ago
Share

Just like he doesn’t go overboard when Newcastle win nine matches in a row, Rafa Benitez isn’t getting too wound up about losing a first game in 10 weeks of football.

However, the United boss did still have plenty to say after the final whistle of Newcastle’s surprise defeat to Blackburn.

Rafa says that he and his players need to ‘analyse what happened’ to make sure there is no repeat at Hull on Tuesday night.

The Newcastle Manager said that there were five aspects of the defeat that he didn’t like and certainly only two shots on target at home against a team that were 22nd in the table, tells its own story.

Rafa Benitez didn’t like the way Newcastle started the game and then that was compounded he felt, by the referee giving countless set-pieces to Blackburn.

Benitez added that he didn’t like his team’s reaction once they went a goal down, plus the wasteful nature of the players when any chances did come their way.

Although not going into detail, Rafa Benitez’ fifth thing he didn’t like, were the decisions that he had made before and during the game.

Never nice to lose but at least we now have a manager who is ready to accept his part of the blame when things go wrong, rather than chancers like Alan Pardew where he always looked to shift the blame elsewhere.

Rafa Benitez:

“I didn’t like the way we started the game.

“I didn’t like the way the game was being stopped all of the time with free-kicks and corners without giving us the advantage.

“I didn’t like our reaction when we were losing, we have to do better.

“ I didn’t like the chances we didn’t take and I didn’t like my decisions.

“We’ll have to analyse what happened before the next game, make sure that we don’t make the same mistakes.

“I know that when you change players and lose a game, everyone blames the manager. I knew that…but at the same time, we have got to show more character and more personality.

“If you don’t perform at the level (you need to), you have to give credit to the opposition.

“I don’t want to make excuses, we were poor with a lot of things and didn’t take chances when we had them, as well as we allowed them to play the way they wanted to play.”

Here are the stats from BBC Sport:

Newcastle 0 Blackburn 1

Goals – 

Blackburn: Mulgrew 75

Possession was Blackburn 34% Newcastle 66%

Total shots were Blackburn 10 Newcastle 14

Shots on target were Blackburn 2 Newcastle 2

Corners were Blackburn 9 Newcastle 8

Newcastle starting 11:

Darlow, Yedlin, Clark, Mbemba (Gayle 85), Gamez (Dummett 55), Hayden, Shelvey, Atsu, Ritchie, Perez, Mitrovic

Unused Subs:

Sels, Lascelles, Anita, Diame, Gouffran

Referee: David Coote

Crowd: 52,092

(Read the instant NUFC fan/writer reaction HERE)

(Go HERE for Newcastle v Blackburn player ratings and to add your own)

Share

If you would like to feature on The Mag, submit your article to contribute@themag.co.uk

Have your say

© 2024 The Mag. All Rights Reserved. Design & Build by Mediaworks