Go back to winning ugly, Rafa

In OCTOBER, with newcastle sixth in the table, rafa Benitez warned that his team could easily lose four matches on the spin. It was his way of checking expectation. as it turns out, he was right. Four games and four defeats later, it no longer needs Benitez’s words to temper excitement. newcastle are heading in the wrong direction. spend time with Benitez on a weekly basis and he will tell you that limited sides such as his own need to compensate for their shortcomings by being together, compact and organised. That is everything they weren’t on saturday. newcastle have scored one goal in six hours and Benitez has tried to rectify that by playing two in attack. But this team cannot afford the luxury of a second striker. Benitez needs to go back to the ugliness of early season, when his team weren’t pretty but at least got results.