BBC MotD pundit Danny Murphy has moved to defend Rafael Benitez after the Newcastle manager was criticised for his tactics in his side’s 2-1 defeat to Chelsea on Sunday.
Both Jamie Redknapp and Richard Keys slammed the Spaniard for what they perceived to be negative tactics, but Murphy thinks Benitez was correct in the way he set his team up.
“I think they probably did the right thing on the day and nearly got away with it,” he said on talkSPORT. “Now I’m not suggesting that I’d want to watch that every week, but Newcastle don’t do that every week.
"Rafa was totally right to do what he did!"
Danny Murphy says Rafa Benitez deserves praise for his defensive tactics that almost got #NUFC a point at home to Chelsea.
Do you think it's wrong for teams playing at home to 'park the bus'? 🚌🤔 pic.twitter.com/N0h5iyqXf8
— talkSPORT (@talkSPORT) August 27, 2018
“I think Rafa will pick and choose the games when he does that, and he’s got every right to, by the way, with the squad he’s got and the personnel he’s got.
“Newcastle do not finish tenth in the Premier League last year if they go out toe-to-toe against all the teams with better players than them because they’ll end up near the relegation zone.
OPINION
It’s hard to disagree with what Murphy is saying here. He’s right that Newcastle don’t play the way they did against Chelsea every week. They approach each game differently because that’s the kind of tactician Benitez is. He knows the weaknesses of his side and how they stack up against the strengths of the opposition. If he had gone out and ordered his team to try and play free-flowing attacking football then they would have been picked off on the counter by the likes of Alvaro Morata, Eden Hazard and Pedro. Benitez would then be labelled naive for ordering his players to play that way. He can’t win. He went for the pragmatic, logical approach of trying to sit back and nick a goal where possible. It didn’t quite work out but it very nearly did. If the Magpies had come away with a point against a team like Chelsea then no one would’ve complained. Everybody knows that Newcastle will play a more attacking brand of football against a team like Huddersfield than they did against Maurizio Sarri’s side. The criticism levelled at Benitez borders on the absurd, and Murphy is absolutely right in what he says.
