Sam Allardyce defended the tactics manager Rafa Benitez used during Newcastle United’s 2-1 defeat to Chelsea at St James Park on Sunday.
The former Magpies manager shared that Benitez was close to getting a positive result against the Blues and suggested that when you know the players available to you aren’t good enough to go attack Chelsea, you have to play in that way.
Allardyce shared that he was told Magpies supporters would rather lose 5-4 than win 1-0 when he was in charge and that fans want to see adventurous attacking football.
“He was a whisker from getting a result,” said Allardyce on talkSPORT (Tuesday August 28, 06:56am).
“Y’know he is almost saying if I get this right, he’s driving a Fiat and he’s getting the best out of his Fiat and clearly Chelsea are a Bentley.
“And so they’re coming across performances levels of difference and he’s putting tactics out to stop the opposition, it’s not pretty watching but when it comes to losing your position in the Premier League and perhaps making sure you survive again, though he does better than surviving as he finished 10th, y’know it’s a very difficult job to please the fans.
“When you know what you’ve got, it’s not going to be good enough if you go attack it against a Chelsea.
“The press when I was at Newcastle would have said after one or two of my performances where we ended up winning 1-0, they’d say to me fans would sooner see you lose 5-4 than win 1-0 and I was staggered by that.
“But that’s obviously not the case now cause the fans are much more patient now so I think Newcastle at home is obviously a place where they want to see attacking adventurous football but at the moment Rafa sees that as a very dangerous ploy to attempt at home because of the limited squad he thinks he’s got.”
OPINION
Allardyce delivered his verdict on Benitez’s tactics against Chelsea and it should have been no surprise that he didn’t criticise them. It would have very hypocritical on his part if he had done that as the former England manager isn’t exactly known for his exciting attacking football. Yet perhaps Allardyce did still manage to take a dig in his defence of Benitez by claiming that Magpies supporters are more patient about so-called boring football being played. Perhaps the currently unattached manager was a little envious that Magpies fans have generally supported the fact Benitez played defensively against the Blues and it has been pundits who have taken to tearing him apart for the way he had his side play on Sunday. However while Allardyce may have taken a slight dig with the wording of his response to Benitez’s tactics at least the manager has opted to defend the Spaniard. Benitez was so close to getting a point from the match against Chelsea on Sunday and that shouldn’t be forgotten about easily.
