Newcastle United revisited by Rafa Benitez short blanket | OneFootball

Rafa Benitez did a brilliant job at Newcastle United.

I will have that argument any day, with anybody who claims that wasn’t the case.

As we all know, Rafa Benitez getting United instantly promoted as champions.

Only for then Mike Ashley to go back on his promises and after promotion, the then United owner refusing to give the Spaniard anything close to what would have been reasonable backing.

One of the criticisms from some, was that Newcastle United weren’t attacking enough under Rafa Benitez.

The Spaniard would regularly make the case though that he couldn’t afford to be, due to the refusal of Mike Ashley to allow proper squad funding. Rafa still working his magic and a lot of that magic depending on a solid disciplined defence, which meant that in each of the two Premier League seasons he was in charge at NUFC, only six other clubs each of the two seasons conceded less goals than Newcastle.

Rafa Benitez also had a saying, he’d said it previously at Liverpool as well, his ‘short blanket’ point.

When at Newcastle United, Rafa Benitez using this amusing metaphor to describe the difficulty of getting the balance of your team right:

“The ‘short blanket’… if you cover your head, you have your feet cold, but if you cover your feet, you have your head cold.”

Rafa Benitez pointing out that the more risks you take in committing players forward, the more open it will leave you at the back. Whilst if you are too defensive, it leaves you more open to failing to score enough goals.

Which brings me to the present day.

Under Eddie Howe, in the 2022/23 season we saw Newcastle score 68 goals and concede 33, no PL team conceded fewer goals. Last season, Newcastle scored 85 goals and conceded 62, it was the most goals NUFC have scored in any Premier League season, including the Kevin Keegan and Sir Bobby Robson eras.

This season, a lot has been made of the failure of Newcastle United to score enough goals so far, as you can see from the Premier League table on Saturday morning, only four PL clubs have scored less goals than the eight NUFC ones:

What you can also see and which I NEVER see pointed out by journalists, is that only Liverpool and Forest have conceded less goals than Newcastle United.

This idea that Newcastle United have been rubbish, is simply… rubbish.

There has been a lot of positives with Newcastle United this season and just a case of improving the not so positive stuff.

The return of the superb Nick Pope has been a massive factor in United only conceding eight goals in the Premier League, only once conceding more than one in a match.

At the other end, I don’t think it is totally a Rafa Benitez ‘short blanket’ situation, more a case of Newcastle needing to take their chances. As seen especially in these last two games, where United could and should have won both games against Brighton and Everton. Those five extra points would have seen Newcastle now joint third and avoided so much of this media nonsense of supposed crisis at St James’ Park.

I think Eddie Howe has gone a little bit more defensive but most of that not through choice. More a case of Isak missing matches Wilson not available at all, plus the likes of Gordon and Bruno taking time to get back to full fitness and full focus after a very busy summer and indeed last year, plus minimal pre-season.

I think a lot of credit has to be given for the defence, as in Botman’s absence (and the absence of a summer right-footed central defender), Eddie Howe is relying on the experienced/veteran pairing of Schar and Burn, plus two rookie full-backs who are great signings BUT still learning their trade, Tino only 21 and Hall turning 20 just last month.