And the ex-Liverpool defender, turned respected pundit, thinks that Benitez’s methods can be summed up with his favourite shout from his technical area – “compact”.
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From his falling out with a coach at Spurs, to struggling to make an impact at Newcastle, Andros Townsend has endured something of a season to forget. There was relief in his tone when he spoke of the commitment Newcastle’s players had shown in that 1-0 defeat at Leicester on Monday. For Sunderland, the 1990s would see the club pull back from the brink with two promotions under Peter Reid, a new stadium, and followed that up with two respectable Premier League seasons spearheaded by Kevin Phillips, who won the European Golden Boot.
Completing our line-up is Super Kevin Phillips, a Sunderland legend that scored four goals against Newcastle throughout his time as a Sunderland player, albeit only one of them contributed to a win.
Mr Rayner, 61, from Chester-le-Street, said: “I’m the kind of fan who is happy with a point from an away game”.
But Mane sped past Mamadou Sakho to reduce the arrears and after Pelle equalised with a vicious shot in the 83rd minute, the Italian freed Mane to run through and score an 86th-minute victor.
Former players, among them the mightily experienced Liverpudlian, Jamie Carragher, testify to Benitez as a trainer.
92 players have featured in the last six derbies for both Newcastle and Sunderland and there have been six different referees to officiate the fiery derby.
“We expect a physical game – we have to play football”.
Northern Rail will also be providing a direct train service from Sunderland Central station to Newcastle Central station specifically for supporters travelling to the match – this will leave at 11.55am. After the first year of working with Rafa, we were like robots.
In his autobiography “Big Sam” released last fall before taking the Sunderland job, Allardyce recounted Benitez grousing about his team’s playing style while “Big Sam” was in charge at Bolton Wanderers.
I was told by my friends that once we got on the terraces to “keep your trap shut” just in case any Toon fans might interpret my alien southern accent as meaning I supported the opponents. “But you can not be thinking about what happened in the past, you have to concentrate on what you will do on the pitch and what will happen in the future”.
Sam Allardyce has warned Sunderland they will only stand a chance of collecting a seventh successive derby victory if they are mentally prepared for a nerve-jangling battle.
“There’s only one way you can enjoy a derby, and that’s by winning it. There’s no other way”. I’m not too anxious about that.
Allardyce, who was again critical of Benitez in his autobiography released past year, had done the same.
“We both went to the papers and aired our differences”.
“But from Steve’s point of view, I felt sorry for him and of course another English manager bites the dust”.
“Tactics can go out the window with the atmosphere. play your best game is what I say, and hopefully that will be enough for us”.
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‘We will have more chances to win, even if we lose the derby, but it will make it a lot more hard, ‘ the Spaniard added. What he has done and the clubs he has managed, the success he has gained wherever he has been, it is a big, big capture for Newcastle.
