Newcastle United have struggled for quite some time and it has reflected on their performances across all levels of the Newcastle United academy of football.
It began as a seemingly uneventful campaign that showed signs of mediocre play but further down the track, these sound performances became utterly horrible to watch with the club on a downward spiral, fast.
Only when Newcastle played their new signing of Jonjo Shelvey did they manage a victory, a 2-1 win over West Ham on Jan 17.
Steve McClaren was under the impression that fans were not happy with his team’s performances and rightfully so as they couldn’t even manage back-to-back decent performances, let alone wins.
Newcastle United, after some time, decided it was crucial to sack Steve McClaren indefinitely and so began the whirlwind focus on Rafa Benitez as the next manager.
Fans were right and Rafa Benitez was pictured across football headlines holding up a Newcastle United scarf in St. James Park.
Last night as his first game in charge, Newcastle were denied by an incredible 25th minute bicycle-volley from Okazaki which left both teams stunned.
Despite this fantastic goal and unfortunate loss; Newcastle United still looked greatly improved in both attack and defence.
Benitez has the unenviable task of rebuilding this crumbling Newcastle squad. There is much hope in his ability to bring out the best of this squad which might just save them from Championship football and enable them to keep plying their trade in the Premier League.
