2019/20 Marcel Brands

[brieverton]

The end will justify the means, surely.

I don't see anything wrong with austerity in our current state - we have too many players and the club has suffered badly from financial and procedural ill-discipline and either no strategy or poorly devised and executed strategy.

Despite regular claims to the contrary, we are not and never have been cash rich in the modern era. I don't see anything wrong with Moshiri and the club wanting a big improvement in getting bang for their buck. All other things being equal, I get some re-assurance from knowing that this is taken seriously and that we won't take unnecessary risks with stability and sustainability. What has transpired with transfer policy in the past two years has objectively failed and that particular train has to be brought to a halt. I would take a dim view of any DOF or club officer who thought to the contrary.

We have to adopt truly global scouting and not opt for the lazy, convenient but far more expensive option of bringing in predominantly domestic players. £50m transfers might be the order of the day for City and United and barely raise an eyebrow anymore but we cannot conduct the essential major surgery required on the squad by filling each position with players of that value. We have to have a longer-term strategy that will result in transfer policy actually being an area of growth for the accounts and helping to sustain further investment in the team when we need it.

 

[davek]

39 first team squad players Dave
39 let that sink in.

Has it sunk in.
He could get rid of 13 , buy no one , save us a 5/600 thousand a week in wages and the squad would still be big enough to go through a non European season.

That's a soft 39. In reality half are fillers and would have had no chance of playing under Moyes, Martinez, Koeman or Allardyce.

 

[davek]

People moan when they hear nothing from the club. Brands is signalling intentions, keeps fans in the know, trying to bring the fans back together after what happened last season, when the club and fans were so distant!

I'm impressed with what brands is saying, but I'm sure once the season starts hell let the results/silva do the talking.

But for the off season, let him continue to talk and inform us fans.

His message is a repetitive one: we cut the squad and look to play as many home grown or youngsters brought in as possible. Not sure why we have to hear it over and over. The impact of that is to make it feel like we have no manager.

 

[davek]

BFS managed 8th comfortably playing horrid footy with the same group of players. I expect 8th as bare minimum and I also expect current players to improve under the new approach

New style of play; more emphasis on playing youngsters - a transition like that isn't happening overnight.

I'd take anywhere between 12th and 9th as a reasonable first season.

 

[Brisan123]

That's a soft 39. In reality half are fillers and would have had no chance of playing under Moyes, Martinez, Koeman or Allardyce.

Soft 39 or not they are all in and around the first squad for training.
Massive cull needed first.
There are 22/23 of those players that shouldn’t be on the squad list
That will free up wages to allow us to sign players and move on

 

[dixiesdisciple]

New style of play; more emphasis on playing youngsters - a transition like that isn't happening overnight.

I'd take anywhere between 12th and 9th as a reasonable first season.

With the best will in the world, I hope you’re wrong! BFS got 8th using Bolasie, Schneiderlin, Martina etc who offered nada. Using the likes of Lookman ahead of Bolasie offers far more in attack and defence to my mind. I’m feeling positive about what’s going on, I can’t see how ditching rubbish players will set us further back tbh.

 

[davek]

With the best will in the world, I hope you’re wrong! BFS got 8th using Bolasie, Schneiderlin, Martina etc who offered nada. Using the likes of Lookman ahead of Bolasie offers far more in attack and defence to my mind. I’m feeling positive about what’s going on, I can’t see how ditching rubbish players will set us further back tbh.

Because it's not just about trying to get the same tune out of the players left him and the loaned players coming back. There is a whole style of play to master and it will take time for everyone to know what's expected of them. That goes for the manager in his new role too.

 

[Charles Hawtrey]

New style of play; more emphasis on playing youngsters - a transition like that isn't happening overnight.

I'd take anywhere between 12th and 9th as a reasonable first season.

In some ways our investment in youngsters started 12-18 months ago as we started spending on bringing players into the U23's. This is not just a 'lets rely on the youth we can produce' scenario, I feel we have been planning to have a much better top tier of our academy so that we can nurture those players and bring them to EPL standard. Clearly the Walcott's, Sigurdsson's and Tosun's are not in that set but we have been steadily investing in youth for a while now at the same time.

 

[bring the ghost on]

New style of play; more emphasis on playing youngsters - a transition like that isn't happening overnight.

I'd take anywhere between 12th and 9th as a reasonable first season.

I agree we need a transition period, but when you look at the dross in the premier league (Palace and Newcastle finished 10th and 11th!), we should probably still expect a top 10 finish minimum this year and real progress in terms of squad re-build and style.

 

[dixiesdisciple]

Because it's not just about trying to get the same tune out of the players left him and the loaned players coming back. There is a whole style of play to master and it will take time for everyone to know what's expected of them. That goes for the manager in his new role too.

I see where you’re coming from, and you may well be right... but having a ‘style of play’ to master as opposed to not having any clue what our tactics/shape should be is surely going to get us at least what we had before. And FWIW I think players like Lookman, Walcott, Sigurdsson and Tosun will be far more effective in an attacking set up. We shall see

 

[davek]

In some ways our investment in youngsters started 12-18 months ago as we started spending on bringing players into the U23's. This is not just a 'lets rely on the youth we can produce' scenario, I feel we have been planning to have a much better top tier of our academy so that we can nurture those players and bring them to EPL standard. Clearly the Walcott's, Sigurdsson's and Tosun's are not in that set but we have been steadily investing in youth for a while now at the same time.

We might see more of that. From what I can learn about Brands he looks to scour (or employ others to scour) the market in discarded talent and take a chance on them. Decent overview of this here (amongst other things):
http://inbedwithmaradona.com/journal/2016/3/28/unity-is-strength-marcel-brands-and-psv

 

[davek]

I agree we need a transition period, but when you look at the dross in the premier league (Palace and Newcastle finished 10th and 11th!), we should probably still expect a top 10 finish minimum this year and real progress in terms of squad re-build and style.

I dont know. What you had at Newcastle was a manager solid in his position amongst the players and players who knew each other through thick and thin - from the Championship to the PL. They had a good spirit.

We have neither here and it'll have to be fashioned the next season.

 

[davek]

I see where you’re coming from, and you may well be right... but having a ‘style of play’ to master as opposed to not having any clue what our tactics/shape should be is surely going to get us at least what we had before. And FWIW I think players like Lookman, Walcott, Sigurdsson and Tosun will be far more effective in an attacking set up. We shall see

If you weigh up what Allardyce did it was not a bad effort results wise. The tactic of targeting poor to average teams to win one or three points off was how he did it. But he was able to do that by both avoiding being expansive and experimenting with peripheral players. That wont be the case next season.

It's going to be a tougher campaign next season to put points on the table.

 

[dixiesdisciple]

If you weigh up what Allardyce did it was not a bad effort results wise. The tactic of targeting poor to average teams to win one or three points off was how he did it. But he was able to do that by both avoiding being expansive and experimenting with peripheral players. That wont be the case next season.

It's going to be a tougher campaign next season to put points on the table.

We went through 3 managers with 3 different approaches and still managed 8th. So in some respects we will have less change this season (hopefully!). We had some players who were so bad we may as well not had them on the pitch, we had a hugely negative environment at Goodison and I just think with some positivity and only a couple of decent signings we’ll be lots better off.

 

[bring the ghost on]

I dont know. What you had at Newcastle was a manager solid in his position amongst the players and players who knew each other through thick and thin - from the Championship to the PL. They had a good spirit.

We have neither here and it'll have to be fashioned the next season.

Newcy have a good manager but a very weak squad and all sorts of issues behind the scenes with Ashley & Co.

Honestly, even in transition I’d be very disappointed to finish behind them.