Apart from Tosun, the forwards we have are all of a similar type. There's been no thought gone into blending the attack to have a variation in how we approach teams that sit back in numbers. Brands is stuck with his Eredivisie mentality of believing teams will come out and play football; he really only needed to look back to the recent past to learn from the Martinez era that we have difficulty especially at home with teams who refuse to play. He should have had that imprinted on his consciousness when assembling a forward line for this club.
I can take or leave Silva (personally, I think unless you have massive financial backing we wont do much better than him), but I have no faith whatsoever in Brands. His performance this summer was pathetic, and I see no discernible plan or set of principles that guide him. IMO he's way out of his comfort zone here.
Think hes on a steep learning curve to be honest, its a very good point on the Dutch league. What should have been obvious in our recruitment is that last season we struggled to breakdown teams who played a blanket defense, also teams who bullied us and lacked a cutting edge it was evident in so many of our disappointing results last season.
In our recruitment this season it just seems not to have been identified or addressed, two results so far, Villa and SU, both pack their defenses, we dont have the cutting edge to break them down and boom, hit on the counter attack by a sucker punch, or an individual error costs us. Once we we go behind our confidence wilts and that is a worry. Leadership, resilience and character are all important aspects in recruitment again it seems this hasnt been identified. We just melt.
An aspect that seems worrying is the dynamic between the business and playing staff, clearly we are basket case financially, that remedial situation has seen the managers wishes in regard to the squad not be prioritized over the needs of business. We have seen Gueye and Lookman sold for the needs of the business against the managers wishes. The manager spent a good five months last year gelling the squad to relative success and consistency in the second half of the season last year. Due to two opposing forces, selling players he wanted to keep and getting replacements and the last possible minute before the season starts has seen us take a regressive step back to square one with a team that needs to gel again.
That's before we talk about the bullet we took in recruitment at center back and lack of them in recruitment leaving us short and lacking any meaningful competition, do you think Mina or Keane are concerned that they will loose their place.
I said turning around this squad was a three year job, job so i will give Brands the benefit of doubt, but there is a lot of truth in what you say that the man is on a steep learning curve here, its not the Dutch league and worryingly, aspects and traits of skill sets that need to be recruited just hanvt been identified and actioned. The timeline of recruitment has also been poor both out and in and undermining a lot of the good work done in the second half of the season last year by the manager. Its most definitely has impacted.
Are we stronger then the end of last season? Jury massively out on that and if we are not our DOF has questions to answer as to his contribution to that.
Silva is a good coach and will do something with this team, but will be a process rather then an event given all i mentioned above and the difficult circumstances he headed into the season with. Strangely i think City is a good game for us up next, their style of play will suit us, you know what i mean, i know.