2019/20 Marcel Brands

[ToffeeTim]

That ^ doesn't cut it anymore mate.

Your false God has bollocksed up this season much more than Silva has, that's for sure.

A clueless summer of sales and purchases. I wouldn't give tuppence for any of the players he brought in, and the player he sold has left a huge hole in our midfield and team character.

We should still be able to pick up more than 7 points from these easy fixtures. We got beaten at home by dross who didn't have to break sweat.

 

[davek]

We should still be able to pick up more than 7 points from these easy fixtures. We got beaten at home by dross who didn't have to break sweat.

I agree. But the blame has to be sensibly shared out.

 

[mccole]

Would Unsworth work better under this current squad of players?

Defeat against Sheff Wed and heavy defeat to City would that be Marco out just like Ronald.

No Europa in the way just league games of:
Burnley A
West Ham H
Brighton A

Winable games for a new manager.

 

[mikel_88]

We should be beating teams like shef united at home, cant blame brands for that. The squad is unbalanced brands has to go out in jan and bring more in. Also time running out for players like keane ect have had chances and have shown havent got the right mentality to be here

 

[Yarrgh]

To get us in the Championship?

I'd laugh but there's too much hint of doubt about that.

 

[Neiler]

Great point. As well as buying intelligently with integration and variation in mind, the character traits are crucially important (one of the few areas I'd concede on Moyes was that, by and large, he didn't buy players lacking in fortitude). The fans have every right to vent at their team, and we need players who can thrive on that and not withdraw into their shells. There are some worrying parallels with the worst periods of the last two seasons under Martinez developing here.

We were looking for continuity and also to build on last season by adding 2/3 players that would defo give us a boost into the top 6. THAT was the plan for the summer...or should have been, and it should have been easily possible with the cash spent out eventually and by insisting on Gueye staying (contracted for 3 more seasons, we had the strong hand to play...short of that, get £50M for him off PSG and plough right back in for a quality replacement).

This has been gross mismanagement of the club. A base built up in the final third of last season was demolished by short-sightedness and plain old uselessness in spending cash.

Its been a problem for three seasons for me, the fortitude, confidence at resilience of this squad, there is lack of leadership, drive in adversity and ability to counter adverse circumstances which makes me think we have the wrong characters.

I could swallow 8 mill on Delph if he brought those qualities, but i havent seen a notable change in around results when our backs are against the wall. Villa, Bourmouth and SU are just to similar to Newcastle, Watford and WHU last season. Burnley the year before, we lack leaders and battlers. Its all well and good getting morale boosting wins against the top 6, but beating everyone else should be bread and butter, we dont have the character or fighting instinct for it. No leaders in that team.

What wasnt commented about in the last week is what i mentioned of the opposing forces of the selling and buying, the needs of the business and needs of the team. Its plain wrong that Gueye and Lookman were sold against that managers wishes. You cant put a price on continuity, its taking the lower deck from a house of cards. The blend as you say up front just isnt right, it lacks cutting edge and spontaneity and its been the case for 3-4 seasons now.

Silva will make a team out of them and we will be more then fine, but its our approach to recruitment in terms of timing, autocratic decisions and of sales and assessment of character that have really undermined our start to the season, annoyingly its undermined some great work done in the second five months of last season.

Brands is on a steep learning curve and needs to progress from here, i havnt thrown my hat at him and i dont think its all bad, this summer hasnt been the best and he needs to reflect and learn.

The cult of personality, hasnt done many much favors in analysis, a flashy suit, the skirt is lifted and some are anyones, Everton are always bigger then one transient personality and subsequent cult following, been surprised myself, but maybe im naive, how people follow teams these days is different, some want the drama over substance. Hopefully Brands learns from his mistakes this summer though.

 

[nsno-chris]

It happens like that precisiely because the buying of strikers and midfielders have been clueless.

You get a backline and midfield knocking it sideways because we have no way of turning the key upfront. We have pace and physical strength and willing runners, and we have the increasingly ridiculous Sigurdsson operating some way off them, and that isn't getting the job done against determined and disciplined teams who sit with two banks of 4 and 5 players.

Brands buys with what he thinks would blitz the Dutch League, not with the PL dross in mind who we have to break down when Plan A hits a brick wall.

I've seen enough of Brands' work to suggest that he doesn't have the smarts for the job at hand.

We'll get rid of 2/3/4 managers before most will accept that though.

Nope, it’s like that because of tactics.

Plain and simple.

Even the subs, like for like in most cases. 4-2-3-1 do not deviate, get it to the wings before holding onto it for 15 minutes.

It’s why most teams, not even any that we’ve played will even trouble the top 6 so far, have dealt with us rather easily. It’s been a stroll in the park

 

[davek]

Its been a problem for three seasons for me, the fortitude, confidence at resilience of this squad, there is lack of leadership, drive in adversity and ability to counter adverse circumstances which makes me think we have the wrong characters.

I could swallow 8 mill on Delph if he brought those qualities, but i havent seen a notable change in around results when our backs are against the wall. Villa, Bourmouth and SU are just to similar to Newcastle, Watford and WHU last season. Burnley the year before, we lack leaders and battlers. Its all well and good getting morale boosting wins against the top 6, but beating everyone else should be bread and butter, we dont have the character or fighting instinct for it. No leaders in that team.

What wasnt commented about in the last week is what i mentioned of the opposing forces of the selling and buying, the needs of the business and needs of the team. Its plain wrong that Gueye and Lookman were sold against that managers wishes. You cant put a price on continuity, its taking the lower deck from a house of cards. The blend as you say up front just isnt right, it lacks cutting edge and spontaneity and its been the case for 3-4 seasons now.

Silva will make a team out of them and we will be more then fine, but its our approach to recruitment in terms of timing, autocratic decisions and of sales and assessment of character that have really undermined our start to the season, annoyingly its undermined some great work done in the second five months of last season.

Brands is on a steep learning curve and needs to progress from here, i havnt thrown my hat at him and i dont think its all bad, this summer hasnt been the best and he needs to reflect and learn.

The cult of personality, hasnt done many much favors in analysis, a flashy suit, the skirt is lifted and some are anyones, Everton are always bigger then one transient personality and subsequent cult following, been surprised myself, but maybe im naive, how people follow teams these days is different, some want the drama over substance. Hopefully Brands learns from his mistakes this summer though.

Couldn't agree more, Neiler.

The manager's words even before the window shut underlined how much he felt we'd miss players like Gueye and Zouma and it indicates to me that the collaboration on spending and selling we need from Brands/Silva isn't there.

As you say, an opportunity has been squandered this summer and we'll suffer for the first few months of the season because of it.

Assessing Brands' performance is well overdue, IMO. He's been lauded for his first summer's work, that is balanced out by the poor performance this summer. I think the feller needs to emerge from his self imposed hibernation either side of transfer windows to tell us what he sees happening here. I mean, he IS the Director of Football.

 

[davek]

Nope, it’s like that because of tactics.

Plain and simple.

Even the subs, like for like in most cases. 4-2-3-1 do not deviate, get it to the wings before holding onto it for 15 minutes.

It’s why most teams, not even any that we’ve played will even trouble the top 6 so far, have dealt with us rather easily. It’s been a stroll in the park

Tactics were just fine last season in the last third of it, knocking off good and bad teams.

They say usually that it's a poor craftsman who blames his tools; in this case that's actually what happened. A proven decent (not great, but decent) manager is now struggling with the low calibre first team replacements bought for him (and, in the case of CB, not bought for him).

 

[Kenshin]

Amazing if any blame lies on brands from fans.

Signs us international players.

Didn't pick the manager.

Gets questioned all the same.

Perhaps brands issue in the summer was the fact he had to offload so many players at once without any real takers because of their wage demands? Couldn't bring anyone else in when we are paying the likes of bolasie 80 grand a week or whatever it was.

All of this, is the result of Steve Walsh , always will be. The mess was always going to take years to clear up , for the most part letting contracts run out rather than be able to sell. What happens on the pitch is down to Silva , point your blame there.

Unless a dof that brought in euro winner Andre gomes , top club pedigree Lucas digne, Brazil internationals Bernard and Richardson, world cup winning sidebe, premier League winning Delph, top young striker Kean amongst others is to blame.

You know, when everyone is still complaining about Walcott, tosun, schniederlin, Keane, Walsh's signings.

 

[nsno-chris]

Tactics were just fine last season in the last third of it, knocking off good and bad teams.

They say usually that it's a poor craftsman who blames his tools; in this case that's actually what happened. A proven decent (not great, but decent) manager is now struggling with the low calibre first team replacements bought for him (and, in the case of CB, not bought for him).

They were fine against the bigger teams because, you guessed it Dave, they play open football against us. Hence we can find a bit more space

But against the smaller teams he has no plan. 4-2-3-1 slow build up looking to get it out wide.

If you honestly believe that the players at his disposal are not better than those at Palace, Villa, Bournemouth and Sheffield United then you are fully away in the clouds

 

[Saint Domingo]

Brands either picked Silva or he didn’t. We may know soon enough if he did. If he’s Brands’ man then he’ll be safe, if he wasn’t then he’ll be out the door.

 

[davek]

Amazing if any blame lies on brands from fans.

Signs us international players.

Didn't pick the manager.

Gets questioned all the same.

Perhaps brands issue in the summer was the fact he had to offload so many players at once without any real takers because of their wage demands? Couldn't bring anyone else in when we are paying the likes of bolasie 80 grand a week or whatever it was.

All of this, is the result of Steve Walsh , always will be. The mess was always going to take years to clear up , for the most part letting contracts run out rather than be able to sell. What happens on the pitch is down to Silva , point your blame there.

Unless a dof that brought in euro winner Andre gomes , top club pedigree Lucas digne, Brazil internationals Bernard and Richardson, world cup winning sidebe, premier League winning Delph, top young striker Kean amongst others is to blame.

You know, when everyone is still complaining about Walcott, tosun, schniederlin, Keane, Walsh's signings.

His record alone at buying / loaning injured / injury-prone players needs critiquing.

The Zouma saga was a calamity that Steve Walsh would have been pilloried for. And the sale of Gueye (and for a paltry £29M) was a disgrace.

 

[nsno-chris]

Tactics were just fine last season in the last third of it, knocking off good and bad teams.

They say usually that it's a poor craftsman who blames his tools; in this case that's actually what happened. A proven decent (not great, but decent) manager is now struggling with the low calibre first team replacements bought for him (and, in the case of CB, not bought for him).

Oh and with that, we only beat West Ham and Burnley. We managed to lose to Newcastle and Fulham, draw with Palace

So we picked up 7 points from 15 against poor teams

 

[davek]

They were fine against the bigger teams because, you guessed it Dave, they play open football against us. Hence we can find a bit more space

But against the smaller teams he has no plan. 4-2-3-1 slow build up looking to get it out wide.

If you honestly believe that the players at his disposal are not better than those at Palace, Villa, Bournemouth and Sheffield United then you are fully away in the clouds

I've said all that already. It doesn't mean the players signed this summer are good value for the fortune paid for them though does it?