'Its the players fault' - this justification of Silva doesn't weight.
Its stating the obvious to say it's up to the manager to get the players motivated, focused and to communicate tactics and a style of play they can understand and go out and play on the pitch.
But consider the contrast between Digne and Gomes.
Its no coincidence that Digne has been our consistently best player while Gomes form continues to slide.
Digne is easy to manage.
His position/role is pretty straightforward and he has the character, passion, belief, intelligence and skill set you'd want from a player.
He's going to be this way irrespective of who is coaching/managing him.
Its not so much as case of managing him as effectively managing whats around him to get the best out of him.
Just get him to do his thing. The same could be said of Coleman and Baines before.
Gomes is a stylish player whose position needs a style to play to.
Not just any style - a style that is effective.
If a player in his position sees the tactics as ineffective his form becomes a slippery slope.
If the opposition counters the tactics and the players movements around him aren't responsive to solve it, his role is lost and it becomes a collapsing house of cards. He hesitates, doubts, second guesses and the focus and crispness of his passes goes.
Gomes is much more reliant of the coach than Digne.
Its hard to tell whether Silva has lost the dressing room. A lot of the guys are too professional and too good a bunch of blokes to just give up. But it does appear he has lost them out on the field.
And when that happens its not the players fault.
I just don't accept this excuse that he doesn't have the players he needs to play his system.
Look at Bielsa for a case in point.
But also, is it not a case of being competitive, winning and playing well first with the players you've got. A system and tactics that suit the players and over time, and parralell to this, moving them, teaching them to play the system you want.
Crucial to this is getting in the right player at the right time, where you now can say, ok we are now going to do this thing differently.
Tools for the right job.
Not to do it this way is to cause your team to doubt itself, to become increasingly dysfunctional.
Silva is trying to drag a team along and it doesn't matter how much yanking he does he not going to budge them down the path he wants.
And he doesn't seem to have it, to get them to the same destination down another path.
He incorrectly assessed what he had.
Blaming the tools is a cop out.
All our central players (with the exception of Gana - bc his role is his own) have gone backwards while Walcott only benefits from a well oiled machine.
Another point to consider is Richarlison. He brought him to the club, convinced it to spent serious money him.
Its his player. I'm not convinced.
We could probably get Wesley Moraes and Danjuma Groeneveld for as much and combined would do a lot more damage.
In the end you have to ask yourself, even if he gets the players to the destination - his way of playing - will it be successful.
Is the style of play/tactics effective in the EPL
and irrespective of this, is he a coach who is top 4/title contender.
If not then we should keep churning through them until we find one.
Someone mentioned Sunderland before - I'd rather risk relegation for a chance at the title than continue on with mid table mediocrity. We need to get real.
Silva was a decent shout but come the end of the season the search should continue.