Marcel Brands

[Colonel Getafe]

I cant see Benitez being quite that Machiavellian!

I reckon they probably said that about Machiavelli at the time too.......

 

[Daytripper]

TITANIC

LIFEBOATS

REARRANGE..............

It’s not over till Celine Dion sings, or in our case Liz McClarnon

 

[davek]

@davek WE'D PLAYED THREE GAMES!

Ok, but the other injuroes piled up and the poor period started after the good opening 6 game start prior to most injuries.

 

[blulouie]

Brands is the last that should be shunted out of the boardroom.

Easy pickings making him the fall guy.

 

[davek]

That’s just it though. We start picking up injuries, Benitez then looks at what he’s got and it’s obvious that Brands has shafted him.

He could change tactics - go ultra defensive and grind out draws, but instead he just ploughs on and in doing so helps to create the current situation and in doing so expose Brands as a total fraud.

Makes perfect sense

Look at those defenders. Apart from Mina they are pitiful at being aggrressive enough in challenging and to hold their shape.

 

[MACCA75]

That’s just it though. We start picking up injuries, Benitez then looks at what he’s got and it’s obvious that Brands has shafted him.

He could change tactics - go ultra defensive and grind out draws, but instead he just ploughs on and in doing so helps to create the current situation and in doing so expose Brands as a total fraud.

Makes perfect sense

Benitez losing games on purpose ‘makes perfect sense’? Righto.

 

[Daveysgingerlovechild]

That’s just it though. We start picking up injuries, Benitez then looks at what he’s got and it’s obvious that Brands has shafted him.

He could change tactics - go ultra defensive and grind out draws, but instead he just ploughs on and in doing so helps to create the current situation and in doing so expose Brands as a total fraud.

Makes perfect sense

I guess the proof of the pudding will be in the next few games. If we miraculously change style and Benitez is walking around in a 'sniff it Brands' T-shirt, then we know...

 

[Drico]

With the Manager wanting full control? Its been his MO for ever. And its been his excuse for ever when things go wrong. If it works out, sound, but if Moshiri backs him in Jan its 100% on him now. He is buying the players, he is coaching them, he is doing the game management. No where to hide.

Good! We want and need accountability! For too long every signing has been shrouded in mystery. Nobody knew who was responsible for signing anybody - which suited some people because it meant they could lurk in the mist accountable to nobody. If Benitez has won a power struggle, he's a brave man who backs himself because he's on the hook from the January window on for every player that comes through the doors. There will be no ambiguity. If he buys two more players in January, he will have personally signed nearly half a team. It gets harder and harder for him to pawn off blame and, by the same token, it gets easier for him to build the team he wants.

It's then simply a matter of whether Benitez can be trusted to get it right. Whether he does or not, he's on the hook now and many of us who were prepared to give him a fair chance will be scrutinising his results with renewed interest.

 

[nsno-chris]

Nick a goal and protect it.

We were outgunned anyway sitting back for 90 minutes.

You can’t protect a lead playing 4-2-4 against the RS; maybe if he would have lived up 5-3-2, 5-4-1 and flooded the midfield, then yes

He left 2, well 1.5 half due to fitness, against 3 of the most pressing bases midfielders in the league.

It was suicide, every man and his dog could see it and not one person, with the exception of you who can’t find fault, has defended those tactics

 

[ForeverBlue92]

All Benitez had to do was to sit Mosh Man down and say "see that £270 million you handed this dope to spend? How far has it got us?".

Fish in a barrel.

 

[BlueToff]

Ok, but the other injuroes piled up and the poor period started after the good opening 6 game start prior to most injuries.

We were crap in most of those games though mate. I remember getting outplayed by friggin Huddersfield. We got outplayed by Burnley for an hour with a full team minus Dom, and it was only when Benitez changed system to a 4-3-3 that we took control.

Injuries hit around the Villa game and I could excuse that performance. There was no excusing the others like QPR etc. I stand by that if Norwich were decent at all they'd have beat us that day. We gave friggin Norwich 55% of the ball at home.

If Benitez starts making some changes in how he sets up then I'll give him more leeway but I don't think he will because so far he's shown no inclination to do it despite having had loads of time and chances to do so. DCL has been out for 3.5 months. It'll be 4 months at least by the time he's back, yet Benitez has insisted on playing the same way he planned with him in the team? Add to that, he's lumping all the pressure on DCL to be anywhere near his best which will be very difficult after missing half the season.

For the record, I'm okay with Brands going, quite glad he's been shown his arse, but, it won't improve anything on the pitch quickly. That falls on the manager.

 

[Clarky cat]

Not sure about that. Chelsea's setup is fairly similar - they have Marina Granovskaia in an equivalent role, but Abramovich still gets involved in some transfers and picks their managers.

I think we operate a bit like Chelsea in a lot of ways, to be honest. They just have much better people.

I wish we had their youth scouting system!!!

 

[BlueToff]

All Benitez had to do was to sit Mosh Man down and say "see that £270 million you handed this dope to spend? How far has it got us?".

Fish in a barrel.

But he did that in the summer mate.

I've kept saying it. Benitez had full, full remit over the recruitment. He made every decision. So Brands was redundant anyway (this isn't a defence of him btw).

Just because Benitez only had so much to spend doesn't change that fact. Like, if I only have a tenner, I still have the autonomy on how to spend that tenner.

Now, I'm not saying the money was spent badly (it was on Rondon - wages wise - like), just that Benitez was already given autonomy anyway.

 

[Brownie]

No Browns, that’s not true. She’s a director and is Romans representative on the board. Yes she has responsibility for negotiating transfers, but she doesn’t have responsibilities for all footballing matters

I still think it's fairly similar. Regardless, I think a lot of people have the idea that we're alone in having a meddling owner, which simply isn't the case.

 

[Cool_Blue]

Somehow I don’t think Marcel will miss sitting freezing his bits off in the directors box watching our thrilling football.