The Illicit Power of Our Overpaid and Underachieving Players

[Duncan’s Pigeon Loft]

Benitez is to football management what Louise Woodward was to babysitting

 

[LeeCarsley]

find it hard to blame the players for the weekly tactical atrocities put out by Benitez

 

[Bkk Andy]

59pts from 38 games v 19pts from 19 games

I'm not disputing that they are doing worse or that Benítez needs to be fired immediately. I am questioning that they performed for Ancelotti though. Look at the second half of last season and ask yourself if they performed for him. Many of those results and performances were absolutely shameful.

 

[Khalekan]

Did they perform for Carlos? I recall a large number of cowardly displays under him too.

For the most part, it was awful stuff under Carlo.

 

[Acrobat]

I'd sack the entire board.
I'd sack the Manager.
I'd sack every coach.
I'd sell every player except Gray. davek is right about the players. The ONLY players worth AYTHING that have payed under the last 6 managers, are Gray, Baines and Coleman.

We are a [Poor language removed] club, top to bottom.

 

[Saint Domingo]

Make no mistake - whatever your view on Benitez - this will be another casualty brought about by the dressing room at this club. Another group of players have downed tools and seen off another manager by the looks of it.

An attempt has been made to pull power away from the dressing room and toward the manager and they have reacted by handing in terrible performances.

It will happen again and again and again. It's the reason why this club will continue to go nowhere fast. We are utterly cursed by a culture of 'dont give a flying one as long as I'm paid'. The coaching staff beyond Benitez should be booted down the road. They've been there for years and have allowed this lack of professionalism to persist and probably encouraged it.

And so here we are: another managerial search (lost count of them) in the 6 years Moshiri has been here.

The biggest enemy this club has got and will continue to have are the frauds running around in blue jerseys on the pitch.

Get all of these rats out now before a new manager comes in.

 

[Saint Domingo]

Who are these players that have apparently done this to every manager since Martinez?

Name them.

Michael Keane. Seamus Coleman. Tom Davies. Glyfi Siggurdson.

 

[Littlesue]

Remember just before Silva was sacked and one of the board, was it Moshiri or Kenright?, Came down to Finch Farm and had the players alone in the dressing room and asked what was going on and some spoke out but some didn't.

 

[allen]

Michael Keane. Seamus Coleman. Tom Davies. Glyfi Siggurdson.

I asked which players had done this to every manager since Martinez - specifically because that’s when these accusations started.

Keane and Sigurdsson weren’t signed then. Tom Davies was handed his first start by Unsworth after Martinez was sacked.

It’s all very well to say “it’s the players,” but the playing staff has changed almost entirely since then.

Seamus Coleman is the only player who’s been at the club that long - and I wouldn’t accuse him of downing tools. So much so, it’s fairly universally held that he’s played on far too long. We should’ve thanked him for his service and given him a nice tankard years ago.

I’m quite prepared to believe we have cultural issues that have transcended these past five or six years - not least the lack of continuity that comes with having so many managers in a short space of time.

We have a ragtag squad assembled by managers with conflicting styles - and that’s only the players’ fault in the sense that they agreed to join this circus in the first place.

The club are an utter mess top to bottom, and the players wouldn’t be where I’d lay the bulk of the blame.

Here, and right now, this catastrophic run of form is on Benitez.

 

[USABlue]

We have a ragtag squad assembled by managers with conflicting styles - and that’s only the players’ fault in the sense that they agreed to join this circus in the first place

This is by far the biggest issue. There has been no clear direction or organization in the club has moshiri'd appointed managers have come in, bought the players they wanted for their own style, stunk the place out (aside from Carlo who left), then the cycle starts again with a new manager.

 

[Rooney_Tunes]

Rondon number 10.

Coleman left wing back.

Those two decisions alone should tell you enough, mate.

Two in Midfield...

Keane at Centre Back...

Another two decisions...

 

[allen]

This is by far the biggest issue. There has been no clear direction or organization in the club has moshiri'd appointed managers have come in, bought the players they wanted for their own style, stunk the place out (aside from Carlo who left), then the cycle starts again with a new manager.

I’ll say it again: a Director of Football who is allowed to be a Director of Football is our route out.

 

[Frenk]

Don’t expect too much you’re just punching yourself in the face.

 

[Daveysgingerlovechild]

“Quite” bad…

Let's not kick a man when he's down yo!

 

[AmericanSchoolOfScience]

Squad has changed so much over the past 6 years, it doesn’t make any sense. And what about Everton makes our players uniquely more likely to put in poor performances? No reason the same can’t happen to Palace, Spurs, Watford, etc.

Regardless — squad culture is shaped by the manager. If he can’t fix or at least improve it, he doesn’t deserve the job in the first place.