2020/21 Marcel Brands

[jazzy]

Yes some really interesting points.

I think the big take out is Brands needs to keep recruiting younger gems. I know there were 1 or two others he liked but couldn't finalise. Thats the hope really. The scouting has been slowly getting changed, and he now has his recruit in charge of the academy (from Derby). We have to hope that starts to pay greater dividends.

What's the point recruiting young players when the manager isn't prepared to use them.
Players like Gordon and Nkounkou will not be prepared to kick their heels in the U23's or without any game time on a long term basis.

 

[Lanolin]

What's the point recruiting young players when the manager isn't prepared to use them.
Players like Gordon and Nkounkou will not be prepared to kick their heels in the U23's or without any game time on a long term basis.

It depends what we mean by long term. Gordon signed a new 5 year contract 2 months ago, I would be very surprised if he started getting agitated before the end of this season. Nkounkou by all accounts was due to be 3rd choice left back when he signed, on that basis it's likely that he's already played 4 more games this season than he thought he would. I think it's fair to query whether they could have been used more, but at the same time we have to be realistic about where they are in their development and how likely it is that they'd be getting games at other top levels teams right now.

 

[catcherintherye]

What's the point recruiting young players when the manager isn't prepared to use them.
Players like Gordon and Nkounkou will not be prepared to kick their heels in the U23's or without any game time on a long term basis.

To some degree this is the problem between having a DOF and a manager. All he can do is try to bring good players in and trust the coach to improve them.

 

[Zatara]

It's not nonsense, it's clear as day. Just because it's turned out that EFC, and companies with relation to EFC have actualyl come out ok, that wasn't known at the time. It was responsible to hold off. It's unfortuante, nothing more. As I say, plenty to question Brands on but that's not one of them. We don't even know the full circumstances, the club may have blocked it from above, if so, it wouldn't even be on Brands would it?

Fair enough regarding Llenglet but again, no suggestion of any dithering. We could have easily asked and he's said he's off to Barca. Unfortunately like I said, nobody is joining us ahead of Barca, nobody.

1: Youre going on and on peddling a viewpoint which has been proven to be false. Surely its logical at some point to 'click' and think to yourself...If Zat was 100% confident then there must have been other people just as confident with more data analytics and intelligence than him in key positions advising the clubs of their positions...

Its really plain as day to me...as it was with Spurs who took out the £100mil odd loan as they are operating in a different way to Everton.

Honestly mate...alot of people have massively benefited from the volatility in the markets and you just needed to look at what USM were investing/invested in to see that Moshiris wealth would only increase.


2: It seems like youve totally missed my point so...for a 3rd time...

We went for Lenglet and then moved on our 2nd choice who was Mina. Two totally different players in both ability, playing style and experience.

My comparisons were on the various players weve missed out on and then suddenly gone after a totally different type of player.

Recruitment is random.

 

[andy4efc]

I think he's made some astute signings, most notably Digne, but I can't accept the idea that he's managed to take the squad in hand and steer it in the right direction.

He failed to nip the Pickford situation in the bud, and he's now basically a laughing stock who will be impossible to shift at anything but a massive loss.

The two senior centre-backs are extremely limited, with the one who Brands bought being significantly more of a liability than the other.

There are no back-ups that the manager is willing to use at full-back, which is tantamount to there being no back-up at all. This has also had a knock-on effect elsewhere, as players bought for 4-3-3 are now being overrun in a two-man midfield.

There's virtually no cover in attack because he wasted a significant amount of money on Kean, Bernard and Iwobi; none of whom have been regular starters under any of the managers they've played under.

If he recognises how unfit for purpose both Sigurdsson and Delph are, he failed to shift either in the summer.

To me, the same old problems that were obvious under Walsh are still in evidence now. As a chief scout, he's been hit and miss, which is fair enough (few, if any, get everything right), but as the man responsible for overseeing joined-up thinking and long-term strategising across the board, I don't think he's done well enough on most fronts.

I cant disagree with much, but the one thing I will say is its easy to say "failed to replace or get rid" when who is wanting to take our garbage mate? Look at Siggy, Delph as examples. They're not the worst players in the world, but what club is A. looking to take us from us? If you answer that question which is fine, you can then ask B. Are they paying their wages? The answer is no.

As you say, they get some right and some wrong which is fine (to an extent) but there has to be an overall plan and that's what I would criticise him for. I can't blame him for not being able to sell Sandro, Siggurdsson, JJK etc. I wouldn't buy them, why would a professional in the business want them?

The Pickford thing, well, there has been a decent GK in there previously so I can understand showing some faith (especially when recently there has been bigger needs in terms of positioning). However your right who's going to pay a good fee for him now? Again, Wages come into an issue. He seems to have absolutely fallen of a cliff edge in terms of ability, confidence and mentality. The witch hunt in the media hasn't helped him either or us.

Overall, we are still suffering from the Walsh regime, but I dont think Brands has helped himself in certain areas. We do have a backup right back in JJK (we by all accounts were looking for one and would have sold if we had got another), who has been injured at an unfortunate time as Coleman being injured, also Holgate being injured too. We also seemed to have a promising left back behind Digne (Niels played well in his games, young, promising, pacey, can whip a ball). I think that question of not playing him comes down to CA though as CA did say he'd rang him, spoke to him and convinced him to come too.

I'm sure Brands has made changes to recruitment and the academy (which you don't see until years down the line), but I have to agree some of it has been questionable. If i could see the plan, or the thinking behind it (Like I kinda saw with Delph, covers plenty of positions, experienced) then I could stay patient or hold off on the questions. There just appears to be no plan, or at least there was and that's been changed to appease Ancelotti, which again, I dont mind but at least have some consistency with it and a clear vision.

 

[andy4efc]

1: Youre going on and on peddling a viewpoint which has been proven to be false. Surely its logical at some point to 'click' and think to yourself...If Zat was 100% confident then there must have been other people just as confident with more data analytics and intelligence than him in key positions advising the clubs of their positions...

Its really plain as day to me...as it was with Spurs who took out the £100mil odd loan as they are operating in a different way to Everton.

Honestly mate...alot of people have massively benefited from the volatility in the markets and you just needed to look at what USM were investing/invested in to see that Moshiris wealth would only increase.


2: It seems like youve totally missed my point so...for a 3rd time...

We went for Lenglet and then moved on our 2nd choice who was Mina. Two totally different players in both ability, playing style and experience.

My comparisons were on the various players weve missed out on and then suddenly gone after a totally different type of player.

Recruitment is random.

As I said, I agere with the type of player changing, I dont understand it. But you made a point about dithering and unless I've misread, you included Lenglet in that.

How is it proven to be false? The viewpoint is that it is prudent not to splash cash when things are unknown. It's fine to go back retrospectively and say "well, we should have" but it's also fine to understand the view that understandable a business may not wanted to have spend £30m without knowing what the consequences are going to be.

I know you wont change your view or even accept another so I'll leave it that otherwise this will just go around and around

 

[alwaysblue]

Been a blue longer than you were born little boy let me you that

Been a blue longer than you were born little boy let me you that .

You that what? Mate you must be very very old then!

 

[Martin Alvito]

I get that people will think I'm just overreacting to a poor run of form, but he hasn't done enough to change the culture at the club for me (paying ridiculous fees for average players, not replacing unreliable players and continuing to let the academy be filled with Kenwright cronies). It doesn't feel like he's truly in charge, or that this 'Architect' is working to any particular blueprint.

I wouldn't call it an overreaction. We're looking at the same mixed dataset of results and drawing different conclusions.

I think that where we differ is on the degree of control Brands has over availability and pricing. Your position would appear to be, "it's his job to find enough diamonds in the rough to staff the squad", and I tend to think that it's unrealistic to expect him to turn the squad around in a year given the constraints he's facing. I do think that not being more aggressive in a buyers' market to fill immediate needs was probably a mistake, but I'm also not privy to the accounts.

Some of the constraints are Brands' own fault. He definitely bricked last summer's transfer window, though the Kean signing is very unlikely to hurt us long-term. To be fair, I have a hard time faulting him for Gbamin - that was just unknowable, and I think that the general consensus was to sign Gomes. Iwobi and Delph were bad business, and I will confess to being dead wrong on Delph.

Brands' first summer window was mixed. I continue to think that Bernard was good business even at the squad player level because of the structure of the deal. We're likely to reap enough on the back end to assess that deal as an affordable three year loan.

The biggest recruitment so far was Ancelotti, which seems to have enabled a higher quality window this summer. I tend to think that Doucoure and Godfrey will both come good at a level justifying the price tags, and Allan and Rodriguez were enabled by recruiting Ancelotti. Nkounkou and Branthwaite are promising bargain deals. I'd like to see them play more, but I'd bet we'll see that in the FA Cup and if/when we get to where safety is assured and Europe is out of reach.

To me, that package is retention-level performance. I don't think that it justifies a huge long-term deal, but for me Brands has done enough to justify extending. The short version is this: I question our ability to upgrade Brands. If Carlo's happy, and it sounds like he is, then we should probably roll with that.

I freely admit that someone else can look at the same data series and draw different conclusions. If you want to question whether Brands is the right guy to shepherd us through two crucial upcoming summer windows based on current results, I'm not going to tell you that you're wrong. I have an interpretation, and you have yours, and it's the sort of problem where reasonable people can reasonably disagree.

 

[Carlito]

I wouldn't call it an overreaction. We're looking at the same mixed dataset of results and drawing different conclusions.

I think that where we differ is on the degree of control Brands has over availability and pricing. Your position would appear to be, "it's his job to find enough diamonds in the rough to staff the squad", and I tend to think that it's unrealistic to expect him to turn the squad around in a year given the constraints he's facing. I do think that not being more aggressive in a buyers' market to fill immediate needs was probably a mistake, but I'm also not privy to the accounts.

Some of the constraints are Brands' own fault. He definitely bricked last summer's transfer window, though the Kean signing is very unlikely to hurt us long-term. To be fair, I have a hard time faulting him for Gbamin - that was just unknowable, and I think that the general consensus was to sign Gomes. Iwobi and Delph were bad business, and I will confess to being dead wrong on Delph.

Brands' first summer window was mixed. I continue to think that Bernard was good business even at the squad player level because of the structure of the deal. We're likely to reap enough on the back end to assess that deal as an affordable three year loan.

The biggest recruitment so far was Ancelotti, which seems to have enabled a higher quality window this summer. I tend to think that Doucoure and Godfrey will both come good at a level justifying the price tags, and Allan and Rodriguez were enabled by recruiting Ancelotti. Nkounkou and Branthwaite are promising bargain deals. I'd like to see them play more, but I'd bet we'll see that in the FA Cup and if/when we get to where safety is assured and Europe is out of reach.

To me, that package is retention-level performance. I don't think that it justifies a huge long-term deal, but for me Brands has done enough to justify extending. The short version is this: I question our ability to upgrade Brands. If Carlo's happy, and it sounds like he is, then we should probably roll with that.

I freely admit that someone else can look at the same data series and draw different conclusions. If you want to question whether Brands is the right guy to shepherd us through two crucial upcoming summer windows based on current results, I'm not going to tell you that you're wrong. I have an interpretation, and you have yours, and it's the sort of problem where reasonable people can reasonably disagree.

I was another who thought that Delph would be a decent stopgap in between Gueye and, as it turned out, Allan. It's just unfortunate that his legs are completely shot.

Honestly, I could forgive an awful lot, but I really believe that the lack of cover across the pitch reflects so poorly on someone whose role is effectively an overseer.

 

[Efcjake]

3 wonderful years and we still have nobody we can rely on to come on off the bench and change the game for us. One-all draw against Burnley at 80 minutes and we're bringing on Sigurdsson and Tosun to win us the match.

 

[Everton1654]

This fella signed Iwobi for money

 

[faddy the blue]

560M since Moshiri came and we're an injury away to either full back to put square pegs in round holes.

The decision to let go Kean and Walcott without replacment was atrocious. We're a one dimensional team who only rely on low crosses from flanks to score or DCL's headers. There are no goals from midfield whatsoever.

 

[ForeverBlue92]

He's an absolute fraud.

 

[Dymak]

A complete nugget!

 

[Verbal Kint]

Heard the comms say we have spent 20+ million on 18 players. Holy sweet god imagine if Moyes had that money.

And we are thinking of extending his contract? He has surely leaked the interest from Utd to the papers ??

Can be no other explanation