Phil Brown: Should Hyderabad FC stick or twist with Englishman?

The Englishman has been left dejected with his side's performances so far.

'Unfortunate' is the right word that explains the stance of Hyderabad FC in the Indian Super League at the moment. Albeit languishing at the bottom of the table, it wouldn't be completely right to put the blame on Phil Brown. The Englishman, who took over the reigns at the club midway last season, ushered a good start to life in the ISL. With three wins and a draw in his first five games, Phil Brown instilled hope into the now defunct FC Pune City. The club had undergone a disappointing start to the season and the Englishman led them to a commendable seventh place finish. However, just when everyone thought the Stallions put their bad days behind, dark clouds loomed over their very existence in the league. Things went from bad to worse when Phil Brown and Co had to leave their base for Hyderabad, with several key players leaving during the transit. Ashique Kuruniyan and a host of other players including Vishal Kaith, Diego Carlos and Sarthak Golui left the club to seek greener pastures elsewhere. [KH_ADWORDS type="3" align="center"][/KH_ADWORDS] With the new season looming large, Phil Brown was now left with a new look attack and a more or less young squad. The club brought in the likes of experienced Bobo, Nestor Gordillo and Giles Barnes amongst others; but as they say, the damage was already done. And as anticipated earlier, the team received a huge blow in their season opener, when they were thrashed 5-0 by ATK. Since that defeat, Phil Brown implemented six different formations in the next eight games. That resulted in quite a few positive results. However, in a holistic view, none of that matters. The 60 year-old, in all honesty, is left disappointed by his own team. There have been some praise-worthy performances from the youngsters including Asish Rai, Mohammad Yasir, Rohit Kumar etc. But their consistency is highly questionable. [KH_ADWORDS type="4" align="center"][/KH_ADWORDS] To look at it, Hyderabad did a noteworthy job against the league's bigwigs Bengaluru FC and in the return leg against ATK. Their attacking performance against the latter, especially, has to be their best this season yet. Short and immaculate passing and shooting on-target, it was quite a lovely scene. However, in exact contrast to the attack, it's the defence that has left them heads in hands in the recent games. Despite the likes of experienced players like Adil Khan, Matthew Kilgallon and Kamaljit Singh in the lineup, their defence looks porous. On the other hand, Bobo, the Brazilian signing has begun to show his quality of late, scoring four goals in his last three appearances. Also, since the return of Nestor Gordillo from suspension, Hyderabad look more livid in attack. Unfortunately, its the results that matter and after the loss at Mumbai City FC, Phil Brown is the man under-fire. To be fair, the Englishman has tried everything with the squad at his dispense. His deject is totally understandable considering his team's inability to keep up with his tactics. [KH_RELATED_NEWS title="Related News | Article Continues Below"][/KH_RELATED_NEWS] Looking forward, Phil Brown is definitely the right man to take turn Hyderabad's fortunes around provided he has a better squad at his dispense. The club is in dire need of reinforcements and it would be the right time for the club to make the necessary moves. "If the owners stay with me, I will reward them by making changes in the January transfer window that will instil a little bit of pride back in the club," were the words of Phil Brown as he spoke after his side's latest defeat at Mumbai City. All in all, it would be wise of the club to stick with the Englishman as he is 'the' man to reap them the positive results. Faith in Phil Brown and perseverance of the team are key for Hyderabad as they head into the next half of the season, with a positive turnaround in sight.