In the technical office, one engineer looks after wheels and brakes and another looks after engines. You have some problem with the brakes wearing out and the wheel man says to the pilots use thrust reverse. Then a reverser fails and the engine man says use the brakes. This used to happen frequently years ago, but nowadays the balance usually swings towards using the brakes. On a normal landing reverse thrust will be selected to idle only and the brakes will stop the aircraft.
Note that the A380 only has two thrust reversers!