It's the Hope that Kills You

At 2-0, you just knew we wouldn’t see the game out and, sure enough, a joke of a first goal from a straightforward punt, goalkeeper and centre-half don’t communicate and panic follows for the next 5 minutes.

The last minutes of that game should have been irrelevant as the situation should not occur. The last goal was obviously offside, but why are we defending in the 6 yard box??

When the ball goes out of the box, the keeper and centre-back should be screaming to move the back-four line out of the area as a unit and defend the edge of the area. Anything over the top will then be the keeper's.

Instead, we have no organisation, retreat on top of the keeper and the opposition pushes us further and further back until they are on top of us. We don’t defend as a unit, defence/goalkeeper don’t appear to talk and we are mentally frail. There is no organised method of defending, we defend as individuals, it needs to be done as a team.

It amazes me how people say John Stones is having a wonderful season, yet he is our regular centre-back in a defence that, even trying to be kind, is hopeless.

We have missed a great chance to make top 4 this season as the traditionally strong teams struggle. The opportunity won’t be there next season.

1) We are failing to close out games from basics. The midfield is too far away to close down (tired?).

2) Despite having the best full backs in the league, they still allow far too many crosses to come in. That is amplified by a keeper who stays on his line too much.

3) The side lacks size at set-pieces. We need a big yard dog to come into the back or midfield to close it out or force one over the line in a set-piece. Funes Mori doesn’t get enough help from Jags, Barry, Stones, McCarthy, Besic, and Lukaku.

Yes, he has a duty to provide entertaining football but, for so long as maximum points are awarded for WINNING games, that should be his first priority.

The difference in place money will be so vast in future that his governors will not be too impressed with the return for repeated 11th place – regardless of the aesthetics of the football on view. Neither should they be.

As for Pienaar, his introduction worked at Man City in allowing us to control possession in the closing stages. It was hardly his fault yesterday that others, notably Deulofeu, failed to do the basics in the last minute. Row Z is there for a purpose.

The referee was right to add on an eighth minute. His assistant was wrong not to flag for offside. The referee could hardly be blamed for that.

Those calling for the manager’s head at this stage are pissing in the wind. For the majority of yesterday’s game, we controlled the play, scored three very good goals and for an hour looked very sound defensively. There are more things right than wrong with this squad. Some basic improvements in individual-decision making would remedy most of the problems.

Yes, they are driving us all mad but the fact we have lost only one away game all season and scoring enough goals to win the league suggests we are not too far away. Scoring goals is the most difficult thing to achieve in football. Stopping them should be the easy bit. It is the easy bit we need to work on.

Setting everything else about their last equaliser to one side, Howard should be saving that. It's a back heel straight at him. Not a shock to see him contort himself into a position which renders it an unstoppable effort though. It's what he does.

We deserve to be 11th for persisting with this keeper. I don't even get angry with him anymore, it's on the manager who picks him.

Stupid me: Everton.

He needs to be given five matches to save his job; if things don’t change, we will be closer to the trap door than we all think.

A moan? Not really, more despair that the guy in charge is simply not learning, or willing to accept change is needed.

I would guess your name suggests your location is not local, you need to feel the anger fans feel, then you can accuse me of being ’a moaner’.

Mirallas was playing well and causing problems so it was a bit mystifying when his number came up for substitution given Lukaku wasn't 100%. The crowd screamed their displeasure and fortunately Barkley was removed. This left a gaping hole in the middle as Pienaar went awol. Without Barkley to feed Deulofeu, he was isolated out on the right.

In my mind Cleverly was the correct substitute. Now I'm not a football manager or professional footballer and have only been watching the game for 50 plus years so I really don’t understand how Martinez thinks or even how he sees the game. I really believe we need a leader on the pitch pointing and shouting and listening to the manager.

"Okay, lads, we got 2-0 and away at Chelsea; let's just hit them on the break and leave some insurance a bit deeper." – This was a Sunday League tactic many years ago and, to be honest, I wouldn’t let Martinez manage a pub team never mind EFC.

I can only assume retaining Martinez is a decision based on not upsetting the apple cart whilst we have a potential sale so close. Get through this season, sell up and leave the clearing up (sacking) to the new owners.

In the meantime we are going to lose the best players we have had at Goodison for many a year; weary of following inept game plans and mid table finishes, I predict Lukaku, Barkley, Stones, Coleman will all be gone in the Summer and probably a few others too. An opportunity wasted on so many levels. So I'm blaming Martinez for this season's debacle, but Kenwright's mitts are firmly on it too IMO.

The game turned with the Howard/Jagielka fuck-up; had that not occurred, I couldn’t see them scoring. I don’t really care whose fault it was anymore, it’s just inevitable we gift goals to the opposition these days. We are the charity case of the Premier League. Chelsea were garbage – just like Bournemouth, Stoke, Norwich before them – yet we just don’t capitalise.

Instead of looking for excuses, we should be addressing why we are in this situation week after week. Why are allegedly fit young men knackered after 60 minutes of play? Why can’t we defend? why can’t supporters and players alike get that a match lasts a full 90 minutes plus add on time? Why is there no communication between goalkeeper and defenders? Why can’t the midfield/forward line keep the ball and run time out?

The league doesn’t lie and to suggest that we are scoring enough goals to win the league is deluding ourselves, I’m afraid. The fact is, we do let in goals at an alarming rate. It blatantly isn’t the easy side of the game. We are not as good as we think we are. It's all very well going gung ho but, if we leave ourselves open at the back the way we do, then we will win nothing and we won't be troubling the upper echelons of the league either.

All the great sides have a great defence. How many did Man Utd used to concede in the mid-to-late 90s? How many did the RS sides of the 70s used to concede? Forest were the same. Even the good Chelsea sides conceded very few, as did the successful Arsenal sides. Build from the back – not the other way round.

Martinez's comments about not seeing a game out tells us all we need to know about this guy. He is not a top level manager; he has his own agenda, whatever that is, which is pure fantasy football which belongs in FIFA 2016 on the PS or Xbox – not in a so-called elite league. He never learns his lessons and we will never prosper under him.

As someone else has said if we keep him it will be more of the same. The pity is that we could lose our best in the summer.

My brother said "You have won." My reply was "Not until that referee blows the final whistle". He looked at me with complete shock!! "Bournemouth" I shouted.

I am in the acceptance phase of hope. Until results change and consistency in our defending happens, then mid-table and flirting with the bottom five over the years will happen. I have come through the anger phase. What will be, will be!!

Does that not indicate that something is lacking in the fitness, application and psyche of this talented bunch which the manager should have addressed by now?

Martinez has done a really good job. In a few days, we have played against Manchester City twice (home & away) and Chelsea once (away) and the score is two away draws and one win, and everyone is mad at Martinez for not winning those games we drew. It tells us how far he has brought this Everton team.

I look at Lukaku, Deulofeu, Besic, Barkley and Stones. The omens of greatness are here for everyone to see. The attack is very good, 39 goals tells us that. The team needs to improve in defence, we all know that. Take care.

On one level the snobbery gives some Evertonians the identity that they’re not like the RS whose support is made up largely of foreign fans.

It’s like something Lee Mavers out of the LAs said. Which went on the lines that he supports Everton because they represent everything authentic about the city, while Liverpool were just like McDonald’s and just a brand. I agree with everything he says but it does mean that the supporters can be a little insular at times. But I do think that goes for the city as as a whole sometimes, even with the music scene that has a life of its own.

Anyway, I totally agree with your post, Ari. I hate it when people do the ’I’m a better Evertonian than you’ chat on TW.

I tuned into a phone-in following the Liverpool vs Man Utd game today. You might have thought that Man Utd fans would be ecstatic however they had won, but many panned Van Gaal's tactics and one cited Everton as at least trying to play attractive football compared to the dross served up by his own team. Both Liverpool and Man Utd are awful to watch, yet have supposedly world renowned managers and bucket loads of money to boot.

Here’s a novel ideas for many Evertonians on this site: get behind the team and the manager and we might convert some of those draws into wins. You wouldn’t think we are in a semi-final on Wedensday night and have just come away with a draw at City and at the Champions in the last week, judging by the level of moaning on here.

For those of you invoking Howard Kendall Mk 1, remember the 0-0 at home to Coventry at home in front of 13000 on the news years eve 83 with fans baying for him to go? The fact is in football as in life you need a bit of luck as well as working hard and having ability. Martinez’s biggest crime to me seems to me that he is a positive thinker and although he has a great command of the English Language he overuses certain words such as phenomenal!

The team is relatively young and will hopefully become more experienced and game savvy as they develop together. I hope for all Evertonians' sake, but particularly for those under 30, that we get to Wembley and win the League Cup against the RS. COYB

That might mean things have to get worse first, but don't be surprised if we have to go backwards to go forwards.

Two-nil up and we let a team back in once again. The Incredible One's latest comments about wanting to play football the proper way to the final whistle is admirable but really shows how inexperienced our manager is. How many points is it we have dropped / lost with this philosophy? The great football means nothing if we can not defend properly.

Bad refereeing decisions are what they are, but they are no excuse for what is going on in our training ground!

Ari.... I agree, just because you may not be a born and bred scouser doesn’t mean you don’t feel the pain!

At least two of those five will be out of here come next season, Lukuka and Stones.

Brian Denton (#31) – I am from Iceland and to ask which part of Scandinavia I am from is like asking an Irishman which part of England he comes from. ;)

I hope your are right, but just can not see those two staying another season with us.

For what it's worth, I've "known" Ari (in an online capacity) for about as long as ToffeeWeb has been around so while he is not local and my sympathies in this instance are with the thrust of Steve's article and the frustrations he expresses therein, it should be pointed out that Ari is a long-suffering, long-distance Blue.

It save your blood pressure and mitigates any time you are foolish enough to hope that we would get our first win at the Bridge since 1994....

Saying that, it's a good job my daughter is too young to understand some of the words and phrases I was uttering at about 4:53 on Saturday.

I keep reading that we have only won 6 games all season, yet there are only 3 teams who have lost less than us.

Small mercies and all that shite....

Good job I am definitely in my last year as a season ticket holder, I just couldn't take another year of this.

Think I should lock myself away in a dark room until the end of season.

"Are you an Evertonian and are you a scouser?"

"Oh no," he replied, I’ve never been to England; I’m an Aussie born and bred."

"Oh," she says, "how did you become a mad Evertonian then?"

His answer was simple and straight to the point: "It was Tim Cahill that sold me to Everton and since then, it's been my life, my love, and my being."

"Hummph," she said, "just like my bloody husband."

Now that brought a grin to my face and she said "What? When you’re an Evertonian, there is nothing else that matters."