Flak Jackets On

The hard part is finding this maybe mythical character, but he, or she, is out there, quite a few of them, I would guess.

Pity we have a power vacuum at the top.

Also I wouldn't want Moyes back even as a Temp... we might never get him out the door again.

I do hear good things about Unsworth though.

I would like to believe that Martinez can sort it out and move us forward but I just have this niggling doubt that he is too stubborn and inflexible to change things. If he could change the formation and tactics he employs occasionally to suit the game, it would be a good start in my humble opinion.

As someone who wants Martinez out but doesn't feel that happy about doing so, your own words provide two reasons of indictment:

"We always push the “top” teams when we play them now. We have confidence now whereas in recent years (pre-Martinez) we had an appalling record against the ‘top 4'" (We have just as bad a record against then now as we did under Moyes)

"I initially loved his positivity but it is tired now and needs injecting with some realism" ... (are there any signs at all of this happening?)

"That is where Roberto needs to address things but again I don’t think that is a massive thing to address (so why doesn't he do it then?).

Fair do's to you though for presenting a contrary opinion.

We seem to be on a tightrope at the moment. On the one hand we can see the skilful attacking intent in the side but on the other we are woeful at keeping the opposition out. My worry is when the goals dry up (we usually need 3 to get a point) it can only lead to us falling off that tightrope.

It’s all been said before of course but we are beginning to resemble Wigan and, just in case nobody has noticed, are firmly a bottom half of the table team. Lose to Newcastle and we could be 14th and nervously looking over our shoulders with 14 games to go. I don’t expect that scenario to unfold but would not be so confident if Martinez was in charge next season.

On another thread, someone showed RM’s seasonal record at Swansea, Wigan and ourselves, at each one he’s league position year on year got worse, and with Wigan it meant relegation. I don't want to see that happen to us.

RM is probably a nice guy and most would like to see him succeed but he seems stubborn with tactics. If we don't get the right result against Newcastle on Wednesday, and other results go against us, we could drop another two places.

During his tenure my feelings have been a roller coaster of emotions from one week thinking he’s great we’re going somewhere to he’s crap, get rid.

Based purely on results etc my current feelings are to get rid. Looking at the bigger picture I’m not so sure.

One has to admire the way he has bought into the Club and the EFC philosophy, the way he treats and involves ex Blue Heroes and the work done with the Academies and purchase of young players with great potential.

I’m pretty sure that he will be here next season and I’m interested in seeing what happens regarding a lot of these so called youngsters. As far as I am concerned I will need to see progress in this area and expect to see some of these youngsters appearing regularly in match day squads and getting game time.

The likes of Henen, Ledson, JonJoe Kenny, Dowell and Holgate etc need to be more involved to show that his plan is working. This is in addition to the likes of Browning and Galloway continuing their progress,

In theory it should be within his capacity to do that but it will require more humility and less stubbornness than he has exhibited so far. I hope he can do it because it will offer the best way forward for our club.

His signings have been generally very good, especially given that he has taken players like Barry and Cleverley who where deemed to be past their best and brought something out of them.

I also believed he has helped the development of Lukaku and Barkley, Ross’s goals scored stats demonstrates this admirably as does the progression in Lukaku’s all round game. At the same time, Martinez demonstrates an incredible short sightedness when It comes to certain aspects of our team.

The glaringly obvious poor form of Tim Howard, over the last two seasons, is inexcusable. Look at the way Cech has improved Arsenal to the point they are now genuine title contenders. Howard on the other hand is costing us points.

We are also on the verge of having sold the only viable alternative to Rom the club had to Norwich, and not replacing him. Admittedly this could still happen today, but you know, this is Everton we’re talking about. It also must be said that Howard is not the only problem with our defence.

Clearly Martinez has the team set up to attack and this comes at a cost.

This coupled with the tip tap around the penalty area means mistakes, missed pass or trying to dribble out of danger just gives the opposition even more encouragement to press us.

I do not pretend to know the answer (not a manager) what I and many others do know we sit with heart thumping waiting for the mistake to go one down.

Also it would help if they played for the full minutes in a match, not just the first or second half, or taking twenty minutes or so to get going.

Live in hope he will sort it but like many not believing he will.

"We have the best squad (not team) for 30 years, assembled my Martinez. Yes, built on Moyes’s great work but taken FORWARD by Roberto"

Firstly, I think the much vaunted "best squad for 30 years" doesn't come close to being all that it's cracked up to be. Certainly we possess a crop of young players with much promise but the squad, as a whole, falls short in a number of areas.

We have a first choice keeper who is way past his best (and even at that 'decent' best he was always only ever a munchkins maggot away from messing up and claiming the tit of the day crown at any given moment) and a back up keeper who has never had a real run of consecutive games to show what he's truly capable of one way or the other.

We have one real right back worthy of the name and only three centre halves vying for contention, one of whom is still relatively inexperienced and another who'll be acclimatising to the league and country for a fair while yet.

We seem to have a decent number of defensive midfield players but the most consistent of those is coming towards the end of his career and another has been glued together more times than Alan Pardew's eyelids after he's got on his back with his knees around his own ears and timed his finishing stroke to coincide with the precise moment his post-match interview is shown on Sky Sports News. The two younger options for that position have also suffered from their fair share of injuries and have suffered stop-start campaigns over the last two seasons.

The right side of midfield may be ably covered by Deulofeu and Lennon but the left has been a problem position for a while now, with Mirallas seemingly no longer trusted and any number of square pegs being made do with.

Barkley is the only real option for the 'creative' number 10 role right now, with both Osman and Pienaar creaking louder by the day.

Up front we of course have Lukaku, but lose him for any real length of time and we'd be totally reliant on Kone carrying the goalscoring burden. Which is like Atlas suffering from an acute case of the runs and asking some skinny bastard like McLovin from Superbad if he minds stepping in and shouldering the weight of the world while his tingling Titan arse goes and let's rip in the shitter.

"Personally, I love watching us. Free-flowing attacking football. We try to play the right way"

At times we do look fluent and appear particularly impressive when given the opportunity to counter at pace. However, there are still plenty of occasions when our play becomes infuriatingly ponderous, devoid of invention and lacking intensity. The way we play also leaves acres of space through the middle of the pitch and in behind the full backs. Similarly, the continual funnelling of the ball through the back four can easily result in enforced errors when quickly closed down. Who'd have thought the "right way" to play would be the way that plays right into the oppositions hands? I'd rather watch us win by any means necessary and be despised by all, than see us be every neutrals second favourite team but fuck up whenever victory is in sight.

"..(pre-Martinez) we had an appalling record against the ‘top 4"

I think it's pretty much 'as you were' in that regard.

"On our day we can beat anyone which gives me hope every time we play."

Thing is "our day" comes around about as often as 'put out' night at Nora Batty's place. This team has scraped one league win since late November and won 3 league games at home all season. Results have been abysmal and yet the manager can come out and state that they haven't been underachieving....at all? He either doesn't see what the problems are or he simply refuses to acknowledge them. That just leads me to believe his team could carry on shooting themselves in the foot and throwing points away game after game, from now until the end of the season, and it would have about as much effect as someone turning on the 'walk and talk shite' switch under Terry Wogan's wig this week.

The other games must have been out of this world to make up for that pathetic run.

Needless to say, I didn’t like the man, but have to say he made a lot of money for himself; his salary didn’t justify his talent, believed his own hght he was.

Even in early Feb, this will take some beating..

"Up front we of course have Lukaku, but lose him for any real length of time and we'd be totally reliant on Kone carrying the goalscoring burden. Which is like Atlas suffering from an acute case of the runs and asking some skinny bastard like McLovin from Superbad if he minds stepping in and shouldering the weight of the world while his tingling Titan arse goes and let's rip in the shitter."

Doffs quiff (don't own a hat).

Think we mostly agree that Roberto has solved half the puzzle but is adamant that there are no missing pieces. A little humility would go a long long way.

However, we do have a young team and I agree wholeheartedly with Roberto that patience is required as we’re not far off being a winning team. Small margins needed. I’m also excited that we play "football" from youth team to first team and that we invest heavily for the future. I get impression that, unlike all failures under Moyes, we do have a conveyor belt of young talent to come through – this grasshoppers lad, Dowell, Browning, Garbutt, Galloway, Holgate etc. I can see these lads making it.

One thing that does my nut in under Martinez is lack of creativity in tactics on set plays going forward – I never see a clever free-kick or corner. This is my one nagging concern – he just seems to concentrate on open-play tactics; if this is the case, then unfortunately I think we will hit a glass ceiling. Surely he ain’t so stupid as not to practice set pieces and defensive drills in training?

Given our possible purchase of Niasse, I guess we’re stuck with him till summer at least. The benchmark for me, is as you suggested in your article, improvement. Where we are right now is not improvement. A good run till the end of the season can correct that, but it must be sustained all the way through, not just some lucky stretch of winnable games.

How come we haven’t beat any team in the top half then? Bar a Chelsea side in freefall we haven’t even beat anyone out of the relegation zone!

Our home form is nothing but a complete embarrassment. Our worst home record in Premier League history. Worse than Walter Smith's, for God's sake, let alone Moyes.

Martinez’s teams ship goals without exception so what makes people think that will change? The stats clearly show we are in decline. How long do you give someone to sort out a balanced team? 3 years? 5 years? 10 years?

I am a complete loss at how someone can think he should be sacked then change opinion after we beat a woeful lower league side. Utterly insane. Let's see how many people think we are still close to something special when we fail to beat an abysmal Newcastle at home on Wednesday.

The present squad has only Barkley who has stepped up from the youth team to the first team, and this has been done coming into his 4th season. Their may be opportunities for young players but to challenge for European spots you will need experienced players, and youth players may only get a chance when someone is injured. As Galloway has found out, there is no guarantee of a first team spot – no matter how well you play.

I don’t now how many seasons you are expected to give a manager a chance, but the chances have to end when he is unable to change tactics where there are deficiencies "as in our defense" that is stopping improvements.

As for the best squad in 30 years obviously not because for the past 18 months we have been around lower mid table which makes us among the worst in 30 years.

As for potential I think the reason most have turned against Roberto is that most of these young stars will want to leave in the Summer if we don't achieve something this season which looks about as likely as Martinez changing his shoes.

Martinez’s Catalonian-esque bright new Jerusalem of footballing purity. Channel everything into scoring the perfect goal by walking the ball into the net with Lukaku tapping in like Kone Vs Carlisle...rinse and repeat...if it doesn’t work add more ’philosophy’ until it does.

Goals at the other end, no problem; see above.

And before some accuse me of being a dinosaur, wanting Moyes back, fixated in the past with route one.

I was there in 63, I was there in 70 and in 85. I’ve seen proper attacking football. This is just a pale imitation, and let me tell you our man is no Rory Bremner or Mike Yarwood. He’s a one trick pony, all of his Imitations sound and look the same, like his pressers.

Don’t talk to me of how we attack. I’ve been there – singing ’yes, yes, yes, it’s the Everton Attack’ and it was. They could defend though.

September 2013 and we bladdered tomorrow's opponents for the first half, 3-0.In one of the most attacking 45 mins I’ve seen.

By 90 mins we were hanging on for 3-2 and lucky to get it.

In 29 months nothing much has changed, nor will it in the next 29 – except maybe for the worse.

So who are the top teams? Well for the sake of argument I have used the traditional so-called powerhouses for my point. Chelsea, Man United, Man City, Spurs, Liverpool, Arsenal, a top 6 if you will.

Moyes’s record in his last 3 seasons against these clubs in league games:-

Played 36
Won 11
Drawn 11
Lost 14.

Not great I shall grant you but not too bad

Martinez’s record in his 2½ seasons to date against the same sides:-

Played 30
Won 6
Drawn 9
Lost 15

So we really take it to the top teams eh? Still half a season to go in respect to fair comparison and woeful in games won and already lost more than Moyes with 6 games to go.

Myth No 1 smashed.

Point 1, "We have the best squad for 30 years". Hmm I guess this is subjective but I have asked this question in the past with limited responses but how many of the current team let alone squad would get into the Moyes team of the late 2000s containing Cahill, Pienaar, Arteta, Mirallas, Baines, Lescott, Jags, Coleman et al? Now I understand that some players cross over both squads but out of the current team, Lukaku, Barry....anyone else? Doubtful. none of the current team would trouble the starting line up from the great 80s team.

We have potential, of that there is no doubt but as for realising that potential, well under Martinez, there is probably more chance of seeing rocking horse shit than the likes of Barkley, Stones, Lukaku et al flourishing on a regular basis. Barkley gets away with murder in his duties actually helping the team out. Yes he can score the kind of goal we saw against City in the cup but more often than not he runs up blind alleys, doesn’t see players peeling off left and right when he attacks, gets away with not competing for 50/50 balls and often tries to be clever in the penalty area and not take the shot. Somebody needs to get hold of him and coach him properly, which he blatantly isn’t getting now, in the ways of being a proper midfielder. He has all the attributes to be as good as Stevie me but if he doesn’t start doing it soon, will never do. Stevie me was running the RS midfield at his age, as much as I hate to say it. And please don’t give me any crap about injury/just a kid nonsense. As I say, the top players are doing it at his age, the likes of Scholes, Lampard, Gerrard etc and also he is not the only player to have a bad injury. Stones also has carte blanch to do what he likes. Trying to dribble out of his box in the last minute against a dangerous side like Spurs who we had done well to get back on level terms, really? And then had the temerity to tell the crowd to calm down? FFS, if Southall had been in goal he would have kicked him to kingdom come for that stunt. Time and a place to play pretty football and that was neither the time nor the place. He is there to defend not to be a show pony and he is not doing that very often these days.Its Martinez’s job to make sure he is doing that....he is failing miserably.

Point 2 "we play free-flowing football, we try to play the right way". Hmmm, again, I must have been watching a different team last season with the mind numbing displays we produced. Also this season, Watford, City and United at home, Spurs home and away, Arsenal, Reading, Barnsley, Norwich in the cup, backs to the wall against City in the league and cup at Ethiad, the worst RS team for an age, shall I go on? Where was your free-flowing, play the right way football? It was awful for most part. I haven’t even mentioned the disasters at Bournemouth, Norwich and Chelsea, less said about that the better. Truth is we play decent football against the most awful teams to set foot in Goodison Park (Sunderland Villa) and think we are Barcelona and quietly brush under the carpet all the other shite we are forced to witness. There is a reason Goodison is like a morgue and that is because the football isn’t free flowing in the slightest, that is a Martinez/media driven myth that, said often enough, people start to believe. For most part its awful and tedious and the Goodison crowd recognises just that, which is why it's so quiet. Good job there are away fans let in otherwise there would be no atmosphere at all!!

And last but not least, my favourite point, point 4 " On our day we can beat anyone" which in football parlance is we are shit but occasionally on a given day when the gods smile, the sun shines and we find a penny heads up, we can beat these!!

FFS anybody can beat anybody on any given day, ask Bradford City beating Chelsea, ask Wigan beating us, ask Wigan beating Man City in the final. Does it make them better than the other team? Absolutely not, they have a bit of luck and they can win, but they find their level, ask Wigan after the cup final.

We could do something with this team. We wont do anything with this team with Martinez in charge. Too gung ho, no defence and absolutely no idea how to properly coach the young players into actually doing the job they are paid to do. He wants show ponies to be all dressage and neglects the basic fundamentals needed see out a season successfully as our current league position signifies. Grossly under-achieving and not much hope of getting any better.

Good job you brought your flak jacket Phil

What I see however is a man building an entire club program. Martinez is changing the way the style of play from top to bottom. He is bringing in a lot of talented young players, He is trying to change the idea that the club settle for places below champions league. This is going to take time but if he can pull this off the club will be exciting and good for a long time.

IMHO, if he cannot address that in the remainder of the season then he has to go as it demonstrates that he is unwilling or unable to learn and change.

This is a results based business and our results have been poor on the whole which is why we’re sitting 12th and closer to relegation slots (8 points) than Champions League (13 points) currently.

I prefer the brand of football that Martinez tries to play than our style under Moyes but we really do have to look at out tempo and urgency both of which were far superior in the Moyes era.