Martinez's fears realised as Blues fall at Villa Park

Also a new keeper is a must in the summer. When have you seen Howard coming for a cross?

"I was worried about exactly what happened," Martinez was quoted as saying by the Associated Press after the game, "coming here and not having the engagement or stimulation after having such a fantastic performance and result and atmosphere at Goodison.

I saw the possibility of running out of fuel when I passed the last service station, unfortunately I was proved correct and had to walk miles to find the next one. Roberto, you identified the problem so how come you didn’t find the solution?

"I was worried after I saw them warming up before the game."

Bizarre comments by both managers.

Those that say we should give him ten games at the start of next season are only clutching at straws. He had ten games at the start of this season, then till Christmas, then till after the Europa League, and now to the end of this season, and still he makes the same mistakes. I really feel sorry for our supporters – especially those who spend hard earned cash on away day.

The manager had other ideas and put our game on instead (although I don’t live there, I always visit when I am flying back, and he knows I’m a Blue).

So the RS fan decides to sit next to me to watch... to his credit he wasn’t rubbing it in. He didn’t need to. The first half truly showed the "Ugly Everton" we’ve had to suffer too often this season.

I’m very much in favour of giving Martinez another season. To my mind he’s less of a problem than the board. He can’t defend that today though, and if he tries to then I’ll hope he gets his P45 asap. I stopped listening to his post-match shite last season when we were doing well. It’s only got worse since.

It was obvious that Villa would be up for it today; it would have been the ideal game for Besic to start instead of Barry. As much as Martinez got his tactics right against Man Utd last week, he got it wrong again today. We've seen it too many times this season.

People discussing their worries or being pro this or anti that on a website has no influence whatsoever on the players or indeed the club and in no way does it determine how good a supporter of the club they are.

If an argument is flawed then by all means put up a counter argument and if the manager has some abilities that others are not seeing or are unwilling to see then point them out and highlight them by all means but to rubbish somebody’s love for the club because they are having a go at the manager or players is unjustified.

It can be a bit tedious at times when the same arguments are trotted out by the same people but that isn’t as tedious as some posters questioning other posters loyalty to the club when they happen to disagree with a particular viewpoint.

But we got Martinez. My fear would be if we got shot now, who could we realistically go for? We’re a corner shop operation. Next season we’ll probably be outspent by Bournemouth (ok maybe not). What manager worth his salt would come to us with a Chairman who’s more ambiguous than ambitious?

There are several players who only get themselves up for big games and can’t do it two weeks in a row. If they can’t do that they don’t deserve to play for us and if we have a manager who can’t inspire them then he shouldn’t be here either.

Like in any situation, the way forward is for us to protest, and that is what the real fans are doing now.

Happy to put ya swimming gear on, lads, the season is over for the players, so let's fuck off somewhere sunny for the next 10 weeks. ..........

"proper fans always back the team and the manager" – Is that some sort of a joke?

The backing the players and the manager had today was fantastic.

In return, our fantastic fans were ONCE AGAIN let down and betrayed by yet another clueless gutless performance.

How much patience are you expecting from them?

I understand Villa have been rejuvenated in recent weeks but they were 2 points off a relegation spot when the game kicked off and we made them look like fucking world-beaters.

Christy Ring (4) you ask ’What does Naismith offer?" Well, I think we’re agreed he’s limited, but at least he looked like he gave a shite and won us a penalty (albeit one he was looking for). He got us back into it and we should have taken advantage of that.

As for Kevin ’Champions League’ Mirallas, you might as well have played me (and as someone mentioned above, Howard appears to be glued to his line).

A shocker imo.

You know what, I’ve nearly had enough of fretting about hired hands who don’t give a flying fuck. Can you imagine the response of a proper coach to that garbage?

What bugs me is that it is clear that the players only play for Martinez when they feel like it. Can you imagine any Mourinho team playing like we did today? It can happen to anyone once or twice a season, but when it happens a dozen or more times in a season, then something is very seriously wrong.

Martinez doesn’t have the ability, charisma or respect to inspire these players, week-in and week-out. For this reason alone, he will never be good enough for Everton.

Neither was I at the game today, but it sounds from some of the comments above that we were shut out of the game by a hungry Villa outfit. Maybe it’s a case of them needing it more, and (as RM has alluded to) our players being on a "come down" after the magic of the United result. Either way, they outdid us, and any hopes of a top eight finish are banished.

All we can hope for now is that Martinez is better prepared for the new season, and we hang on to key players, most the younger ones. Sadly, I feel this is our destiny under Roberto: runs of good and bad form, punctuated by the odd stellar result (United) and the odd shocker (Hull away).

I believe Villa will be safe, and could even come out of he end of a generally desperate season with an FA Cup. At least we don’t have to sweat on the last few games, but I fear that we may show up similarly demotivated at home next Saturday.

You will notice I use the term ’once-great’ as we sadly no longer bear a place among the great teams of the modern day, but Martinez is dragging us down even further and if we, as loyal supporters, just sit back and support the manager as you suggest, then we become complicit in his failure because, as I see it, it is the job of us ’proper fans’ who unflinchingly follow the team year after year to tell the manager, the players and the board just what we think when they or any one of them is taking any sort of action that threatens to destroy the status and reputation of our football club. ’Proper fans’ have a role to play, and that role does not include blindly following like lemmings as a totally unsuitable manager leads our team slowly but irrevocably towards the spectre of relegation to the Championship.

OK, end of rant, but please, remember us fans will still be here long after Martinez has moved on, and we are the one constant in this great institution that is the family of Everton FC. Managers and players come and go, but we the fans, go on forever, or at least, for as long as we live, and therefore have a right to demand something better than we have in charge at present.

I just can’t forget the away games at Southampton, Hull, Stoke and Dynamo Kiev or the home games against West Brom, Hull or Leicester...

It's too easy to look at the mini run we have had and say the garden is rosy because it’s obvious it’s not. Martinez fails to bring continuity or consistency to the team which then results in a loss of confidence from the players.

He also fails on too regular a basis to rouse the players for the occasion.< How next season will really prove much different remains to be seen.

Remember him dropping Robles after all those clean sheets and he was brilliant in the cup against West Ham. We beat Man Utd 3-0 and he changes the team! He picks up around £70k a week to make those shit decisions and his interviews... FFS! Send him back to Wigan – I'll drive him myself.

The summer is of course pivotal but no matter who we sign or who we lose, we simply can’t afford to start the season slowly with lethargic performances and sloppy results.

I appreciate he will be here next season but we can’t be blindly optimistic if it’s not happening.

All of our cup exits have come away from Goodison this season and we have only beaten Burnley, QPR, Palace and West Brom away from home, which is just as well because we would still be in some trouble if we had failed to beat those teams at their grounds.

The goals at Southampton and Newcastle in December were schoolboy stuff, the Hull game on New Years Day, the Stoke game at the Britannia in March, the shocking horror show in Kiev.. It really has been too easy to score against Everton at times this season.

I’m an RM fan and reckon he deserves the first 10 games of next season to see which Martinez is the real coach: first or second season.

Just wish he’d give some of the kids some game time.

BTW, these so called dead rubber games – do the supporters get to see them for free and have their travel costs reimbursed? Just curious.

I hope he was misquoted. I didn’t get angry. Felt sad, though.

If having the players up for ANY game isn’t the specific business and duty of the manager, why have one?

Also, going by his asinine post-match comments (again), I guess if we are going to have this kind of reaction as he says he expected(!), after a good result like last week, then surely the answer in his mind, in the world of La La Martinez, must be simple. Just don’t win any games, then you won’t have the reaction of over expectation in your next game.

That’s obviously how he managed to do such a fantastic job of getting Wigan relegated. I feel as if he’s taken us through the looking glass and we’re now all living in the land of the Mad Hatter. Find me a straitjacket, please!!!

He’s not going to be fired after "guiding" us to safety. But, ffs, he can’t be allowed to manage our decline for much longer, surely.

The first 30 minutes of our first game of next season will indicate everything for me. Team set up, player selection and ideal tactics. I’m predicting that he’ll be gone by mid-September.

What a fantastic approach to any kind of proactive management that is.

Usually also I leave his quotes be – but it’s really difficult to sometimes:

"It happens in football — the intensity and tempo we had in our last game maybe made it a bit difficult to start the game in the same level."

Cos, yeah, that’s exactly how top managers think, isn’t it?

Followed by this piece of genius insight which must have lots of journalists tapping their noses and giving each other knowing looks in press conferences:

"I thought the damage of giving a two-goal lead was huge."

Ladies and Gentlemen, I give you, Roberto Martinez

Whilst, sadly, I don’t believe Ross Barkley will become the player we hoped, there is no doubt in my mind that he is a confidence player. So, given that he had a decent game against Man Utd last week, the idiot promptly goes and drops him – for Stephen Naismith – for apparently "tactical" reasons in the very next game. A gesture which can only be interpreted by Ross as "I don’t trust you".

Just a single incident of rank bad people-management which gives an insight into exactly why Martinez cannot motivate a team in my opinion, because, let’s be clear, he didn’t have to do that last week, the players motivate themselves for the big games.

People who want to give Martinez 10 games to prove himself at the start of next season must already have doubts about him to suggest such a thing; I have no doubts whatsoever – he will not change and he is just not good enough to manage Everton. Don’t ask me to nominate another person to take over, I just know absolutely, that Martinez is not the one.

He might have clung to some semblance of our respect if he’d been man enough to admit, "I made an error in changing the team after last week’s superb performance. The blame for today’s reversal in fortunes was down to me, and also to the players seriously under-performing. Rest assured, strong words will be said behind closed doors as I will not tolerate such abject surrender from an Everton team."

Sadly, Martinez has proved consistently that he’s unable and unwilling to admit to his mistakes. We are all human and prone to make mistakes but he just refuses to admit it when his decisions lead to calamitous performances and results. After that abject first half, a decent manager of a League Two side would,have gone ballistic in the dressing room at half-time and made the substitutions that he instead left until it was too late.

The man is a buffoon and a prime candidate for the role of court jester. Might be good if a few thousand fans turned up next week wearing jesters hats in honour of our ’phenomenal’ manager.

Any good footballer anticipates play naturally, this fella doesn’t know the meaning of the word. Imagine what it’s like playing Infront of Tim?

Barry is a good enough player. It’s just that he’s to slow. He might have anticipated Cleverley’s run. But he was either to lazy, Or to slow to do anything about it. Take your pick, but neither are good enough.

Erm, isn’t that your job to motivate the players and make sure they are in a position to take to the field to at least compete for 90 minutes??

Martinez is a tinkerer and can’t leave well alone.

Good old Everton, always there to let you down. Anyone who thought we would go on an unbeaten run till the end of the season was just being delusional.

We are an absolute mid-table side this season. So it’s not about performances in big games. There are no key games. It’s just the performance over the course of a full season.

And we haven’t been good enough for this club. We’ve been shit to watch and a soft touch to play against. So the Man Utd and Aston Villa games mean nothing in isolation. They’re just part of an overall score – a score which should see the manager booking a taxi.

I watched the flypast at Anfield and thought how times have changed: they finished second last year and almost won the league. This season, despite losing Suarez and having Sturridge injured for most of the year, they still have a chance of making the Champions League spot. Meanwhile, we have just escaped a relegation fight and yet we still have quite a few fans who think he should be given another season. I think we should have the Red Arrows fly over Goodison all with banners saying "Martinez out and anybody in".

When he became our manager, many thought he would play a more attacking style of football; also, many thought we might see some of the younger players getting game time. Some even thought he might unearth a latin talent that nobody had heard of.

Sadly none of the above happened; he played much of this season with two defensive midfield players, no new young player has emerged under Martinez, and no new latin talent either.

The problem today was our defenders didn’t do their jobs. I know Stones is the wunderkid but he messed up badly on the second goal and Naismith didn’t help. Jags erred for the first goal leaving Baines to try to outjump Benteke. The third goal, Barry let his man go and missed the block on the slide and Howard did leave his line and did go out to take away as much of the goal as possible (made himself big) but it was a very good shot.

Obviously you don’t rate Howard but stop blaming him for every goal. Put the blame on the players who messed up and the manager who doesn’t practice defending and correcting individual defensive flaws.

If he can’t motivate his players sufficiently, he shouldn’t be in charge. Simple.

By the time he leaves, the attendances will have halved. Hope I’m wrong, but just look at his record, apart from last season’s blip, when he was left a consistent top 6 team full of potential.

Again, Martinez was too cautious, playing the ’solid’ option of Naismith, when the guile of Osman would have been better. As usual, the ’solid’ option resulted in a lack of shape and cutting edge going forward. Villa had a good shape and played with all the intensity we lacked.

The players aren’t blameless here. Free from the ’mental pressure’ of the EL, buoyed with a run of 16 points from 18, they went a goal down and just disappeared. Again. They couldn’t pass water and looked like strangers. Again. They forgot how to defend. Again.

Villa looked pretty good at times yesterday. Delph was superb. Cleverley played well again – if he wasn’t ex-Wigan, people would want him here on a free. Benteke was everything Lukaku wasn’t. For all that, the moment we put them under a bit of pressure, they looked like a brittle, ordinary side in a dogfight. For all the plaudits Sherwood is getting, they haven’t left a genuine relegation fight and they still beat us.

Nothing wrong with losing a game. Everything wrong with no energy, not competing, poor passing and movement.

And the idea of Baines being asked to defend and attack by himself is really a flawed idea that is not lost on the opposition, who will quickly move the ball wide when Baines is out of position.

This is just another symptom of the failure in the club’s leadership. If he’s not careful, he might find himself in a Newcastle-like situation, God forbid, with campaigns being started to oust either him, the manager, or both. Is that a sign of just how important Everton really is to him?

Whatever else might be said about him, I always thought he truly loved this club, but for me, his silence in the face of this appalling season, when other clubs would have got rid of a failing manager long before now, makes me aware just how little he really cares about the club he professes to love. With BK in the chair, and Martinez in charge of the team, my crystal ball predicts a long, difficult and heartbreaking future for those of us who really care about our football club.

Listen mate, you have professional players at your disposal, not children who need teaching the basics. Your job is to identify what each player does really well, encourage them to keep doing that whilst moulding them together as a balanced side which has a good shape and discipline.

This has a two-fold positive effect as the players think you trust them and they are not being confused by your stupid, useless tactics and being forced to play in a manner totally unsuited to their abilities.

Yet another cardboard coach who talks too much and is Mr Pretentious when it comes to teaching players. Bottom six next season if he stays.

You are spot on. The thing BK loves more than anything else is BK. He is putting himself before the club. We are going backwards and are in decline. Almost every other PL club has a new stadium or are redeveloping. Just what has he achieved in 16 years in charge?

The answer to the second question is, he failed again.
Last season we had to be perfect to win a game of football, this season is more of a laissez faire attitude and approach to the games.

It’s the same set of players. If Martinez stays then we must expect some wholesale changes to the squad, how can he rely on these players when they have performed so poorly for him?

I'm glad you feel the same. If something is going on behind the scenes, Ross, I hope it’s along the lines of BK working out how to tell RM he’s had his chance and blown it. I’d be making the point that he took over a team with a solid infrastructure put in place by David Moyes (love or hate him, it’s the truth), and as a result was able to guide an established team to a great position last season. Left to his own devices this season, his insistence on playing his ticca takka slow moving possession brand of football has been a total failure, unpopular with fans and players alike.

I’d also be saying to him that his failure to address the problems his ’style’ brought in terms of results carried us into a relegation fight and we only achieved mathematical safety with five games of the season left – an unacceptable level of performance all round. His inability to stick with a winning team and formation when he finally found it and went back to tinkering and bad, late substitutions also compounded his naïveté and is on the verge of turning us into the PL's laughing stock.

"Thanks for your best efforts, but they simply aren’t good enough for our club, and we will be releasing you at the end of the season..." Please!!!

I know, however, that I’m only dreaming. BK just doesn’t have the guts to make the tough decisions, and therein lies the root of all that’s wrong with our once-great club.]

The problem if BK did get rid of RM is then that I would have no confidence in his next choice. He certainly won’t go for a top manager, (too expensive), but a young up and coming relatively inexperienced option (cheap). The two managers he has appointed were from Preston and Wigan, which tells us everything about where we are now IMO.