Everton at Crystal Palace: Roberto Martinez Pre-Match Quotes via Royal Blue Mersey
"There is no such thing as blame" – says under fire gaffer
After having a 'Martinez Out' banner make its debut at Watford, an under pressure
Roberto Martinez sat with the assembled media personal to preview
Everton's trip to
Crystal Palace.
"There is no such thing as blame," exclaimed Martinez when asked if he could put his finger on the club's inconsistent league form.
"We constantly look to improve every single day. We have a lot of young players who are learning all of the time.
"We are a football club with incredibly high standards and we want to fulfil those.
"We've put a lot of work in to assemble this squad, a squad that breeds excitement and incredible potential, but the reality is that we've been really good in some aspects and really poor in other.
"We haven't been able to manage games well enough," he continued, "we haven't conserved leads, we've thrown really good positions away and it's been reflected in the score lines. Clearly we need to get better."
"Our consistency away from home hasn't been repeated at home."
"The home results haven't been good enough. You have to be consistent with your results over 10 months and we've managed to do that away from home but not at Goodison.
"I think every Everton fan that has seen us week in, week out at home knows that we probably haven't got the points that we have deserved but that's something that we have to address and improve on."
So Roberto 'blames' game management and home form, but what can we expect for the remainder of the season?
"I accept the only thing that matters is to make sure we finish season really, really strong. Everything is to fight for in league campaign," said the Spaniard.
"The only thing that matters is preparing for the game tomorrow, moving on and developing a really good momentum for the rest of the season. I don't think anyone can think about that game just yet.
"It's not about setting targets at this point. We have to fight for every point we've got left to fight for."
Away from home, there was a report Tuesday morning that Argentina would look to select centre-back Ramiro Funes Mori for their squad for this summer's Olympics.
In response, his club manager said;
"At the moment we need to find a bit more clarity. I had two conversations with the Argentinian manager Tata Martino and there is an interest in trying to make Ramiro one of the over 23 players for the Olympics.
"We need to find out a bit more and see where we are at the end of the season because there is the
Copa America as well.
"I haven't spoken with the player about it just yet. As you can imagine the focus at this present time is the team and the games we have in this period. We will have time at the end of the season to look into that possibility."
Focusing back on Wednesday's clash, Roberto gave us some team news, "With Phil Jagielka the scan has revealed he is going to miss tomorrow's game and miss the game at the weekend against
Southampton."
"At that point we will have to assess it on a daily basis. It is such a congested fixture list that it would be dangerous to give a date on when he will be back."
"It is too early to make an assessment for the semi-final. Phil is always a quick healer and we will see how the treatment affects his recovery. We will have a better idea on Monday or Tuesday next week."
"I don't think
Tom Cleverley is going to be a long-term problem but at the moment he's quite doubtful for tomorrow.
"I expect Ross [Barkley] to be fit and available."
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