Everton v Leicester City. 22nd Feb at 14.05.

[marty mcfly]

He's gone 4231, 433 and 343 in-game. He's played it short with a lot of defensive third passing; he's tried a more direct approach. He's gone with two defensive cms and then with one defensive and one attacking.

He really hasn't been churning out the same formation and style all season.

It's a lazy charge.

He's struggled to cope with the high expectations from last season and the extra competition in Europe. No doubt about that.

But he hasn't been standing on the line with his thumb up his arse.

The formation has changed but the problems of slow and negative passing remains. Surely the manager takes some responsibility for that?

 

[TheFinnFan]

It's important to remember this. The league is over. I wasn't even that upset or caring that much during the game. We've had a hard start to the 2nd half of the season and we're still 6 points and GD above the drop. It's all about Europa at this stage.

Has been since december imo.
Not being in the domestic cups really is a blessing in disguise.

Theres no reason why we couldn't create something special in europe...cant wait that fridays draw!!

 

[Shagster]

That goodison pitch looks terrible, surely that might have something to do with home performances? That surface in Bern was like a snooker table and look how we fizzed it about.
If RM is set on this passing style then the surface is of paramount importance and anyways a premier league pitch should not be breaking up like that.

 

[davek]

The formation has changed but the problems of slow and negative passing remains. Surely the manager takes some responsibility for that?

Teams sit back, so you have to work the ball about to find a gap to move into and then the passer to find you. I have no problem with that whatsoever. That's what football is all about. The speed this takes place at is sometimes the problem, but the biggest problem of all is that when we eventually get to make that pass I described above into space in the opposition's final third the player receiving it deals with the pass like a hot potato. We dont have any player with great control of the ball, ability to screen it, and vision to use it properly. THAT is our problem.

 

[Jeff Jones]

How important Barry is, though?

Ffs what a season x you never know with this gang of ours. We probs lose to YB now and then smash Gunners

Yes please.

 

[TheFinnFan]

Teams sit back, so you have to work the ball about to find a gap to move into and then the passer to find you. I have no problem with that whatsoever. That's what football is all about. The speed this takes place at is sometimes the problem, but the biggest problem of all is that when we eventually get to make that pass I described above into space in the opposition's final third the player receiving it deals with the pass like a hot potato. We dont have any player with great control of the ball, ability to screen it, and vision to use it properly. THAT is our problem.

True. This will be adressed in the summer.

 

[Stanley Parker]

The Mirror, 26 April 2013; The prudent Martinez has overseen a whopping 22 per cent cut in Wigan's wage-bill since he took over in 2009 - meaning the club no longer needs hand-outs from chairman Dave Whelan's personal fortune.

But, even in these difficult circumstances, didn't Wigan win a major trophy under Martinez?

As did John Sillett....

Sillett cut the wage-bill by 22 per cent and won the FA Cup? I don't think so!

George Curtis was the Coventry manager; Sillett was chief coach. Well done to them both.

But Sillett was hardly a cost-cutter! He was promoted to team manager and two months after the Wembley triumph he made his first significant purchase, signing David Speedie from Chelsea for £780,000. His immortal quote at the time was “Coventry City have shopped at Woolworths for too long, from now on we’re shopping at Harrods”.

 

[catcherintherye]

He's gone 4231, 433 and 343 in-game. He's played it short with a lot of defensive third passing; he's tried a more direct approach. He's gone with two defensive cms and then with one defensive and one attacking.

He really hasn't been churning out the same formation and style all season.

It's a lazy charge.

He's struggled to cope with the high expectations from last season and the extra competition in Europe. No doubt about that.
.

I agree with this entirely. In all honesty I think the legitimate criticism one can make of Martinez is he has been too willing to change things and not focussed upon what we are good at.

We have tried a variety of formations. We have also tried a variety of players in positions. We have tried fullbacks in midfield. We have tried Barkley and Naismith in the wide left position. We have Barry at Centre Half etc.

When I watch us, I don't look at a side and think "god if only he would do change x,y,z." Sometimes I'd get that with Moyes, if only he would drop Neville, or Cahill etc. This season under Martinez the worry has been more that I have no idea what our best 11 is and I think the players have lacked some continuity.

I think too early in the season he rotated teams in games we should have just focussed on winning. (For example Crystal Palace at home when we rested Mirallas etc). I understand Martinez's thinking, we have a long season, a bigger squad and our weakened team should have had enough to beat the Palaces of this world. The problem was we lost too many of those games, and we took for granted how easy it would be to continue last seasons miraculous form.

Of course the desire to rotate has been brought on by having the Europa league. But within that I think (or hope) Martinez would look back and say think that we should have put some stronger teams out earlier in the season worked out our strongest 11, stuck with it a bit and started to rotate more slowly as the season went on. It's much easier to rotate when you have a confident team, players who know what their roles are and others who are expected to come up and fill that void.

But yes, the accusation that we haven't been flexible enough doesn't fit. He has been too flexible if anything. In fairness there are reasons as to why he has looked to rotate more. This is the affect of having Europa league to some degree. It is also important to say, that strategically he has made some mistakes too within that and in honesty I think he would look to keep a more settled 11 earlier in the season in future. Turning a season around is not an easy thing to do, Moyes made an art of it, but it is a lot harder than it seems.

 

[streeky]

Tim howard will take the can for this result and rightly so but I have to say it would be good for LB to to put his ass on the line and maybe take one in the face or stomach and try and stop some of these crosses coming in, turning your back, jumping and throwing out a leg is schoolboy defending.

 

[blueblue]

When RM was at Wigan the play revolved around Sean Moloney who played in the no. 10 position. He was the creative playmaker and the style of football favoured by RM needs a player in that mould.
At present we don't have such a player and consequently our build up play looks slow laboured and predictable. We just didn't have any creativity , we had loads of possession but were just shuffling the ball around in front of the defence.

The arrival of Gibson and Atsu changed that and we looked far better when they came on. Unfortunately our defensive confidence was completely lost after the goals we conceded.

In the summer, I think our priority will be to fill creative midfielder role.

 

[Eggs]

....wonder if we will hear "USA, USA" again. Suspect it won't be soon.

 

[mrb85]

Sillett cut the wage-bill by 22 per cent and won the FA Cup? I don't think so!

George Curtis was the Coventry manager; Sillett was chief coach. Well done to them both.

But Sillett was hardly a cost-cutter! He was promoted to team manager and two months after the Wembley triumph he made his first significant purchase, signing David Speedie from Chelsea for £780,000. His immortal quote at the time was “Coventry City have shopped at Woolworths for too long, from now on we’re shopping at Harrods”.

This may well be true. i was just pointing out that winning the fA Cup is not necessarily the mark of a good manager.

Don't forget either that the only PL side Wigan met on route to the final was us. So basically as cup winners they'd won 2 PL matches.

 

[MikeH72]

True. This will be adressed in the summer.

Bring on the Clev

 

[TheFinnFan]

Bring on the Clev

We'll see some sexy spaniard playmaker here 100%

 

[Bungle]

Bring on the Clev