Roberto Martinez Discussion - Including Live Poll (Poll Reset 1st May)

[Dymak]

To be fair, we're the 5th highest scorers in the league. With only 5 goals separating the entire top 5 scoring teams in the division.

It's not that we can't play, it's that we have weaknesses defensively that need addressing.

We have scored lots of goals, with Lukaku playing a big role in that. But does that mean the football is scintillating? West Ham have scored just two goals less than us, is their football scintillating too?

Our football is in no way scintillating imo. It's a mixture of counter-attacking play and gung-ho nonsense that leaves half of your players out of position and vulnerable to conceding. The notion that Martinez' teams play good football is a total myth.

 

[mythbuster]

We have scored lots of goals, with Lukaku playing a big role in that. But does that mean the football is scintillating? West Ham have scored just two goals less than us, is their football scintillating too?

Our football is in no way scintillating imo. It's a mixture of counter-attacking play and gung-ho nonsense that leaves half of your players out of position and vulnerable to conceding. The notion that Martinez' teams play good football is a total myth.

We are a good attacking team, nobody can deny that. Sure, Lukaku has played a big part in it, but so too have the likes of Kane, Vardy and Aguero for their respective clubs, who have very similar goal scoring figures to us. In fact, Spurs have scored less goals than us if you deduct Kane's and Rom's goals from the totals.

I agree it's a bit too gung ho at times though. Especially when we have a lead. That's what needs to be addressed - not the style of football.

 

[Charles Hawtrey]

Flores: Blame me for poor form

• Last Updated: April 7 2016, 14:26 BST

Quique Sanchez Flores has taken full responsibility for Watford's miserable run of form in the Barclays Premier League.

While the Hornets can look forward to an FA Cup semi-final against Crystal Palace later this month following an historic victory at Arsenal, they have won on just two occasions in 12 league matches since the turn of the year.

Watford, who have slipped to 14th in the table, host Everton at Vicarage Road on Saturday off the back of four straight league defeats.

"The responsibility is the coach," said Flores, the Spaniard managing in English football for the first time this season. "I need to transmit what the focus and target is.

"At the moment the players don't respond in the way that I like because I am not able to transmit the necessary ambition to play the matches in the Premier League. So, I prefer to assume the responsibility. I have to support these players.

"We have a couple of distractions. The first one is that we got 37 points a long time ago. We have the feeling that everything is done in the league, but this is not a good thought because we need to compete and we need to add more points.

"And the other distraction is the FA Cup. In the club, we talk a lot about the FA Cup. It is our fault, we need to change the mentality and we have told the players that. We need to recuperate the focus as quickly as possible."

Watford are just one win away from the magical 40-point mark which will all but secure their status in the top flight for second successive campaign.

But Flores, who has no fresh injury concerns ahead of the visit of Everton, believes his side should be targeting more than just safety in the final seven matches of the Premier League.

He added: "We have the responsibility to be ambitious, it is not about the points. Thirty-seven points could be enough, or it could be not enough.

"We haven't lost the level on the training ground, they are training well, so, I don't know what happened in the last matches against Stoke and Arsenal where we lost the focus. I promise the fans that they are going to fight, and the players are focused on the task."

 

[Hangleton]

we are not a good attacking team - we are a defensive nightmare when we attack - thats why we are in the bottom half.

 

[kithnou]

Flores: Blame me for poor form

• Last Updated: April 7 2016, 14:26 BST

Quique Sanchez Flores has taken full responsibility for Watford's miserable run of form in the Barclays Premier League.

While the Hornets can look forward to an FA Cup semi-final against Crystal Palace later this month following an historic victory at Arsenal, they have won on just two occasions in 12 league matches since the turn of the year.

Watford, who have slipped to 14th in the table, host Everton at Vicarage Road on Saturday off the back of four straight league defeats.

"The responsibility is the coach," said Flores, the Spaniard managing in English football for the first time this season. "I need to transmit what the focus and target is.

"At the moment the players don't respond in the way that I like because I am not able to transmit the necessary ambition to play the matches in the Premier League. So, I prefer to assume the responsibility. I have to support these players.

"We have a couple of distractions. The first one is that we got 37 points a long time ago. We have the feeling that everything is done in the league, but this is not a good thought because we need to compete and we need to add more points.

"And the other distraction is the FA Cup. In the club, we talk a lot about the FA Cup. It is our fault, we need to change the mentality and we have told the players that. We need to recuperate the focus as quickly as possible."

Watford are just one win away from the magical 40-point mark which will all but secure their status in the top flight for second successive campaign.

But Flores, who has no fresh injury concerns ahead of the visit of Everton, believes his side should be targeting more than just safety in the final seven matches of the Premier League.

He added: "We have the responsibility to be ambitious, it is not about the points. Thirty-seven points could be enough, or it could be not enough.

"We haven't lost the level on the training ground, they are training well, so, I don't know what happened in the last matches against Stoke and Arsenal where we lost the focus. I promise the fans that they are going to fight, and the players are focused on the task."

@oldblue, something like this would have been nice in the last 2 seasons, no?

 

[mythbuster]

@oldblue, something like this would have been nice in the last 2 seasons, no?

Players not arsed with the league.... "I am not able to transmit the ambition to play the matches in the Premier League"

As I said earlier in the thread, think our players have got the flip-flops on for the league. There reaches a point when there's ultimately bigger fish to fry.

 

[PhilEFC]

@oldblue, something like this would have been nice in the last 2 seasons, no?

Yes definitely, a bit of honesty and taking responsibility is what most supporters want to see instead of blaming everything else.

 

[Ashtonian]

You can only judge the way we play football on the basis it gets you results.

So for all our goals, we don't win games. Therefore our style of football isn't very good if it doesn't get us the basic requirement of beating other teams.

And before anyone throws it back, west brom. Not the greatest to enjoy but very disciplined at times and effective when they need it to be. Football is more than just fancy flicks and running round a lot. Fantastic defending, which is one third of the teams job on the pitch, if they had better midfield or attack play they would be higher.

 

[The Penalty Box Dancer]

Stan Collymore said earlier, if you replace Lovren, Sakho and Mignolet with Huth, Morgan and Schmeichel they would be kicking on for top 4. It got me thinking if these minor changes we had, let's just say Huth and Morgan, two no nonsense defenders, we would be fighting it out for the title! I think Collymore only mentioned Liverpool because they were playing tonight but if Everton had those tweaks....

 

[kithnou]

Stan Collymore said earlier, if you replace Lovren, Sakho and Mignolet with Huth, Morgan and Schmeichel they would be kicking on for top 4. It got me thinking if these minor changes we had, let's just say Huth and Morgan, two no nonsense defenders, we would be fighting it out for the title! I think Collymore only mentioned Liverpool because they were playing tonight but if Everton had those tweaks....

Up until the last month or two, most of us in here were saying that we were frustrated because we are so close. 3 or 4 top players into that starting 11 and we would be contenders.
I think you can tell Stan that most clubs feel the same way.

 

[mythbuster]

You can only judge the way we play football on the basis it gets you results.

So for all our goals, we don't win games. Therefore our style of football isn't very good if it doesn't get us the basic requirement of beating other teams.

And before anyone throws it back, west brom. Not the greatest to enjoy but very disciplined at times and effective when they need it to be. Football is more than just fancy flicks and running round a lot. Fantastic defending, which is one third of the teams job on the pitch, if they had better midfield or attack play they would be higher.

The same West Brom who are one point ahead of us, having played a game more whilst scoring 21 fewer goals and conceding five less? Yeah, great example that mate.

 

[evertony]

Stan Collymore said earlier, if you replace Lovren, Sakho and Mignolet with Huth, Morgan and Schmeichel they would be kicking on for top 4. It got me thinking if these minor changes we had, let's just say Huth and Morgan, two no nonsense defenders, we would be fighting it out for the title! I think Collymore only mentioned Liverpool because they were playing tonight but if Everton had those tweaks....

I like Stan, but that's all said with hindsight.

If he'd have said in close season Everton ( for example) should replace Stones and Jagielka with Huth and Morgan you'd have pissed yourself that much laughing you'd need flippers and a rubber ring.

 

[The Penalty Box Dancer]

Let's think differently for a minute. Forget about Martinez, let's look at external factors, before Martinez took over the only player we would liked to have kept hold of was Kevin Mirallas. At the time he was our biggest property and for him to stay was to be massive. Now since Martinez came to the club he has built an incredible squad, we have big players like John Stones, Ross Barkley, Romelu Lukaku, Gerard Deulofeu. I know only two are Martinez's signings but Stones and Barkley did not have interest before-hand. So the season 2013-14 sort of passed by without major talk of transfers, Leighton Baines turned down Man Utd. 2014-15 there was interest in Ross Barkley but nothing significant, there was dressing room unrest and we done what we had to, to alleviate it. 2015-16 started with official offers for John Stones, even after he handed in a transfer request, they were turned down but in my opinion this started some squad unrest. Steven Naismith was sold to Norwich, some pleased, some not. I would say Steven was a good character of the dressing room, had a great personality and would've been one to speak up when needed. So we bring in a Centre forward from Russia and it was obvious to see there was some barriers with his adjusting difficulties. Now there's talk of bids for Romelu Lukaku and this will be on his mind as well as other players. So aside from the manager, there are other situations which could be pulling the current squad apart. Players don't know their futures, players don't know who they'll be playing with next season. There's uncertainty. Players aren't sure if they'll be kept on. So things like this will affect chemistry. I'm not trying to make excuses, all I am saying is there's other factors. I wrote this quite quickly so apologies for not elaborating in detail.

With our players constantly spoken about by the press, it's bound to do no good for the dressing room and this will be playing a role in the squad unrest.

 

[Cork Evertonian]

In the actual article by David Prentice on the Echo there was a bombardment of comments.I'll just quote these two ones.

Right that's it...I am actually starting to dislike Martinez now...how dare he reprimand one of the games most senior respected players in public. Did he demand Lukaku apologise for comments made whilst on international duty?? I think not, Baines told it how it is and Martinez can't bear the truth..remember earlier in the season when Baines said "we lack in game management" he never played again for about 5 or 6 weeks...spot on Leighton ..Martinez is desperately trying to hold on to some form of credabilty but all he is doing is alienating the last fans who actually still backed him.
This is the final straw Roberto we have all had enough, you have took EFC backwards not forwards as you promised, clueless baffling team tactics, overhyping individual players and putting even more pressure on them (phenomenal) I hate that word now thanks..TIME TO GO ROBERTO you are a fraud. COYB!! !!!!

Leighton Baines fails to stick to the usual cliches he's expected to trot out and Martinez censors him - unbelievable.

This has been one of the worst seasons, in terms of failing to utilise the abundance of talent we have in the squad, I can remember. No amount of Roberto Martinez flannel can disguise the fact that he can't get this Everton side, to play with any kind of consistency (as Baines suggested).

 

[The Penalty Box Dancer]

Can it actually get any worse? I think there's only one way for Martinez to go, and that is up.

And I'm not doing this to be controversial, I like the man, there is something about him and I am dying for him to succeed, maybe I'm soft and would hate him to lose his job as we all know he is working hard to build something here. I just him to acknowledge his wrong-doings and have that same inspiration he had two years ago. I've got a soft spot for him as he's a really nice person.