Manager: a person responsible for controlling or administering an organization or group of staff. Whether the players are letting him down or not, he is responsible. Failure to motivate, organise etc, it all falls on his head.
The apparent laziness of today's performance can only have 1 of 2 causes. Either the players did what he said, and didn't press much, didn't hassle Arsenal and didn't chase them down like they did us. In which case it's a tactical failing. Or they don't listen to him, and they half-arsed the performance. When you have one bad egg in a team that's fair enough, but when the team uniformly plays that like with such regularity, it can only fall on one man's head.
The most damning thing for me is that so many of our players, individually, have had good seasons. It's confusing but some players especially are in the form of their life. And yet this is our worst PL season for yonks. It's utter madness. I've rarely felt that embarrassed as a blue; Teds on the Beeb just ripping into Everton, even the reasonably pro-Everton McNulty comparing our play to the Chuckle Brothers. I don't care what people outside Everton think as the world of football is awful, but it's a sad reflection of the way things are going.
There was a lot I hated about Moyes and I do not ever want him back, but under him we got a bit of pride back -- mainly through the fight and passion we showed on the pitch -- and instead of pushing on from that and breaking the glass ceiling (I felt Moyes often constructed himself, admittedly) I feel we're going backwards and losing that bit of pride. We are becoming an absolute joke. If I hear "the entertainers" one more time I'm going to lash the cat through the TV, then lash said TV through a bigger TV. And I'd still make less of a mess than Martinez has made of this season.
