Roberto Martinez discussion

[Furey1878]

They're all positives, but other than the win at Old Trafford and the emergence of a couple of new players, they are all things we have experienced in the recent past. I'm willing to give him time, but I don't think his honeymoon period means that his suitability can never be questioned, even if our form was to nosedive.

No one's saying you can't be critical of Martinez. But if you refer to my original post, I said ''we hit some major highs'', not ''Martinez achieved major highs that only he alone could do because he's wonderful''.

What have you found encouraging about the changes under new management?

 

[bluemangroup]

I think you're being a little too negative.

We scored 4 goals vs qpr, 4 goals vs stoke and 4 goals vs Fulham.

We're not on great form right now, but we have carved teams open this year. The first 45 minutes of Newcastle at home was as good as I've ever seen Everton play.

That Newcastle performance wasnt all that. I'm not being deliberatly contrary or anything, i just think we've played better than that and been allowed less freedom to score. The Southampton game at home i thought was a better performance against a side that pushed us harder. Interchanging between Osman, Pienaar, Baines and Mirallas has evaporated from last season when it used to bear real fruit as well.

 

[Dymak]

Ohhh, pre-emptively making up excuses to criticise him. It's clear now that you don't have an agenda....

What? I'm not the one who is excusing anything, I'm saying lets see how he does, and lets keep it real, rather than making out that he has taken a gang of incompetent footballers and made them play like Barcelona, when in reality, it looks like he will be taking a 6th placed team to around 6th place.

It's other people who are ready to make excuses for him.

 

[Dymak]

No one's saying you can't be critical of Martinez. But if you refer to my original post, I said ''we hit some major highs'', not ''Martinez achieved major highs that only he alone could do because he's wonderful''.

What have you found encouraging about the changes under new management?

I've liked his positivity, but I don't like it when he is inappropriately positive. I also think it is questionable that this change in style is for the good, and that it will result in us eclipsing the previous style of play.

 

[Allezfan]

That Newcastle performance wasnt all that. I'm not being deliberatly contrary or anything, i just think we've played better than that and been allowed less freedom to score. The Southampton game at home i thought was a better performance against a side that pushed us harder. Interchanging between Osman, Pienaar, Baines and Mirallas has evaporated from last season when it used to bear real fruit as well.

I think we mostly played well last year and we've mostly played well this. Like I said, I think martinez gets too much credit in changing our style when at times last year we were fantastic.

We've had great games and good games and bad games, both seasons. But I do think our lows have been less low this year, as a whole. We seem less brittle and more confident.

I do think it's a first season that does show real signs of promise and potential improvement, simply because we do seem full of belief, hence all our late winners and good performances even in games we lose. Whereas even last year, we had games like Wigan where our belief just left us and we fell apart.

 

[mythbuster]

People need to lay off Dymak.

He's not having a go at martinez at all, he's just preaching caution and taking exception to the hyperbolic point "we can lose every game we play from now on this season and I'd still love him".

Which lets face it, is ridiculous.

That's not all he's doing though, is it.

Here's a comment from 9 days ago during a match we went on to win...

"Do some people class this style of football as exciting? It's boring, ineffective wank!"

 

[Allezfan]

That's not all he's doing though, is it.

Here's a comment from 9 days ago during a match we went on to win...

"Do some people class this style of football as exciting? It's boring, ineffective wank!"

West Ham was a terrible game to watch, to be fair.

That had a lot more to do with Allardyce than Martinez, though.

 

[deipnosophist]

I have said previously and I will iterate : in my opinion, I wish RM would not attempt to layer so much positive spin on things when it is not merited. Keep some gunpowder dry Bobby!!

 

[Allezfan]

I have said previously and I will iterate : in my opinion, I wish RM would not attempt to layer so much positive spin on things when it is not merited. Keep some gunpowder dry Bobby!!

Don't get why people care about this though, it's just his style.

 

[bluemangroup]

I think we mostly played well last year and we've mostly played well this. Like I said, I think martinez gets too much credit in changing our style when at times last year we were fantastic.

We've had great games and good games and bad games, both seasons. But I do think our lows have been less low this year, as a whole. We seem less brittle and more confident.

I do think it's a first season that does show real signs of promise and potential improvement, simply because we do seem full of belief, hence all our late winners and good performances even in games we lose. Whereas even last year, we had games like Wigan where our belief just left us and we fell apart.

I think maybe its fair to call it a more steady season to this point? Certainly if this is the season of slow overhaul before we improve again and make real progress then there's a lot to get excited about next season. But equally, this could be the upper limits of what can be achieved because we simply can't afford to play for much more.

 

[Dymak]

That's not all he's doing though, is it.

Here's a comment from 9 days ago during a match we went on to win...

"Do some people class this style of football as exciting? It's boring, ineffective wank!"

That's exactly what it was. Are we supposed to pretend it was mesmirisingly exhilarating?

 

[Khalekan]

I think what is happening on this thread now is a re-hash of the civil war we experienced on this board in the period between Moyes announcing his resignation and the Chelsea victory which established Roberto's bona fides. as our manager.

There are people on here whom never got over the fact Moyes left and have been waiting for a chance to put the boot into Bobby.

They sense this is their moment.

Then there are the boys who wanted rid of Moyes so much they welcomed Bobby with open arms and felt totally vindicated all through the golden autumn and early winter when EFC were the talk of the town.

But now that the dust has settled and we knuckle down to the grind that transition inevitably brings, they refuse to see any wrong in Roberto.

As for me, I was glad to see the back of Moyes and I was willing to give Roberto a fair go.

I still am.......I wouldn't trade Roberto for Moyes.

That doesn't mean I won't question his decisions......there is no blind faith here....no blank cheque.

I want no more bollox like IMWT only with Martinez instead of Moyes.

And I believe the project is still going well.....we may have lost at WHL, the Bridge and the Emirates in recent weeks but we acquitted ourselves pretty well, IMO

I believe Bobby made a monumental error on Saturday by playing Robles over Howard and I will feel free to say so on here.

I feel Deulofeu should have came on instead of McGeady ergo giving the Barca lid a bit more time to do what he does well.

And most of all I feel Bobby needs to have a good hard look at himself and start looking at improving our threat from those set pieces which aren't ripe for Baines/Miralas/ Barkley to have a shot.

We all need to settle down.

Things haven't been too bad recently.....and at least we are winning our home games, Sunderland aside.

We're still up there fighting for a European spot and I for one am really looking forward to the closing months of the season and I think we will have more good days than bad.

 

[bluemangroup]

That's exactly what it was. Are we supposed to pretend it was mesmirisingly exhilarating?

I think Martinez can be let off for that given that we took the points against a team that basically dug a trench at Goodison to preserve a pretty exceptional defensive record.

 

[Allezfan]

I think maybe its fair to call it a more steady season to this point? Certainly if this is the season of slow overhaul before we improve again and make real progress then there's a lot to get excited about next season. But equally, this could be the upper limits of what can be achieved because we simply can't afford to play for much more.

It's a fair point, we won't find out for sure until next year.

I think we'll do better then than we did this but I've been wrong before.

 

[Dymak]

I think Martinez can be let off for that given that we took the points against a team that basically dug a trench at Goodison to preserve a pretty exceptional defensive record.

Yes, we won. And you won't hear me complaining about that, ever. The comment was taken from the first half though, when we were playing boring, ineffective and wank football.