Roberto Martinez discussion

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Kurt said:
To be fair Tubey we are battering every team we come up against but we are so wasteful in front of goal...... we create chance after chance after chance but don't convert our possession and dominance into goals. As good as Lukaku has been this season, and he has been very good, he misses an absurd amount of chances at times. Is this a failing on the manager ?? possibly, he could maybe have signed a decent backup to give us options, but I honestly lay a lot of the blame squarely at the feet of the players.
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I agree completely, and haven't said anything different here mate.

The only thing I blame Martinez for on our current run of form is strange use of subs and not prioritising set piece attack or defence. Everything else is on the players dominating but not capitalising, and then fading late on.
 
Tubey said:
Because 99 times out of 100 that punch goes flying away, and not directly on the bonce of Cleverley, and 99 times out of 100 that header loops over or wide or is cleared easily.

It was luck - deserved luck, but luck all the same. It's a good thing to get a bit of luck sometimes.

Against Bournemouth, it wasn't bad luck - we switched off and gifted them the goal. Newcastle didn't gift us that goal yesterday, it was just odd circumstances that made it nestle in the back of the net.

Who cares, three points gained, but for me we need to turn dominance into goals so we don't need to rely on such luck.
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So we were lucky, but weren't gifted the goal, even though it came from a bad punch onto our players' head?

It was poor goalkeeping that cleverly made the most of with a very good header.
 
Tubey said:
Hahaha indeed...

People seem to be equating luck about the goal to Everton being lucky to win overall - that's not my point at all, as I've already said we should have won comfortably. But we're not turning dominance into goals, so instead of winning as a result of that dominance, in the end we picked up three points largely due to a lucky circumstance.
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Lucky circumstance?

Corner from a counter attack
 
The season is at half way, we are 9th which is respectable but could have been better. There are a myriad of reasons for this.

As regards RM for a long term manager I remain unconvinced but am not looking for the club to jump in and deliver the P45, that for me would be very wrong to do at this stage. Now RM has made a few mistakes in terms of tactics, team selection, subbing but he has got some things right and is enthusiastic and I believe committed to the club. They are TBH big plus's and that should be recognised.

As regards the results there have been awkward ones. But looking at this season (ignore the 1st and 2nd they are history) a big problem in my book has been the injuries to players, key players like Baines and Jags. If not for these there would with out doubt been a more settled back four and the defensive frailties this season may well not have existed. I do not think this has been fully appreciated in weighing up the results this season. It has meant that RM has had to mess about with the team, like even now we have no McCarthy, until now an ever present.

So all in all I think we managing pretty well to hang on in there.

I hope that our play and win yesterday will be the spring board to get some wins under our belt and really hope we can take the points from the Monday game. Stoke though are no mugs.

So that is my little review.
 

Titus Bramble said:
When Bournemouth scored their equaliser people on here quite rightly blew a fuse at not seeing the game out, for losing concentration and for switching off. Surely we should be chuffed that we kept going right to the end, kept our heads and made the most of the last chance that came our way with a very good header. Why is it lucky?
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It wasn't lucky at all mate,what it was,was another away game where we have dominated virtually the whole game,created another 4/5 excellent chances,restricted the home team to two(albeit excellent)chances,but end up very nearly having to settle for a point,there is so much ability and potential here,but as a fan you want to throttle them,management(barring Dunc,he'd batter melol)and players!!
 
There was literally nothing unusually lucky about that goal or the win whatsoever. We won the corner from a good breakaway and when you do that, you put the opposition defence under pressure and can force a mistake. The header itself wasn't lucky at all. Obviously if the keeper has come off his line and left a gaping hole behind him, Cleverley's going to nod it back over him and into the gap. It was a great header and a well-deserved 3 points.
 
Darth Vader said:
Lucky circumstance?

Corner from a counter attack
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Not the counter, mate. That was well crafted and very well defended at the last second by that Newcastle defender.

I think the corner being punched out right to Cleverly, the keeper being off his line, and it looping in at a trajectory that was very awkward to defend is the lucky part.

Basically, of the many chances we had, Cleverly's was the hardest one and funnily enough the only one that hit the back of the net.
 
Stanley Parker said:
They beat Arsenal 4-0 - but didn't even play particularly well?

Perhaps Koeman isn't really the kind of manager we are looking for.
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Exactly. Did you watch the game? I did and So'ton wasnt particularly good. 4-0 doesnt tell the whole story here. First goal was very pretty but otherwise So'ton was very ordinary. For example we won 0-1 and played way more better footy than they did. Fact.
 

The only "lucky" points I think we have got all season, as in over the balance of the game which side deserved them rather than individual bits of luck like Barry not conceeding a cast iron penalty vs Crystal Palace, are at Spurs.

They dominated us for large chunks of the game and were only denied by Howard putting in probably his best performance of the last 18months.

Even then in the last 15 minutes we were probably the best bet to score.

Thankfully feels a large difference from 12 months ago despite our position in the table not being dramatically better.
 
TheFinnFan said:
Exactly. Did you watch the game? I did and So'ton wasnt particularly good. 4-0 doesnt tell the whole story here. First goal was very pretty but otherwise So'ton was very ordinary. For example we won 0-1 and played way more better footy than they did. Fact.
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It's a competitive league!

And if Arsenal are one of the challengers, then Southampton must be too.
 
paulbefc said:
There was literally nothing unusually lucky about that goal or the win whatsoever. We won the corner from a good breakaway and when you do that, you put the opposition defence under pressure and can force a mistake. The header itself wasn't lucky at all. Obviously if the keeper has come off his line and left a gaping hole behind him, Cleverley's going to nod it back over him and into the gap. It was a great header and a well-deserved 3 points.
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What about the deflection off the beach ball though? :p
 

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