Roberto Martinez discussion

[Carlito]

I find nastiness as palatable as writing Lukaku off little Carl.

Or as pleasant as mob rule because of general hysteria.

He brought it on himself, mate. Calling opposing teams 'parasites' because they won't let you win isn't conduct befitting an Everton manager. I'm afraid this had been coming ever since.

I hope Bobby learns from these moments of hubris, just as I did when Lukaku signed for Barcelona.

 

[streeky]

Talk of 10/11/12th place finishes are being bandied around but we are 12th currently and haven't won a league game since boxing day. This season could get very ugly indeed when the bottom teams start going on mini runs like they always do when the trap door looms.

 

[ianefc]

Everton went to City with a one goal lead - and their performance in the first half was almost perfect.

However, City were able to bring on substitutes of the quality of Navas and de Bruyne. And then the referee gave them a goal.

With Stones out of position and out of sorts, and substitutes McCarthy and Coleman not match fit, Everton found it harder and harder to compete with City and all their resources.

But both sides put on a great display of football skills. And Mori was outstanding - it would have been a great mistake to play Stones in his place.

That last bit says quite a lot, I'm not doubting your judgment on Mori's performance, so taking that into consideration, we still conceded another 3 goals and they hit the post twice.

 

[BlueToff]

10th is better than 11th and 12th though.

And he got THAT Stoke squad to finish above THIS Everyon squad last season and they are clear of us again.

If it was the other way around I'd be sectioned for trying to say Hughes was Better than Martinez.

Don't want either of them here now.

Prior to last night I had tried my hardest to give Martinez more of a break. But last night was dreadful, when you analyse the game. We were terrible and at no point did we build any momentum after we went behind and they had 1 midfielder on the pitch.

Outside of deulofeu's chance early in the 2nd half we did nothing.

We haven't finished 12th this season, we've got 15 games to go.

We were not terrible at all last night, we had a gameplan and we stuck to it. We needed a draw to go through, we did what we could to win. City are a better side, they proved it, and they had a lot of help from the ref.

 

[Khalekan]

You do realise there's a difference between the real world and the voices in your head?

Were you so angry and disgusted with Martinez when he won the first leg 2-1? For the first half of the second 45 you do realise we were leading the tie? Away from home against a team that cost hundreds of millions to assemble and are generally regarded as the best team in the country at present? Were you expecting a load of chances for us at that time?

Honestly I give up with this sometimes. It's just laughable.

And it took an illegitimate "goal" to draw them level.

Up until that point I thought we were doing quite well.

 

[RaleighBlue]

It's a pretty valid excuse though. I wasn't expecting anything from the game and so it was. The pressure was on City and they have better players than us so they produced at home.

We had some rough luck with Besic and Mirallas getting ruled out and with their second goal being allowed to stand.

But then to counter that we had some fantastic luck with them striking the post a few times.

I don't see how rationally last night could tip people over the edge in wanting Martinez out, either you've never wanted him or already made your mind up. Which is fine like as its not nice us being this dump for so long.

Just think the ownership issue is more pressing for us as a club now if we want to genuinely do something worth getting excited about.

Chances are any new owners will want their own man but will give the existing manager a honeymoon period first so if bring someone else in now it's probably bad timing.

Martinez and his team need to do much better though. He's got just over three months to state his case to his potential new employers.

I turned from last night.

And I was fairly vocally for Martinez. It wasn't the result last night. Hell, we can actually argue that the result was unfair (hint: it wasn't).
But last night was predictable. Not because it was City. City drop important games all the time, they lack bottle, and have a terribly shaky defense.

But rather than go in there, shut up shop after Barkley's goal and try to hold on for a win OR continue to press and attack and push and try to race with them...we just kind of rolled over. Again. Our squad is lacking tenacity. The ref gave them a goal. Did we get mad about it? Did we start playing harder? No, we deflated. Again.

At some point you have to hold your hands up and realize that the man is what he is, it isn't likely to change, and it isn't good enough.

 

[BlueToff]

That last bit says quite a lot, I'm not doubting your judgment on Mori's performance, so taking that into consideration, we still conceded another 3 goals and they hit the post twice.

Their team cost £500mil. De Bruyne cost more than our starting XI combined. We're the only team to keep a clean sheet against them since January last year. The least I'd expect City to do, at home, when losing a tie, in a semi-final, is have a lot of efforts on goal...

 

[Khalekan]

We haven't finished 12th this season, we've got 15 games to go.

We were not terrible at all last night, we had a gameplan and we stuck to it. We needed a draw to go through, we did what we could to win. City are a better side, they proved it, and they had a lot of help from the ref.

Yip.

We were doing fine until the ref and linesman took a hand in proceedings.

Or didn't take a hand in proceedings as the way should have done.

 

[BlueToff]

I turned from last night.

And I was fairly vocally for Martinez. It wasn't the result last night. Hell, we can actually argue that the result was unfair (hint: it wasn't).
But last night was predictable. Not because it was City. City drop important games all the time, they lack bottle, and have a terribly shaky defense.

But rather than go in there, shut up shop after Barkley's goal and try to hold on for a win OR continue to press and attack and push and try to race with them...we just kind of rolled over. Again. Our squad is lacking tenacity. The ref gave them a goal. Did we get mad about it? Did we start playing harder? No, we deflated. Again.

At some point you have to hold your hands up and realize that the man is what he is, it isn't likely to change, and it isn't good enough.

But Martinez is getting slated for not being able to defend, so then people slate him for not attacking. When he attacks, he gets slated for not defending.

Can you not see the irony???

 

[COYBL25]

Their is no one capable of taking on Dave. He's the best. No joke.

Stubborn SOB Though.

Mutual respect makes for very worthy adversaries !

He's like a wounded beast at the moment, fighting for his life, but still swinging knockout blows all over the place.

 

[Stanley Parker]

That last bit says quite a lot, I'm not doubting your judgment on Mori's performance, so taking that into consideration, we still conceded another 3 goals and they hit the post twice.

No, last night was not dreadful and we were not terrible.

City scored with a deflected shot.

Then the referee gave them a goal.

And then Aguero outwitted Stones who was both out of position and out of sorts.

 

[Whistlin' Dixie]

The ref gave them a goal. Did we get mad about it? Did we start playing harder? No, we deflated. Again.

Agreed. It's like watching a bike wheel with a slow puncture once we take the lead. And we know what happens when you put pressure on a slow puncture...

 

[803 Toffee]

I'm glad it's not my call to sack or retain RM. On one hand, the players seem to enjoy playing for him. If there's a threat of a few big stars leaving you would hope that the players would have bought into what RM is selling, and would hopefully give it at least one more season if possible. Not sure how much of that "salesman jive" he can spin. At times he does seem very capable, but as the old saying goes 'It's better to be lucky than good" and we certainly have been lacking in both of those departments lately.

On the other hand, it has been very perplexing to witness the tactics week to week. You leave an obviously struggling keeper out there to get skewered (warranted or not) by the fans week in and week out without so much as entertaining the idea of benching him. It was weeks before an out of form Kone found the bench. He set Stones up for failure by playing him out of position (with a healthy Coleman). Line ups have been questionable this season.

IF he's retained I would hope quite a staff shakeup will be in order. Something you would think has to be done.

Pride cometh before the fall Roberto.

 

[RaleighBlue]

But Martinez is getting slated for not being able to defend, so then people slate him for not attacking. When he attacks, he gets slated for not defending.

Can you not see the irony???

I'm not one of those people though. It's improper to use other people's arguments as ammunition against my own.

My issue is mostly with the utter lack of fight in our squad. We get a lead, take our foot off the gas, other teams get back into it, and we capitulate. It's an all too common narrative.

 

[ianefc]

We haven't finished 12th this season, we've got 15 games to go.

We were not terrible at all last night, we had a gameplan and we stuck to it. We needed a draw to go through, we did what we could to win. City are a better side, they proved it, and they had a lot of help from the ref.

We did have some luck also. Clear as day foul on Aguero in build up to our goal.