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Roberto Martinez discussion

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I for one love going to the game these days,even today things weren't going for us but we're always positive always at least trying to play the game in the traditions of our club,sure we're not perfect,but I've got my optimism back about EFC and that flew away from me probably when Joe Royle left:)
 
LinekersLegs said:
And your solution to this is to play the exact same team in the exact same formation, game after game regardless of their tiredness, fitness or the opponents strengths/weaknesses?
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What exact same team? We had no europa game this week he could have played a balanced side, taking lukaku out the equation, he could have played eto'o up top with one of barkley or Naismith behind and pienaar and mcgeady on the wings, a balanced side, instead he shoe horned both ross and Naismith in which done nothing but see them both getting in each others way, reduced baines's threat down the left as barkley isn't a natural LM and wasn't linking up well with him, whilst flooding the middle as ross was naturally coming in more central.

To argue against this or claim it's playing a "wounded and tired" side in a week without no EL football Is laughable and exactly what I'm saying that some people cant accept when the manager has got it wrong. Was the exact same with the IMWT brigade who couldn't criticise moyes whenever he got things wrong. Total RAWK mentality.
 
EverBlue86 said:
I'll leave it at that as obviously some people cant get past their hard ons for Naismith and or martinez. We are just lucky the RS are without sturridge and spurs are hopeless otherwise top 6 would be out of the question already. We are a shadow of ourselves from last season and the side has been made inconsistent through needless changes and the squeezing of certain players into the side regardless of its effects on the balance of the team.
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Outside the box, I do not rate Naismith very highly
 

EverBlue86 said:
Doesn't matter the lads ain't tired now mate, come Sunderland next weekend fair enough but you can't let a midweek game influence matches either side of it
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Martinez is going for it in the Europa and taking calculated risks with the league. It worked against Burnley and didn't today. Can be frustrating when it doesn't work but to be honest I'm pleased that he is taking Europe seriously.

Also, we are still close to the hunting pack provided Southampton hurry up and implode so at the moment I'm not too worried.
 
Here's the team we played in the 4-4 against Utd, 2.5 years ago

Howard
Distin
Heitinga
Jags
Hibbert
Neville
Gibson
Pienaar
Fellaini
Osman
Jelavic

(Cahill and McFadden as subs)

Admittedly this was when Fellaini was in Pure Boss Mode and Gibson had half a knee but look at where we've come from.

Even if we do nothing more the rest of this season the 4-1 Wolfsburg made my day to be part of it on that night.

And even if this season we only finish top 10 or even below we will come back next season stronger. We've had to run to stand still in the transfer market and I think Martinez knows that there'll be fresh faces and young blood coming in the summer (Distin, sadly Kone, Osman etc)
 

EverBlue86 said:
What exact same team? We had no europa game this week he could have played a balanced side, taking lukaku out the equation, he could have played eto'o up top with one of barkley or Naismith behind and pienaar and mcgeady on the wings, a balanced side, instead he shoe horned both ross and Naismith in which done nothing but see them both getting in each others way, reduced baines's threat down the left as barkley isn't a natural LM and wasn't linking up well with him, whilst flooding the middle as ross was naturally coming in more central.

To argue against this or claim it's playing a "wounded and tired" side in a week without no EL football Is laughable and exactly what I'm saying that some people cant accept when the manager has got it wrong. Was the exact same with the IMWT brigade who couldn't criticise moyes whenever he got things wrong. Total RAWK mentality.
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For this week we could have done as you said and it is possible that it would have worked out well although we saw plenty of times last season where we couldn't break down a defensive side with the formation you describe.

But we aren't going to be able play that way every game as our wingers at the moment are one of our weakest areas - Mirallas injured, Piennaar is probably too old/slow to play 3 games a week, Atsu struggling to adapt with a lot of the responsibility falling on an erratic McGeady. Martinez appears to be trying to find a way for some other players to play out wide whilst keeping the preferred 4231 that favours our fullbacks attacking runs.

The experiment hasn't yet proved successful, don't think anyone is claiming it has, but can understand why martinez is trying to make it work.
 

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