I guess that begs the question: which year was the blip?
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Did the blip only start with Sky TV because it,s a hell of a long time since I saw an everton player in person lift a shiny pot above his head.
Stanley Parker
Player Valuation: £15m
"40,000 people bounced into Goodison at the start of last season everyone of them behind the team"
Last season, Everton started with a draw at Leicester, after twice being ahead. After this disappointment, the fans didn't give the team a particularly warm welcome for the first home game against Arsenal. Again Everton drew, this time after being two goals ahead. The fans could hardly raise a cheer for the rest of the season.
"The blame lies solely with the manager"
Martinez has inherited one of the oldest squads in the Premier League. The extra burden of midweek games - played on a Thursday - exposed its limitations.
There were spells of injuries for vital players. Then usually reliable players made individual errors - just look at the criticism of Howard.
So how can you say the blame lies solely with the manager?
marty mcfly
Player Valuation: £40m
I think we all agree that 11th isn't good enough and the performances last season weren't good enough. Injuries and also mistakes early on where made and we just never got going and the problems grew until the [Poor language removed] hit the fan in December. After that we where just recovering and waiting for the season to end.
Momentum is key and we've been dealt a shitty hand this year. Possibly the worst hand in history so there might and probably will come a point this season where things aren't looking great but they'll turn around. What we can't afford is for the same thing to happen like it did last season and loose 4 easily winnable games in a row and go how many games without a win and frankly I think that was caused a large part by the negativity around the club.
You are right though. Man for man we have a very good team and we should remember that and remember who is responsible for a lot of it - and I'm not talking about Moyes.
marty mcfly
Player Valuation: £40m
I thought we lacked a proper left sided winger (Pienaar replacement) and decent cover for Coleman.
I was wrong about Hibbert, he did not too bad at all however unfortunately the left sided winger was our Achilles heel all year.
I was also disappointed Deulofeu didn't come back because I didn't rate McGeady. Hopefully it's looking like we'll sort that out but it's also looking likely that next year Utd and Liverpool will both be stronger although City might be weaker.
Saint Domingo
Player Valuation: £90m
Before the season Roberto said he didn't want to use the Europa as an excuse. Then he did. He's had 4 transfer windows now, but he's chose to keep old players like Howard Hibbert and Distin and brought in Barry Alcaraz and Kone as well as Etoo. So whilst he inherited an oldish squad he's half responsible for why it remains one. As for Europa league fatigue Spurs and Liverpool seemed unaffected whereas our bad runs came when we weren't playing European ties. This myth that we have a small squad is just that, a complete myth.
Yes some players had injuries but Maryinez completely failed to cope. The defence fell apart without Stones and the midfield disintegrated without McCarthy but Martinez kept playing exactly the same way and we only picked up when they returned. He had no alternative for Pienaar and Osman either, two 34 year old playmakers that proved to be vital but again haven't been replaced in 4 transfer windows.
Individual errors? Once or twice is a manager sticking by his player, allowing a whole season of incompetence is criminal. What he did in reinstating Howard means I'll probably never trust him again.
You can make arguments for a whole raft of mitigating factors why it wasn't RM's fault (indeed he's articulated most of them himself) but as the manager he has to take responsibility for it.
Pre season was a farce
Players remained unfit through the start of the season
Far too much rotation and tinkering
Continuous selection of out of form players
Continuous adherence to formations that weren't working
These reasons are the main oneswhy last season was so poor. They are all Martinez's fault.
marty mcfly
Player Valuation: £40m
Agreed but let the past be the past. Hopefully he's learnt from it. Now's the start of a new season.
Ihaters
Player Valuation: £35m
The squad age was fine, 6th oldest that year by the looks of it:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/ar...ldest-squad-Europe-oldest-Premier-League.html
But even if it wasn't, surely the blame would lie with a manager that took a squad with an average age of 35 or whatever and added in Etoo, Barry, Alkaraz, kept Hibbert and Distin and sold the likes of Anichebe.?
He still had young players from the Moyes era, Stones, Barkley and a whole wealth of quality under 30's he could field.
Also.. Injuries were apparently Moyes fault when he was in charge, why are they now not Martinez's?
Martinez had a good squad, did well, a year later and having spent money, did poorly, and that's all we have so far, but both the good and bad are down to him and his decisions.. Who's in the squad, who's picked, what position, what style etc..
Results are down to the manager.
Saint Domingo
Player Valuation: £90m
Exactly, using converse logic then Martinez only did well in his first season because he got lucky with injuries, we had a low number of fixtures, certain players didn't make mistakes and some players were a year younger. You could add in the ridiculous argument that we didn't lose momentum in the first few games so we had s good season. Of course this is complete rubbish. Martinez had s good first season because he did good things. He had a bad second one because he lost his brain. Giving Martinez credit for success and excuses for failure is ridiculous. Just as ridiculous as when Moyes got the opposite deal.
Stanley Parker
Player Valuation: £15m
"So whilst he inherited an oldish squad he's half responsible for why it remains one." That's not quite the same as being solely responsible.
The previous season was extended by the World Cup competition. Players required a rest after it. Roberto wasn't responsible for that.
The selections for league matches were generally consistent. Older players found it difficult to recover from the midweek games. And rotation gave the younger players the opportunity to experience first team football.
Injuries and the limitations of the squad reduced the choice, especially in left midfield.
It wasn't necessarily the formations that didn't work. It was more the pace that the players played in the games. And players made individual mistakes too.
marty mcfly
Player Valuation: £40m
Giving Martinez sole responsibility for results is also ridiculous. Last year was hopefully our transitional year where some players just hit the wall and the younger ones didn't step up.
This year he's not going to rely on Distin, Pienaar and Osman. It's looking like he's trying to find their replacements this window. There's no reason why next year shouldn't be more like the 1st year and not the 2nd*.
* Except for that scary start.
Stanley Parker
Player Valuation: £15m
That's a ridiculous argument. Roberto faced different problems in each season.
Apply it to Sean Dyche. He did good things in 2013/14, but lost his brain last season? I don't think so.
Saint Domingo
Player Valuation: £90m
Sean Dyche wasn't even managing in the same league so how is that relevant?
Yes seasons are different but this debate is ultimately about whether Roberto is a good manager or not. Good managers deal with problems. Using your argument Roberto is almost irrelevant because if there's favourable conditions we do well and if there isn't we don't? So every other year there's a tournament we have to accept Martinez's fatigue line? A lot of the problems last season were his own making. European football and post tournament seasons are not problems, they are a set of conditions that should be routine every other season for us. We had some injuries, but so did other teams and none of them fell from European places to a relegation scrap. There was no unstoppable force of nature that affected only Everton last season. Every problem you can think of is either not a problem, or should have been prepared for better. Martinez remains responsible.
Compare and contrast with Mourinho. Mourinho made no excuse for the World Cup and proved it by sticking to fairly much the same 11 throughout the entire season. They had a blistering start. No excuse of small squad either, he used the same core group of players in all 4 comps which they went far in. When he got key injuries to absolutely vital players he ignored media criticism and changed formation and playing style to find a way to win. He was also big enough to drop absolute legends like Cech for better performers. He ended up with the prem trophy.
Martinez did the exact opposite of all of the above, ended up 11th, but apparently it's not his fault because he had to face a lot of 'problems' last season?! Give over, he was just an incredibly poor manager last season. I'll back him this season because he was a good manager in the first season but why pretend he's this brilliant manager who was a victim of external forces last season?
Stanley Parker
Player Valuation: £15m
But the team age wasn't;
http://www1.skysports.com/football/...d-youngest-starting-xis-in-the-premier-league
The only older teams were QPR and Manchester City. QPR weren't playing in Europe and City had enough players to field two - if not three - first teams.
joey_macmo
Player Valuation: £35m
We drew those first two games because we weren't fit, the shambolic pre season was down to the manager.
He increased the age of the squad with his signings so that's a total no go as far as an excuse
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