Roberto Martinez discussion

[Lowste]

I am enjoying the moment! It was a big win which I hope will give us confidence as the season continues.

I am a great admirer of Roberto too. I just suspect that our play yesterday was more the result of an unfortunate injury and a fortunate substitution rather than a tactical masterplan conceived by Roberto.

Roll on October - Everton v Liverpool, Everton v Man United and Arsenal v Everton - when our opponents will have the complication of midweek European games too.

October scares me, but you just never know

We look OK at the moment so long may it continue

 

[Caolam]

I've been a fan for too long to let one result change my whole opinion on how we will do throughout the season but you can't help but be optimistic on our prospects. We know Martinez can be a good manager, first season proved that. We know he can be a bad manager, last season.
He looks to have got himself back on track so let us see what he can do.
One thing that isn't being mentioned on here and it is something very positive, he is changing the age profile of the team. He is doing it in steps and at the right time, he deserves credit for that.

 

[Connor]

It was a great win! But some fans have claimed that Martinez outwitted Mourinho tactically. Can they explain exactly how our plan was intended to work? And how it actually worked on the day?

How did we negate the threat of Pedro and Hazard? How did we create chances in front of goal? The play wasn't all one way. Chelsea had 61% possession and won 14 corners.

Mate, we played without the ball and just hit them on the break, similar to Southampton.

Chelsea were not in that game yesterday, I don't care what the stats say.

We were set up to negate their attacking threat, which we did, how many shots on target did they have ? Their goal was a pot shot too.

McCarthy was not closing matic down because he was doubling up and closing the gap on the winger, which I think was Pedro at the time.

Mourhnio didn't have a clue late on started throwing things at the wall to see what stuck. He completely abandoned all shape and threw players on.

Now tell me Bob's tactics didn't work when the best tactical manager in world football, completely abandoned all shape and hope and threw everything on.

 

[davek]

Mate, we played without the ball and just hit them on the break, similar to Southampton.

Chelsea were not in that game yesterday, I don't care what the stats say.

We were set up to negate their attacking threat, which we did, how many shots on target did they have ? Their goal was a pot shot too.

McCarthy was not closing matic down because he was doubling up and closing the gap on the winger, which I think was Pedro at the time.

Mourhnio didn't have a clue late on started throwing things at the wall to see what stuck. He completely abandoned all shape and threw players on.

Now tell me Bob's tactics didn't work when the best tactical manager in world football, completely abandoned all shape and hope and threw everything on.

I reckon last season's game was uppermost in Martinez's mind. We played an open game and tried to go toe to toe. It was a disaster. He was determined to tighten up and see if we could play off that base. He approached last season's derbies in much the same way - mauled in that Anfield derby two seasons ago, he was never going to engage them so high up the pitch subsequently.

His small but vociferous and noisy band of critics try and push an argument that Martinez is inflexible. It's utter bollocks, just like their campaign to unseat him.

 

[Connor]

I reckon last season's game was uppermost in Martinez's mind. We played an open game and tried to go toe to toe. It was a disaster. He was determined to tighten up and see if we could play off that base. He approached last season's derbies in much the same way - mauled in that Anfield derby two seasons ago, he was never going to engage them so high up the pitch subsequently.

His small but vociferous and noisy band of critics try and push an argument that Martinez is inflexible. It's utter bollocks, just like their campaign to unseat him.

He's had his arse kicked in those sort of games and he's changed, the derby at Goodison last year, he just completely shut them down. Europe has helped too, he's shown he knows how to change his team, Spurs away a few weeks ago, he shut up shop with 15/20 to go, he has never ever done that before.

The fact is, too many are waiting for a mistake to jump on his back and criticise him but if he continues on like yesterday, they won't have anything to complain about at all.

 

[Stanley Parker]

Didn't we have 63% possession when Chelsea thumped us 6-3 last season?

It was, in fact, the same 61% possession. But that wasn't the tactical plan, was it?

We gave Chelsea a two goal start, and then simply threw ourselves at them. We scored three, while Chelsea scored three on the break. Besic presented them with the final goal.

The alternative was a 0-2 home defeat. 3-6 was much more exciting, but showed both our strengths and our weaknesses.

 

[Chang Elephant]

if he continues on like yesterday, they won't have anything to complain about at all.

Can't argue with that. Doubt though that there's many just waiting to give him a kicking, he's a likeable guy and had a great first season. Just stank the gaff out last season.

 

[Titus Bramble]

His lack of plan B is worrying.

 

[Boss_Blue]

It was a great win! But some fans have claimed that Martinez outwitted Mourinho tactically. Can they explain exactly how our plan was intended to work? And how it actually worked on the day?

How did we negate the threat of Pedro and Hazard? How did we create chances in front of goal? The play wasn't all one way. Chelsea had 61% possession and won 14 corners.

This is a very revealing post.

 

[Stanley Parker]

I reckon last season's game was uppermost in Martinez's mind. We played an open game and tried to go toe to toe. It was a disaster. He was determined to tighten up and see if we could play off that base. He approached last season's derbies in much the same way - mauled in that Anfield derby two seasons ago, he was never going to engage them so high up the pitch subsequently.

His small but vociferous and noisy band of critics try and push an argument that Martinez is inflexible. It's utter bollocks, just like their campaign to unseat him.

We lost last year because we played careless football and gave Chelsea two early goals.

We could have closed the game down for a 0-2 home defeat. But we went all out to pull the goals back. We scored three, while Chelsea scored three on the break. Besic gave them the final goal.

So we did play reckless, open football, but that wasn't the plan. And we did lose 3-6 - but that was instead of losing 0-2. I thought it showed our strengths as well as our weaknesses.

 

[davek]

We lost last year because we played careless football and gave Chelsea two early goals.

We could have closed the game down for a 0-2 home defeat. But we went all out to pull the goals back. We scored three, while Chelsea scored three on the break. Besic gave them the final goal.

So we did play reckless, open football, but that wasn't the plan. And we did lose 3-6 - but that was instead of losing 0-2. I thought it showed our strengths as well as our weaknesses.

Last season we started with a defensive line too high and too rigid. We were caught out trying to play them off and they buried us in the opening 10 minutes or so. There was no way we'd play like that yesterday. Lessons were learned.

 

[Stanley Parker]

Mate, we played without the ball and just hit them on the break, similar to Southampton.

Chelsea were not in that game yesterday, I don't care what the stats say.

We were set up to negate their attacking threat, which we did, how many shots on target did they have ? Their goal was a pot shot too.

McCarthy was not closing matic down because he was doubling up and closing the gap on the winger, which I think was Pedro at the time.

Mourhnio didn't have a clue late on started throwing things at the wall to see what stuck. He completely abandoned all shape and threw players on.

Now tell me Bob's tactics didn't work when the best tactical manager in world football, completely abandoned all shape and hope and threw everything on.

You say we were set up to negate their attacking threat, but isn't that always the case?

Exactly how were our tactics any different yesterday, and why did they enable us to defend well and attack well too?

Nobody has yet explained how Martinez' tactics were superior to those of Mourinho, or how he outwitted him.

 

[roydo]

You say we were set up to negate their attacking threat, but isn't that always the case?

Exactly how were our tactics any different yesterday, and why did they enable us to defend well and attack well too?

Nobody has yet explained how Martinez' tactics were superior to those of Mourinho, or how he outwitted him.

You do know the OS had the score wrong?

 

[Titus Bramble]

You say we were set up to negate their attacking threat, but isn't that always the case?

Exactly how were our tactics any different yesterday, and why did they enable us to defend well and attack well too?

Nobody has yet explained how Martinez' tactics were superior to those of Mourinho, or how he outwitted him.

We packed the midfield and they couldn't play through us, hence why their only shot on target of note was Matic's goal. We soaked up their pressure and attacked in numbers, hence why Begovic made some good saves as well as conceding 3.

Not really sure what more you want.

 

[Kiwi]

You say we were set up to negate their attacking threat, but isn't that always the case?

Exactly how were our tactics any different yesterday, and why did they enable us to defend well and attack well too?

Nobody has yet explained how Martinez' tactics were superior to those of Mourinho, or how he outwitted him.

We packed the midfield and harried them in that midfield, very rarely gave them time or space to play a pass forward meaning they tried to play through Barry and McCarthy to their strikers which was unsuccessful regularly. Picking up the ball in midfield more regularly meant we could move it quickly to our attackers skipping out their midfield entirely and giving us space to break into. In comparison when Chelsea did get the ball to their attackers we were touch tight and gave them little to work with.
We didn't let them play their football while we still played ours, notably picking them apart down the left with some clever movement, passing and marauding runs from Coleman.

Mourinho didn't have the answer to change what we were doing so you could say he was out thought.