Everton Mask Euro Hurt with Vital Victory

Allowed to dream and relax for the first time in a long time!

3 points were needed no matter how. Target achieved. No one should estimate the physical and mental fatigue that the Blues must have felt approaching this game.

It was good to see the return of the spirit shown against Newcastle. Back to back Premiership wins, 5 goals for, 1 against.

Less talk now of relegation please,more of which position in the top half is now a realistic aim.

So, after this remarkable resurgence in form (excluding the game in Kiev...), IÂ’m going to predict a 10th or 11th place finish. IÂ’m tentative predicting 10th because there is currently a 6 point gap between 10th and 11th, which is quite a mountain to climb. Anything top half and IÂ’ll be pleasantly surprised and a lot more confident going into next season.

I still think Martinez is the right man to take us forward. Cue backlash.

COYB.

He has some serious questions to answer in terms of team selection, balance of team, possession philosophy, fitness, and why he continues to insult the fans with banal press conferences.

Get rid,start again, it has to be better.

P.S. QPR were a better than on the day. Bill, grow some.

RM has systematically undone all the foundations and organization that Moyes put in place.

The players are confused, demotivated, unfit and disorganised.

Martinez should have been sacked for losing every game over Xmas let alone the amateur hour preseason.

The "Wiganisation" of EFC continues for now.

Like Jay says, he has completely dismantled the structure of the Moyes era and instead introduced a system based on the chaos theory. Players crammed out of position, all put in any old place in his system which doesnÂ’t fit the players available.

Unless he changes and adapts like Van Gaal and Rodgers have done, and not be stubborn and one dimensional, next season is going to be more of the same. Favourites prioritised, sideways passing, delusional press conferences.

This summer is MartinezÂ’s big test. Our squad needs so much work, and there are so many players out of contract by summer 2016, that heÂ’ll have to prioritise and make some big judgements.

The test of his judgements and management will be next seasonÂ’s results. IÂ’m not confident, and I canÂ’t see why anyone would be.

The players were relieved we won, as we all were. We had the strongest squad we've had for years or so we thought. But we look under prepared and not very well coached and unfit. Some players haven't hardly played all season. Competition is what keeps players on their toes and we don't have enough of that.

If as I suspect he stays there is quite a lot of work to do as there are a lot of players past their sell by dates: Howard, Alcaraz, Hibbert, Distin, to name but a few.

We are all passionate Bluenoses and the reason we are on this site is that we genuinely love this club. We all have different opinions and they should be respected because we travel home and away and want the same thing.

Let us just write this season off.

All the anti Martinez people and I am one of them (but wanted him appointed by the way) continue to give a list of reasons why we think he is not up to the job.

Those of us who want him to be there next season please tell us why? And give us the evidence and reasons why? The ball is in your court fellas....

COYB

Steve, I would add to your challenge the omissions of the words/phrases "If he can", "hopefully", "I hope" and/or "I believe".

The debacle over his World Cup credentials being loaned to some nobody, the basking in ESPN punditry when he should have been back home ensuring we had a pre-season, the Orwellian re-framing of every appalling performance as a positive, paying too much for Lukaku and saying he would pay many times more if he had to... It's like we're being managed by someone high on crack.

I know my dystopian wish will never come true: that Martinez and Kenwright be stripped to the waist and carted round Liverpool in stocks so that they can be pelted with rotten produce by the baying masses before finally being horsewhipped out of town, flayed and jibbering with terror.

Short of that, I would settle for Martinez's resignation or sacking.

I used to think Martinez was a very likeable man. The longer this goes on, the more I find myself loathing him as a person. I didn't think I'd be saying that 12 months ago.

The best thing I bought this weekend is a dart board with the full rubber mat. My kids, Chris (Blue), Tommy (Red), and our Becky, love it. Our inspiration was Lee Mack and Tim VIne, and I feel very positive and I got a 120 and have a lot of momentum.

Seriously, it takes the kids off the mobiles and X-boxes etc... starting to act as a family, we talk. Add to the equation I got a download of Sid Waddell quotes, brilliant, "He's like a wasp on speed." Better quotes than RM.

Big point to make, and I have found out tonight that we are related to Mavers lot in Kirkby "There She Goes" – the La's. Why do we play Oasis at half-time?

I like Oasis, but don't we do music in this city? Play scouse bands...

Just trying to be light hearted. Just hurting being a blue at the moment!!!

We’ve not had a fine selection of wingers to choose from, who can remember back to seeing the dream line up, Barkley, Eto’o, Lukaku and Naismith all starting. Shame that bugger never worked.

I didn’t think we started that badly, just lacked the mental sharpness to play for 90 mins coupled with Howard and few others having more than the odd shocker, Howard especially. Crystal Palace where he dropped the ball on the lads head to score will stay with me forever.

Remember the run of games where we played okay but got robbed blind by the refs.

Europe showed us at our best but we couldn’t replicate it in the league. United away, Baines misses that pen and we go and lose the game, a game we could have easily won were it not for De Gea. And we lost Stones.

We’ve seen the development of some young players, Besic, Garbutt, Robles and Browning have all figured whilst Lukaku and Stones continue to improve.

Martinez’s choice to rotate the squad for much of the season has backfired somewhat, whilst I like his idea that we learn to use the squad to cope with demands of Europe and Sunday football, we’ve been unable to click into a groove. Talk of player unrest and the quick ’cheerio’ to Eto’o would suggest he may not have been the gift we all hoped for, nice to have seen him play in blue all the same.

There is no doubt this season has been an epic failure but there is huge potential within this squad. Howard, Distin, Mirallas, Pienaar, Hibbert, Alcaraz, Kone and Atsu (why?) should go in the summer. I’d even be tempted to sell Baines.

That’s a lot of players to replace but we’ve seen Garbutt and Browning step up this season, hopefully there will be another couple to make the grade this summer. We need a decent winger or two, a creative la in the middle, another striker and a new keeper.

Martinez is a very positive man, even last season I’d had enough of his guff but then I realised that’s just how he is. He’s definitely felt the pressure of the home crowd and whilst we’re not playing any where near the standard of last season we’ve started to win games again.

Given the circumstances of our season, the individual errors, the bizarre team selections, the injuries and the lack of confidence is Martinez the man to hold it together and turn it around?

I think (hope) so, I believe the players want to play for him. I think the club as a whole buys into his ideology of progression through youth and the academy graduates.

Without European football I expect us (with the right signings) to challenge the top six next year. But if we start gash then job him off after 10 games.

According to a great many of the pro-RM faction on Facebook (with whom I have given up attempting to debate), we had a 'great' season in 2013-14, and a 'bad' season now, so that makes it all square... 1-1 if you like. So that makes next season 'the decider'.

Astonishing logic..... I will give that a bash with the powers that be at work if I should make a monumental cock-up one day, "Well that was a total catastrophe which almost took the company down but you have to remember that I was excellent last year and we made a profit! So we have a 50/50 chance that I will be good again next year. Increase my budget dramatically and we'll hope for the best."

Where are all these academy players that are being blooded this season? Garbutt has played when there was no alternative. Rightly or wrongly he's straight out of the team when Baines is fit. Browning has sat on the sidelines watching Alcaraz make a mockery of defending. Not an 'academy player' obviously but Robles too was thrust into the spotlight as an emergency measure only to be dislodged by the 'experienced' Howard.

This season not a single young player has emerged and established themselves. That might have been acceptable if the first team were performing... but just about every player has warranted being dropped at one point or another.

ANOTHER black mark against the boss's name.

All this does is highlight even more the complete dereliction of duty in Martinez's watch in not planning ahead and secure replacements who are gradually brought on.

There is a lot of deadwood and over-the-hill players to offload, and these need to be replaced by some quality players. Difficult to replace 6/7 players.

Martinez also needs to rethink his management philosophy & decision-making. He needs to be willing to change, and have a Plan B up his sleeve. Something that was lacking this season.

Wigan's under-fire boss Roberto Martinez had made six changes to the side hammered 6-0 by Chelsea on Saturday and his players gave him the result he was looking for, even though the performance still left room for improvement.

They rallied and managed to retain their place in the top division but the following season 2011-12:

Wigan Athletic had a struggling season. They spent much of the season in the relegation zone and often at the bottom too. They had eight consecutive losses, between 10 September and 6 November, until earning a draw against fellow struggles Blackburn Rovers on 19 November.

Given that Roberto's teams tend to start slowly in the Premier League and gradually improve towards the end of the campaign, this is a worrying yet familiar pattern.

Still we'll all know by the end of October 2015 if the man has learned anything and we'll have to hope that he does or another campaign will turn to dust and we'll all be another year older and even more frustrated...

Given that Mr Kenwright must have known deep down that David Moyes would not sign a new contract, it looks like he didn't do anything to find a replacement until Mr Moyes decided to leave; I wonder if he wishes he had done a little more homework?

If things don't change, the writing will be back on the wall again in the autumn