Martinez moves to defuse Mirallas penalty row

The real issue here is team discipline and there clearly wasn’t any. That’s down to RM.

The whole thing is an amateurish nightmare, and unless something changes quickly we'll probably get relegated for the first time in most of our lifetimes.

At times Carragher and Neville talk sense, but they aren't 100% right all the time. I am fairly certain if Sterling or Van Persie would have been man handled twice and thrown in the net they would have been screaming for a penalty. It's funny how the top teams can get more than penalty, where as everyone doesn't. Carragher cheated in the Derby, and he cheated as a pundit.

If Kev wants to take over anything from Leighton, itÂ’s corners and free kicks because they are becoming woeful. That debacle of a corner last night, when he took it short and then received it back in an offside position, just about summed up thus season so far.

Apart from the fact that it was a Plan B, I suppose.

Absolutely spot on. Everyone can see it but Martinez himself.

What benefit is there in winning Europa when we're losing it in the Premier league?

Poor Barkely was the pick of the bunch in terms of underwhelming. Drag-backs look good but when you receive the ball and turn, perform a drag-back and pass it back to the player who gave it you... kind of a waste of time. Again it's fear - lack of confidence.

I'm one of the few who still believes Martinez can give us something, but after that nonsense with Mirallas and bringing off Besic - the one player who to me looked a bit feisty - it's getting harder and harder to justify. I certainly don't blame anybody for saying they've had enough now - believe in principles and style of play is one thing, but there are other elements to management that RM seems unable or unwilling to address. Really gutted right now.

Miralles was a disgrace, and if his ankle/hamstring/insert an other crap excuse, why was he taking a penalty? He is finished at Everton but will he be out in January or the summer?

We didn't play well, WBA just allowed us to have all the possession we wanted until we got within 30 yards of goal. The rest of it was just passiing for passing sake.

Secondly. Martinez, I like him and I like his philosophy however, we have some old fashioned English players in our side... Jags, Barry, Naidy (scottish I know!) but you get my drift... So whilst the passing and posession game is good in principal you can not force it on players who have been brought up on a completely different style of play. It is Alien to them and at this stage of their careers you can't change there style of play.

So... What's the answer.... Well we either get BILL to put his hands in his pocket and buy players capable of this style (I'm NOT saying our players aren't good footballers but it's a different type of football)

Alternatively, we balance the posession with fast flowing pressing football and mix it up a lot more.
We are desperately in need of some magic in the final third and if it was up to me, I would do anything in my power to bring Del Boy back .... I would let him have a free role and not just stick him out wide as his talents are way too good to just be a wing player.

Add in a couple of spine players... GK, central defender and a strong ball playing midfielder and things will start to look a whole lot brighter.

Lukaku first touch is so bad his second touch is a header!

That said the lack of ideas; the substitution of Besic; Kone looking lost when he came on the lack of leadership over the penalty debacle is all down to RM and he should go and finish his apprenticeship at another lower league club because he and his staff should not be managing an institution such as EFC.

My post says nothing of the anger I feel with this man in charge.

McGeady wasn't even on the bench last night and rightly so but the lack of competition for places means players are underperforming and we are getting the square pegs round holes scenario too often.

The simple fact of having Deulofeu on the right last year meant Naismith and Barkley could play central, Pienaar missing all year has been a big loss a stunted Baines' attacking impact all these issues need to be addressed asap because the fact is we are now in a relegation battle!

The penalty was awful. Mirallas is a great player on his day, but he's always seemed to be in it for himself. Even his Belgian team mate Lukaku looked genuinely pissed at him, before he even missed the penalty.

Cash in now and get some reinforcements in.

Check out this Martinez look-a-like!!

I think Martinez has two games to save his job and if we don't get the right results we need than he will be gone, let's just hope we get the results because if we don't we will be in serious trouble.

On an up note, Besic is a class player, Martinez should have taken off Barkley for Kone!

Unnecessary pressure no matter what happened. Pressure on Mirallas because the bigheaded twat took the ball, he HAS to score or pressure on Baines if he wrestled it back (which he should have done and told the arrogant prick to fuck off)

Ian 17, not too sure what game you were watching, the one I saw had Mirallas stuck to the line and doing absolutely fuck all with the ball when he got it. Great players impose themselves into a game, this fucker is happy to stand still on the line wait for the ball to eventually get to him.

On another note, I wish we would take a leaf from the Redshite's book and do a Stirling with Barkley and send him on holiday for a few weeks. The man's confidence is in tatters and he will ot get back to the correct frame of mind whilst these bottlers are playing this way.

He was less than useless yesterday and I have yet to see him make a tackle this season.

God, I hate Everton sometimes, you can tell by how sweary my posts are becoming this season

Had he put penalty away we would have been saying at least he was the one to stand up and be counted.

As it is that miss could define our season if we come up a point or two short!

If it was even debatable who should take the penalty then yes I would expect Jags to be involved, he was 30 yards away.

Forget this whole "Mirallas leadership" nonsense. He had never taken a mid game penalty in his time here but the week that his contract is up for debate he decides to not just volunteer but "grab the ball" like a 7 year old child.

We have the most successful penalty taker currently playing in the prem. It is beyond me just quite what Mirallas thought he was doing.

He has put Martinez in a tough situation, it appears our belgian contingent have one good game and then think they can do what they want.

ThatÂ’s no excuse for costing us the game mind, but thatÂ’s why he wanted to take the penalty so much.

So... Why oh why have Mcaleney on the bench who can create and can make things hapoen. Why not give him a run with 15 to go... Couldn't possibly of been worse than Barkley.

I took penalties for my team for years. It got questioned three times... Once by the manager outside of a game after I'd missed (my only ever miss, mind) and I said I'd carry on. Once a teammate asked if I wanted him to take one (game straight after that same miss) and I turned him down, and once when a teammate was on a hat trick in a rout - I offered it... and I got bollocked by the manager afterwards for giving it to him!

That was at semi pro level... and there was never a question of anyone taking the ball. What kind of premier league team can't get the most basic of basics right?

I really want to hear Kev's side of this because something sinks here. Footballers don't do what he did... I can't believe that there wasn't something behind it.

We are crying out for a play maker - somebody to unlock defenses.
We also need balance - we either seem to play some on the right or somebody on the left - this means most of our attacks come from one side of the pitch and to easy to defend against.

Mirallas was a disgrace last night but he clearly wants out and this is the excuse he needs to leave for less than his true value. Get Martinez out before it’s too late!

Cut the PR bullshit, face facts, be pragmatic and roll your sleeves up. We're in a dogfight. I don't want to hear Martinez's spin and platitudes any more. Start by facing the Mirallas issue head on. If that means shipping him out, so be it.

I played in a game where we were awarded a penalty and our flash new winger grabbed the ball to take it. We had an excellent penalty taker on the team and the manager roared at Billy Big Balls to hand the ball over.
Penalty was duly dispatched, BBB got slagged off by everyone and sulked for the rest of the match.

Standard practice back then and always should be - The penalty taker takes the penalties, end of.

What Kevin Mirallas did last night is create pressure from every angle.

1/ Pressure on himself as he had to score if he took it. He didn't

2/if Bainsy had said "no" to him, then Bainsy would of been under a lot more pressure than usual because of the discussion

3/ Bainsy again next time we get awRded a penalty... It will DEFINATELY play on his mind.

The whole thing is far more involved and just creates a massive amount of pressure for everyone.

However.... And there's always a but.... What would we be talking about had he scored? What would we have been criticising then? Would we have even been talking about it as an incident? I doubt it.

So in the grand scheme of things we should just try and put it aside and focus on something far more damaging and that is the rot that has set in at the club and the awful awful awful football that was on display last night.

Baines has been with us six years he should have insisted that he takes the penalties, but maybe his confidence is shot.

Talking of confidence, who is sure Martinez can snap us out of it? Not me... Taxi for our manager.

If he played for anyone else, we would think he was a sulky, spoilt brat.

If he was wearing a Tee shirt with his mates name on, then I can understand his sentiments, but why do these guys think that their personal issues should be broadcast to all and sundry.
The sight of Lukaku and him at WestHam, pointing up to the sky was absurd, just like Frank Lampard pointing up all the soddin time at his late mum.
We've all got dead people, but in most walks of life it isn't seen as the done thing to start pointing up at the sky willy-nilly.
Imagine if the girl on the checkout at Aldi threw your goods into your trolley in rapid time, setting an in-house record and then started poiting upwards, to be joined by other members of staff, coz a friend, who was a very promising young shelf-stacker died in a pallet truck accident.

I wouldn't be too impressed.

Baines on the forthcoming Qatar trip: "ItÂ’ll be like a mini pre-season."

Better late than never.

I would not fancy us to beat any of the teams you mentioned at the moment and with this manager in charge I see no reason for that to change until he goes.

Unfortunately, he (Jags) just isn’t captain material.

Too nice. Non confrontational. He’s always smiling before games, offering polite handshakes and friendly hello’s.

Compare that to Besic yesterday evening. He barely looked at anyone in the West Brom team as they did the obligatory handshakes. Instead, he looked focused and a little pissed off by it all.

And it shows in his game. He’s got that competitive streak in him. That boy wants to win.

I’m afraid too few of his teammates seem to share that quality at present.

They may well be hurting inside, but as fans, we want and need to see it on the field.

We’re in a relegation fight. So let’s start fighting before our niceness sees us relegated.

If Mirallas had put it in, he'd still be a selfish, greedy, big-headed twat who's in it for himself and has been angling for a move away from Everton asap, who just snatched the ball off a loyal club man who has an almost perfect penalty record.. So there's that!

He has sucked all the confidence from that flying team we left him with last summer. RM has 2 games to save his arse. If he fails these 2 games, BK needs to act.

Please BK draw the ruddy thing!

But perhaps Everton fans should also be concerned by what did not happen. As Mirallas may or may not know, earlier this season in the Belgian league Anderlecht's young midfielder Youri Tielemans argued with his team's designated penalty-taker, Nathan Kabasele, over the right to take a spot-kick against Genk. Anderlecht's goalkeeper and captain, Silvio Proto, ran the length of the pitch to impose order, commanding Tielemans to step aside and let Kabasele take it (he missed, but that's not the point). Why did Everton's captain, Phil Jagielka, not make such a decisive intervention last night?

He missed, but that's not the point? That's exactly the point. Regardless of what Jags could have done, or Baines could have done, the problem was there with no solution. As soon as someone does what Mirallas did you have a problem.

For what it's worth, I'm glad that Jags didn't run up the pitch and grab the ball. We would look even more shambolic than we already do. And Baines would have taken that penalty with even more doubt and pressure than Mirallas did.

I agree that regardless he shouldn't go anywhere near the penalty in such an important game, but my attitude toward him has softened slightly if that's correct.

So, whatever thoughts were running thru his head, Baines's conduct was proper.

In MoyesÂ’s first full season of the dour and the dull, we scratched our way to 7th; the following season, we were bottom for ten games and battled our way to 17th. So in many ways History is repeating itself. Moyes inherited a team with the likes of Gazza and Ginola and Unsy and yes quite a few seasoned journeymen to which he would add to.

Fast-forward to 2014-15 and here we go again. Aging pros with further additions of Kone and Barry. A season of the bold and the beautiful. A superb English talent was setting Goodison on fire with a sublime strike against an unbeaten Arsenal comparable to the strike against Man City last season? You couldnÂ’t write this shit, get Sylvester on the phone and his mate Arnie. LetÂ’s see what Spielberg can do with this?

The difference between the two managers is one is still wet behind the ears and the other wore nappies, this being a very useful piece of kit because the prick would shit himself when he took his penknife to a shotgun fight.

Do we give Martinez the time to put it right as we did the predecessor? We can play football under Roberto and – given the right players, fitness, form and a decent run without injuries that take players out for months on end – maybe he can be the man and this is merely a short term period of adjustment we need to endure.

Being a full blown scouse, I do realise football is bigger than much about anything on the planet. Forget about wars in the middle east, Ebola virus, Famine, Pestilence, the global financial meltdown. Suicide Bombers, 9/11, Nukes and Armageddon – that’s fuck all when my team looks like getting relegated.

On that note maybe just maybe Besic defused the situation by saying he was injured, full marks for Naismith and Besic for not dragging the club down by speaking out.

Had either had said otherwise, this would have esculated among supporters at upcoming games, both players love the club so I for one applaud both players for nipping it in the bud.