Everton Must Turn the Corner

Ian Maxwell 12/12/2015 28comments  |  Jump to last
Having watched Everton gallop out of the starting gate against Norwich today, it seemed almost inconceivable that they would be leaving East Anglia without three points. Nevertheless, the all-too-familiar story played itself out again as Everton wasted numerous opportunities to consolidate their slender lead, allowing Norwich to regroup and claw their way back into a game that should have been dead and buried before the half-hour mark.

And that all-too-familiar story is also all-too-specific: Everton are incapable of defending corners and crosses which is almost the sole reason to why they are dropping a criminal amount of points in recent weeks. The trio of fixtures Bournemouth (a), Crystal Palace (h) and Norwich (a) should have represented a maximum haul of nine points on the balance of play. Nine very important points which would have cranked pressure on the upper echelons of the Premier League in what is an unusually open season with real opportunities for less fashionable teams to usurp the “Sky 4”.

Let’s be fair here, Everton are in blistering form from an attacking point of view, with Lukaku hitting double figures with ease, Barkley seeing his best return in the Premier League by December, and Deulofeu supplying goals like Father Christmas supplies presents. It would be wrong not to acknowledge that Everton have been a little guilty of wasting chances in those games; but let’s also remember that Wayne Hennessey and Declan Rudd were both in Man of the Match form against Everton as well as both teams being rescued by the fine margins of the woodwork.

Martinez’s recent brand of free-flowing, direct attacking football is nothing short of exhilarating and regularly has the Gwladys Street on their feet. It is a long way away from the more pragmatic approach of his predecessor and much more exciting in my opinion.

But the leaking of goals left, right and centre is a major, major concern. The list of goals Everton have conceded this term from corners or crosses is quite painful to read: Watford, Barnsley, WBA, Liverpool, Man Utd, Arsenal, Norwich (h), Sunderland, Bournemouth, Crystal Palace and Norwich (a). These goals are worth up to a potential eleven points to Everton. After every match, Martinez mentions that “we must learn from our mistakes” but the fact of the matter is, he must learn from his own — and he has had long enough to do that.

Martinez’s teams are renowned for being poor defensively. His Wigan team were exuberant going forward but it was their defence that ultimately cost them their Premier League status. He also has a number of missed opportunities under his belt at Everton due to his defensive frailty, no less than in the Europa League last spring when Everton capitulated quite magnificently in Kyiv.

I appreciate that teams do have bad days at the office, but it is becoming far too frequent to be a coincidence and it places a real threat on Everton who, I believe, are on the cusp of something special if they can plug the leaks in their back 4. My primary concern is that Martinez has not learnt the lessons that have been staring him in the face for the last six years since he took over at Wigan Athletic.

Quite simply, if I made the same mistakes over and over again in my line of work, I would have serious questions asked of my ability. This is irrespective of whether I am particularly strong in another aspect of my job. Martinez is so strong from an attacking viewpoint, but questions have been asked and never answered. I can’t fathom how this hasn’t been addressed when every fan can see the problem staring them in the face.

Martinez, allegedly, places little focus on training set pieces because “there are a limited number of opportunities to score or concede from them”. Well those limited opportunities are far, far too fruitful for our opponents at the moment for my liking and if he continues with that mantra we will blow a massive opportunity in the history of Everton to close the gap on our illustrious rivals. European football is the difference between keeping players like Lukaku, Deulofeu, Stones and Barkley but at the moment, our defensive weaknesses are compromising that.

As I mentioned, if I was making mistakes in my job, I would have questions asked. What would I do? I would accept my weakness and get support and help. There is something clearly wrong with Everton’s defensive coaching staff or tactical approach. Get somebody in, accept your weakness and strive to improve. Everton cannot afford to let many more leads slip if they have aspirations of Europe or Cup success.

Any more instances of Everton letting glorious opportunities slip and I will start to call for Martinez’s head. Not because he isn’t a good manager; but because the team we have at the moment will allow us to attract top quality candidates to the club. If we let this slip, we will lose our key performers and slip back to mid-table obscurity. Then if Martinez loses his job, our ability to recruit a top class replacement diminishes significantly.

For now, I am totally behind Roberto but I can’t accept many more displays of self-destruction given where Everton are in their lifecycle.

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Reader Comments (28)

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James Stewart
1 Posted 12/12/2015 at 18:15:34
I’ll admit straight off the bat I am not a fan of Martinez one bit. Today was all the evidence you need that this guy will not deliver. Another 3 points flushed down the toilet.

For all our dominance in the first half we could easily have lost that game. They fluffed 2 sitters, one from another corner after we had already conceded pathetic set piece goal. Unacceptable at this level to defend with such chaotic unprofessionalism.

Every time we concede a corner you fear the worst. This is a squad stocked with internationals and undoubtedly the best we have had in recent memory, we SHOULD be in the top 6 end of story! There is no doubt in my mind a lot of managers would achieve this with the current squad we have. Not good enough RM, not good enough!

Patrick Carty
2 Posted 12/12/2015 at 18:31:31
Very good post, but for me Martinez has to go. He doesn't have a ruthless streak in him. He is too nice so he should become a Samaritan.

Too many favourites been picked every game, and their form does not warrant a place. Howard and Kone should be dropped, and maybe Barkley needs to be as well.

Why dosen't Barkley take on players anymore?

Joseph Terrence
4 Posted 12/12/2015 at 19:45:04
If the last three matches were wins, as they should have been, the Blues would be in 4th.

Paul Commons
5 Posted 13/12/2015 at 00:46:06
Difficult to disagree with this piece as poor defending at corners will almost certainly ensure we again finish mid-table.

What staggers me is the manager's failure to recognise the woeful heading ability of our centre-backs and the total confusion that surrounds every high ball into the six-yard box.

Whilst Howard gets the blame for much of this shortcoming, sooner or later someone will pick up on the fact that both Stones (an excellent player otherwise) and Funes Mori have all the heading ability of Per Krøldrup whilst their colleagues have not a clue as to who marks whom.

Annoying really that such a talented bunch of players will never see their potential fulfilled at Everton FC.

Andy McNabb
6 Posted 13/12/2015 at 01:29:32
Just about to say what Paul Commons did - agree 100%.
Derek Thomas
7 Posted 13/12/2015 at 03:00:11
In the archive for articles at the start of August is a piece entitled ’We’ve Learned Nothing!’ by Paul Traill... tomorrow's piece will be Interesting... Nearly Christmas and it seems we still haven’t.

But that’s all OK as Roberto has mastered the art of stating the bleeding obvious with his "We must turn draws into wins."

Taxi! No wait... that was 55 years ago; we’re past that now, so old-fashioned....

Uber.

Reg Gates
8 Posted 13/12/2015 at 03:59:12
Time to part company; I know it's not going to happen – I just like writing it and hoping. Two-and-a-half seasons now... good squad and we are a mess at the back; same old BS after every game.

Somewhere along the line, home support will turn on him and I’m hoping Bill will be listening. It took the fans to get rid of Walter; it's going to be needed again....

David Holroyd
9 Posted 13/12/2015 at 06:32:34
Take a look at the table: Watford are above us in the league.

Teams that let in goals don’t win things. Never in the last 15 years has the Premier League been more open. There are a few times we have been in this position when we are nearly a good side but are never able to push on. I suspect this will be another one of those occasions.

Funes Mori is looking more suspect in central defence with every game; this next transfer window, we need to buy a dominant centre-back. The money clubs are circling... this team will break up in the summer. Not enough leaders in this team.

Geoff Williams
10 Posted 13/12/2015 at 16:37:21
Draws snatched from the jaws of victory due to an inability to defend set pieces. Ineffective coaching of corners and free kicks is costing us dearly. Everton should be in the top four. All managers appear to have blind spots but Martinez's refusal to accept the importance of corners is a dereliction of duty and sets him apart from good coaches.
Mike Allison
11 Posted 13/12/2015 at 19:07:57
Martinez's job is to gain every advantage for Everton that he can. Set pieces are a huge opportunity to score or concede goals.

There are loads of opportunities to score or concede from them, even if it is 'limited'. (Everything except infinity is 'limited'). What he doesn't seem to realise or be willing to accept is that by being so bad at set pieces, we make life so much easier for opponents. When defending, they know they can afford to concede a corner, so they can just do that. We therefore never force a mistake from a defender trying to avoid doing that. When battering someone but only 1-0 up, they can keep their mental strength going by telling themselves, 'come on lads, all we need to do is win a corner'.

You simply can't ignore such an important aspect of the game, and frankly, it should be the only thing journalists, and even the players, should be raising with him. If all the fans can see something, surely the people more involved can see it as well?

If we were good at set pieces we'd have won our last three games and be in 4th, dreaming of a title challenge in a season when no-one else seems to want it. As it is, we're a bad little run away from the league season being over.

Raymond Fox
12 Posted 13/12/2015 at 19:39:00
Too many assumptions in the thread. Watch our players when the opposition have a corner, they're trying to stop attackers from getting a run on them etc, in short they know what their role is.

What they don’t do is watch the ball and jump up and head the thing; blame the manager if you must but it's kids stuff as far as the players are concerned.

You're not telling me Martinez behind closed doesn’t go into the goals conceded? His job is potentially on the line; he will feel every goal conceded just as much as us. The problem with our defenders is who else can he pick?

Howard has been to blame for a few goals, so you can fault Martinez for not dropping him, but to me some of the defenders are letting the team down.

Patrick Murphy
13 Posted 13/12/2015 at 19:43:59
Ray (#12)

Therein lies the problem to some extent: there is no real competition for places in that department of the team. Yesterday, as on Monday, there was only Galloway on the subs bench who is a recognised defender and he’s very inexperienced. Jagielka is the only absentee so there isn’t much to play with in order to change things.

That is perhaps a reflection of the manager’s thoughts on defence, but it is an area that needs bolstering and –despite what Roberto has stated – if he doesn’t purchase a new defender(s) in January, he is taking a massive gamble.

Harold Matthews
14 Posted 15/12/2015 at 05:16:46
True lads. When we finished above our neighbours three or four years ago, we had Jags, Heitinga, Distin, Gibson, Anichebe and Fellaini in the box. Moyes knew what was needed at the back.
Barry Pearce
16 Posted 15/12/2015 at 09:49:52
Paul (#7) has got it spot-on: Stones, and Funes Mori aren’t good enough in the air. They didn’t even get off the ground when Bennett headed that ball at the far post, nor did Kone. They all stayed rooted to the floor – just not good enough.
Mike Gwyer
17 Posted 15/12/2015 at 11:23:30

Barry Pearce.

If Stones is no good in the air, bearing in mind he plays at CB, why is his transfer fee starting around the £40 million mark? With almost every top, and I mean top team in the world looking at him!!!

I think you will find that Stones is very good in the air but the sad fact is, he can’t mark every fucker who challenges for a corner or free kick. Occasionally, and it is rare, Stones is going to need help....

My opinion: watch Stones wearing the blue shirt of Everton for as long as you can because soon, very soon, Stones will be gone.

Peter McHugh
18 Posted 15/12/2015 at 11:27:21
I don’t think Stones is very good in the air either. Neither Is Jags. They are adequate but not very good. Scott Dann & Shawcross are very good in the air. Doesn’t mean they’re better centre-backs (although I think either one of them would contemplate our central defenders really well).
Graham Mockford
19 Posted 15/12/2015 at 11:58:37
Harold (#14)

The stats are quite interesting. During the course of Moyes's career we conceded on average 1.15 goals per game. The best three years were 2007-09 when we actually conceded less than a goal per game.

Martinez in two and a half seasons has conceded at a nearly identical rate of 1.19 per game but in the last one and a half seasons this has been about 1.3 per game. Even at our current rate that only equates to 6 goals per season.

As for goal-scoring, Martinez is ahead by 1.5 to 1.3 or 8 goals a season. And this season we are scoring at 1.8 per game.

Still, if you fail to turn it into 3 points it’s pretty cold comfort.

Barry Pearce
20 Posted 15/12/2015 at 12:32:40
Mike (#17),

Stones is a fantastic footballing centre-half, but that’s your opinion that he’s good in the air; mine is he’s not good in the air... simple as that.

Ben Jones
21 Posted 15/12/2015 at 12:41:51
I think the premise of the article is spot on, I disagree with a lot of comments though.

The amount we concede at crosses is alarming, but the argument because we concede so many, it’s all Roberto’s fault, is quite frankly a lazy one.

Roberto is definitely to blame, but partially in my view. There’s no secret, as the OP has explained, he is a very attacking manager and does not practice set-piece routines. But it’s naive to say "he never practices set-piece routines" because of a quote he said a few months/years ago. They obviously do some, but maybe not as much as other managers, let’s say Mr Moyes!

In my view it is a mixture. Martinez is undoubtedly to blame for his philosophy, but also his team selection. Putting in players who are better on the head could be a solution, but then that might compromise our good attacking play.

I think the players are more to blame to be honest. Look at Liverpool’s goal, Howard should have come for the cross. Look at Palace’s goal, Barry lost his marker. If I were to individually look at each goal, I reckon the majority of crossed goals is due to individual concentration and in the case of the crossed goals, full-backs and wingers not closing down the crosses fast enough.

Can that be coached? Maybe, but Martinez cannot control the players' minds; when he’s interviewing after the game due to players’ mistakes, what can he do??

I don’t think sacking him is the answer, because I like the way we play at the minute. Martinez made this squad and people have said, it’s the best squad we have had in Premier League history. No-one's credited him for that, why not? It’s pretty convenient.

Mainly not sacking him is the answer, because who can we get to replace him. Who strikes that balance of defence and attack and who is interested in coming to us? He’s gotta be decent, experienced, I can’t think of anyone! So it’s a waste of time. And then if we want to change back to Moyes style, is that the style of football we want? Yes, he is successful but I remember his last two seasons on ToffeeWeb, the amount of stick he got! I don’t wanna go back to that.

Brian Hennessy
22 Posted 15/12/2015 at 12:51:55
We can swap around/ go out and buy a big tall centre back to solve our defensive frailties all we want.

The plain truth is, most of the set piece, or goals from crosses we concede would be solved by a commanding goalkeeper, rather than replacing Stones, Funes Mori or Jagielka who I think are all more than adequate

The longer we have Howard, the more teams will throw crosses in around the six-yard box and we will continue to leak goals. Just ask any Arsenal fan how much difference Cech has made.

A good goalkeeper, a No 10, and a decent back-up striker to Lukaku and we could be a top 4 side. Until then, we will continue to be just a decent top-10 team.

Pete Edwards
23 Posted 15/12/2015 at 13:08:34
Brian has is spot on with the goalkeeper comment for me.

And honestly, do any of you really think the team don’t practice set pieces!!

Raymond Fox
24 Posted 15/12/2015 at 14:17:30
As Graham says, the goals scored for and against show there’s very little difference between Moyes before and Martinez now. So I think we can put to bed Moyes being better defensively organized than RM.

What makes it seem worse is when we are much the best team in games but we are only coming away with a point. The last 2 games are good examples of not scoring enough goals when you look at chances made.

We do have a problem at corners, there's no denying it, but who of our defenders is a good header? We never seem to get a head to the ball. Funes Mori is reasonable, but who else?

RM should now change Howard for Robles because the defenders' confidence in Howard when the balls in the air must be shaky by now.

Lukaku is having to go it alone as far as scoring is concerned also, Barkley needs to go for goal and put himself in position to score more often. After those two, there's no-one else scoring. Okay, Kone has had chances but has not put them away... and Cleverley did have one excellent shot saved at Norwich but, other than that, we are struggling to score.

It's been mentioned before that it's got to the point where Lukaku should go and defend corners when the opposition have one, because we are certainly lacking in that department.

Paul Andrews
25 Posted 15/12/2015 at 14:36:12
Moyes and Martinez on a par for goals conceded? That will be a big surprise to those who regularly cite Moyes as a defensive coaching genius...
Trevor Peers
26 Posted 15/12/2015 at 14:49:50
Our problems don’t just lay with the defence, the lack of alternative goal scorers to Lukaku is alarming.

Just how we overcome that problem is a worry, in any successful team the goal scoring is distributed between four maybe five players.

Barkley hasn’t got the poise to be a regular scorer, he will chip in with half a dozen per season, Kone maybe the same. Apart from those two, no-one else looks like scoring regularly.

Thomas Surgenor
27 Posted 15/12/2015 at 15:28:16
Trevor, you are aware that Barkley already has half a dozen Premier League goals this season? He currently sits 9th in the scoring charts ahead of any Liverpool, Man Utd or Chelsea player.

If the unfortunate happened and Lukaku was injured, I honestly feel we could turn to Mirallas as a source of goals. While nowhere near as prolific as Lukaku... he wouldn’t let us down in comparison to other sides' back-up strikers.

John Daley
28 Posted 15/12/2015 at 15:40:32
What we lack more than anything is a vocal organiser out on the pitch. When it comes to marshalling of the defence during a set piece, we have a goalkeeper who seems fully preoccupied with whichever opposition player happens to stand nearest to him, to the omission of everything else.

One might think that the fact your captain is a centre-half might make up for the silence between the sticks, but Jags is more likely to be seen getting involved in pally ’banter’ than bollocking people or ensuring everyone knows where they should be and what they should be doing.

Jay Harris
29 Posted 15/12/2015 at 16:27:27
I don't think there is any doubt we were better organised defensively under Moyes with arguably a lesser team that didn't have Barry, McCarthy, Lukaku and a mature Stones and Barkley.

In the two seasons from 2011 we had 40 goals against in the league. In Moyes's last season, where he lost interest from January, it was 45. Last season we conceded 50 and are already at 21 against in 16 games.

Posters that think we don't have a defensive problem under Martinez need to pay more attention to the game.

10 goals more against per season in the league is quite significant, let alone a Barnsley team that scored 3 against us.

Paul Andrews
30 Posted 15/12/2015 at 16:28:33
John Daley, great point mate. It goes back to us being too nice. We need someone to step in and be a leader. A Reidy.

TGT may not be the defensive master mind people advocate him to be, he insisted on vociferous participation though.


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