Williams keen to make the step up

As a fan, you can almost see that Martinez takes a lot of interest in this particular stat; players like Barkley and Stones almost look obsessed with pass completion at times. Yes, Barry or McCarthy should be high in this department, but pushing Stones to do it stops him looking down the channel for runs from Lukaku.

Similarly with Barkley, at times he is accused of holding onto the ball a little to long, possibly over thinking a tight pass, wondering if his pass completion will suffer at the end of the game, instead of taking chances and causing defences to be on the back foot. I think that is why Mo Besic is not played over Barry or McCarthy; he himself likes to search for probing forward passes, rather than side to side or backwards, almost taking the short-cut through, rather than the longest way around a defence.

All-in-all, I am all for seeing good players keeping the football and frustrating teams, but we can overdo it at times. We are not Barcelona; we do not have Iniesta and Xavi, we have Barry and McCarthy, we do not have Messi, Neymar and Suarez; we have Lennon, Lukaku and Deulofeu; we can not imitate greatness, we have to find our own version of it – passing forward a little more often and lumping a ball out of defence from time to time will suit us and the Premier League better.

Anyways, I hope Williams gets a chance before the end of the season as I'm dying to see a couple of scousers break through, it will help push the talented foreign players on and bring some scouse mentality to the team.

As for Joe Williams and his ambitions. I've always liked his ability and aggression but there are lads out on loan who are way ahead of him.

Spoken like a man who knows what he is talking about.

Good post

I agree that we should move forward quicker at times and slow the game down when it suits us; however, most Premier League center-midfielders have a 90% pass rate, pretty standard really.

I pretty much shared your opinion of Williams, but a mate of mine, who watches for potential like a hawk, is made up with him. He reckons he has come on leaps and bounds in the past few months.

We occasionally get these little nuggets from players talking about what goes on at Finch Farm, under Martinez, and they invariably have me dumbstruck. He's like a soon-to-be parent who has read every book on bringing up kids. Only to realise none of it works in the real world.

Dave Abrahams is the opinion we should be looking for when it comes to progress. Dave, what are your thoughts mate?

Football is full of stats now. Even lower league footballers look at distances run, amount of sprints in a game, pass completion, interceptions etc.

I think it's a good thing, if used right – there are no hiding places any more, even in training. It needs to be used sensibly though. A guy who runs 13 km in midfield hasn't necessarily played better than a guy who only runs 11 km.

Williams's comments are worrying in that it does seem like our players are encouraged not to take risks with the ball. Martinez's 'sin miedo' concept is in fact the opposite in reality. Our players play with constant fear of losing the ball, and so don't make the right decision. John Stones is the most guilty of this, he'd rather dribble into his own six-yard box under pressure than get rid. The worst part of this is that we have one of the best strikers in the world for turning a 'get rid' ball into something dangerous or at least a huge territorial gain.

The frustration with Martinez, as always, is that he gives the impression that he is unwilling to learn any of this. On a general stats point, this links back to his ludicrous comments about set pieces, which demonstrate a complete misunderstanding of what statistics are and how they work.

Risks have to be taken to create chances but criticising high standards on ball retention is too much.

As for these pass completions, I just don't take any notice of them; don't mean anything at all to me. Dave Unsworth is well regarded at Everton, so maybe that's the right way.

In today's teaching, I'd be teaching off-the-cuff football where the game just comes natural to any good player. Stats... they give me a fuckin' headache.

His commitment has always been there but he's added goals and organisation to his game. Along with Walsh, he's probably made the most progress this season . Not sure if he'll make it all the way but a good captain of the U21s... good luck to him.

Harold and yourself have a good take on our youth system. I always look forward to your progress reports. Obvious you think Liam is the pick of the bunch.

To finish my point, I only hope that some of our homegrown get their chances because out midfield is relatively young.

He was one of the standout players alongside Walsh. Certainly had a better game than the far older Grant, McAleny and Gethin Jones.

Seems to be a dedicated young lad, hope he makes it somewhere if not here.