Roberto Martinez, the beleaguered blagger from Balaguer, has been relieved of his duties as Everton manager. With the Toffees plunging ever further into the Premier League’s foreboding lower echelons and deeper into laughing stock status, enough is finally enough for Martinez’s jarring brand of rancid tactics and bad PR. Two years of godawful defending and rank mismanagement betrayed the promise of an excellent debut campaign and undid a decade of building under David Moyes. Martinez’s tenuous position has been weakened through bewilderingly stubborn selections and alienating post-match interviews. Roberto, I’d like to say it’s been great, but then again, you probably think that anyway.
When Martinez led Everton to their record Premier League points haul and fifth place in his first season, 12 months on from his FA Cup success with Wigan, he cut a convincing figure. Fans eulogised over a return to courageous, attacking football, revelling in exciting new signings, overlooking Moyes’ residual influence. Ultimately, those 12 months proved misleading. Six cup wins and a Moyes-assisted balanced season ought not distract from six failed league campaigns out of seven, and will not distract from Everton’s worst ever points return at Goodison (currently 21, maximum 24), a year after the worst domestic cup showing (two third round exits). Consecutive bottom-half finishes. No trophy. No Merseyside derby wins, not even at Goodison hours before Brendan Rodgers was sacked. Two 4-0 defeats at Anfield. For all the bluster, just a single win away at the old ‘big four’.
Martinez’s reputation for trying to play the right way has been definitively undermined. For this only holds weight if for no sensible reason we exclude defending. The Toffees are sub-standard in all defensive aspects. Pressing, maintaining shape, blocking crosses, competing aerially, marking from set pieces, reducing space, minimising risk, keeping discipline – you name it, Everton are rubbish at it. What transpires is a slightly less gung-ho version of playing without a keeper. And then there’s the peculiar issue of fitness. Martinez, a qualified physiotherapist, has prepared the players so badly he’s enabled the almost impressive catastrophe of the entire squad being unfit for two years. Injuries persistently unsettle. Defending and fitness are black holes in Martinez’s game plan.
The soundtrack to Everton’s disintegration has been Martinez’s now gruelling, delusional post-match drivel. Fans have almost never been afforded an honest assessment. He makes embarrassingly big deals of the merest accomplishment and simply ignores failure. Any Everton player who does anything good will inevitably be dubbed the greatest example of that type of player you’ll ever see. He deals almost exclusively in superlatives – “incredible“, “magnificent“… *sighs*… “phenomenal” – and vague sport words – “intensity“, “moment of form”, “medically fit” – and deflects all criticism often using outright lies. A snaky media strategy has been exposed as barely disguised defence mechanisms, ironically enough. It takes a brave man to blag people on Merseyside, and an incredibly foolish one.
Academy success
Martinez had great success in revitalising the academy. Youth prospects have trained with the seniors, developed through frequent loans and seen first team action. Martinez worked closely with U-21 boss David Unsworth and even coaxed legend Joe Royle back to the club to oversee development. The results reflect well on all. Everton have an excellent U-21 side which possesses Football League, Premier League and even Europa League experience. Martinez also furthered his youth-favouring reputation by building around John Stones, Ross Barkley and Romelu Lukaku. However, these players reveal wider tactical limitations: naive, inadequate defence; creative, weak midfield; prolific, limited attack. Martinez has developed strengths but shown no ability to improve weaknesses. Stones, Barkley and Lukaku excel creatively but lack defensive basics: their manager’s style in a nutshell.
Martinez barely subbed Barkley and Lukaku, and left Stones in too long before eventually hanging him out to dry. Considered alongside his persistent mishandling of senior players (Distin, Eto’o, Mirallas, Baines, Pienaar), excessive use of youngsters may reveal something about Martinez. Perhaps his approach requires young players to believe in it. Perhaps they remained in key roles because they were the only ones willing to execute them as intended. Maybe senior players were tossed aside because they saw it differently, and Tim Howard’s absurdly long stay in the team was a reward for loyalty. You have to say it would be reasonable to doubt Martinez’s methods. He’s turned a squad full of honest pros and decent signings into rubbish players and cost several of them European Championship places.
Martinez’s unpleasant stay of execution highlighted grave problems with Everton’s complacent, almost silent board. Geared for success, suspicions would have been aroused last winter when the Blues won just two of 17 games. A defensive coach could have been brought in, a change of approach suggested, some would have let Martinez go. They could have given him until the summer, 10 games, until Christmas, March. There has been no intervention, no ultimatum; nothing. The consequence has been a season of spiralling unpleasantness which has split the fan base and unplugged the generator at Goodison. Fans have both protested for Martinez’s departure then drawn back through sympathy. Board inaction has been humiliating for all. These issues will not leave the club with Martinez for they extend far beyond him. And the new but old board’s complacency does not end with his departure, the clock is merely reset.
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By Chris Smith
Follow me on Twitter @cdsmith789
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