Real Football Man All of the Football, All of the time
After a dramatic F.A. Cup Semi Final defeat to Manchester United on Saturday Evening the question that will now be asked by many is whether that defeat will be the one that ultimately opens the Goodison Park exit door for Roberto Martinez.
With the league campaign long since over in terms of any hope of a Europa League place it seems as if Martinez went for the gamble of focusing all his hopes on silverware at the end of the season to give them the backdoor route to Europe next season but that gamble has not paid off and now the season as a whole looks incredibly disappointing.
It’s not just the Semi Final defeat from Saturday that will ire and frustrate the Everton fanbase, it will be the way in which they rolled over last week in the Merseyside Derby as Liverpool ran riot in a 4-0 win which saw Roberto Funes Mori sent off in a miserable night for the blue half of the City.
Yes you can appreciate that with a Cup Semi Final a few days later there is going to be an element of planning ahead but Everton rolled over without as much as a fight last week and now the criticism that Martinez is taking the club backwards can arguably be correctly levied at the Ex-Wigan Manager.
In a season where Leicester are almost champions, Tottenham are a win away from the Champions League and West Ham are on course for a Europa League place. Everton fans will look at this feats and think to themselves ‘why not us’? – and it is an interesting question, after all why not Everton with the supposed talent at their disposal.
But in all honesty for the talent of Romelu Lukaku, Ross Barkley and John Stones how good is the rest of their squad. Lukaku has had a good season, Barkely in my opinion has been hit and miss while Stones has definitely gone backwards. But is it the players letting down Martinez or Martinez letting down the players.
Again the Martinez traits of a side with a soft underbelly have reared their head this season, for all of Everton’s endeavor going forward they have been let down time and time again at the back. Not only that but poor game management from Martinez has seen his Everton side throw away countless wins this season. Turnarounds by Bournemouth, Chelsea and West Ham to name but three
Also Goodison Park has become a poisonous atmosphere as of late with Everton getting more points on the road this season than in front of their home fans. The fans are unhappy but now the players are scared to play in front of the Goodison faithful. How do you break that cycle, what needs to change?
Ultimately it must lie with the Manager, with a new majority shareholder in Farhad Moshiri on board and promising a sizeable amount of funds in the Summer, will it be Martinez that is the man who is trusted with the war chest in a bid to reverse Everton’s fortunes.
I would say it’s less than likely, Everton need a change in direction otherwise they risk getting cast adrift from the clubs they feel that they are on the same level as. A direct comparison would probably be Tottenham and look at the gulf in class between the two sides this season. But that said when the two sides have played they have ended in draws, so the talent is their at Everton but the evidence of that has been too few and far between this season.
Martinez can now only hope that Everton go on to win their next 4 games and at least finish on some sort of a high but it looks as if a top ten finish will allude them and for a club of Everton’s perceived stature that simply isn’t good enough.
Will a finish in the lower half of the table also mean that players such as Lukaku, Barkley and Stones will be itching for a move in the Summer. Those three will certainly have no shortage of potential suitors, I would be very surprised if they manage to hold on to all three. So a poor season could prove incredibly costly in the mid to long term. How far will this campaign send the club back and how much time has Roberto Martinez got left to try and turn things around?
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