Tuesday, March 19, 2024

How is Roberto Martinez still a Premier League boss?

Roberto Martinez is now looking out-of-his depth at Everton

Roberto Martinez is now looking out-of-his depth at Everton

‘Gutless’, ‘passionless’ and ‘embarrassing’ were just a few words that Everton fans used after the Toffees sorry 4-0 thumping at arch-rivals Liverpool in the Merseyside derby on Wednesday night.

As an Everton of over 30 years it may well have been the worst Everton display I have ever seen and it came against the worse possible opponent.

This game will be talked about for a long time by both sets of supporters. The majority of Toffees fans talking about boss Roberto Martinez leaving the club.

Martinez cannot organise a team

First we need to state that Liverpool more than deserved their victory. The Reds look like they could moving forward under the guidance of the affable Jurgen Klopp, who I still can’t help liking despite his presence at our arch-rivals.

Right back to the subject at hand the Blues boss. The Spanish boss has received praise in the past for the way his teams play attacking possession football, but that means very little when his teams win very few games because they are so poorly organised.

He has never had any sort of defensive nous and was praised for keeping Wigan in the Premier League, even though the Latics were actually surviving in the top-flight before his arrival.

This season Everton have been very good going forward and totally useless at the back. Their style of play has led the Toffees to their worst home record in 138 years. Thanks for that Bobby.

When Everton have been leading Martinez has been unable to organise his team in a way that they can preserve a lead and at times his substitutions have been completely baffling.

Cannot get the best out of talented players

Everton have their most talented group of players in a long time and Martinez is somewhat responsible for that, but he cannot get the best out of the talented group. For all the criticism of former-boss David Moyes he was a master of getting every last bit of talent out of his players.

The Scot used the clubs money very well and was backed with very little transfer funds. Martinez has been relatively well backed by recent Everton standards. Most Everton fans will admit that the Toffees very rarely put in such a limp display under Moyes, even if some of the football was not great at times.

A friend of mine recently stated that Everton were better under Moyes with worse players and he is bang on with his assessment.  I am just wondering what Moyes would have got out of these players and in many ways he is opposite of Martinez in his style, but he got results.

Martinez’s debut campaign promised so much, as the defence that Moyes had assembled were still in position and did not need much organising. Two disappointing campaigns later and the Spanish techniques are being questioned, as he is not producing results.

Football fan are a fickle bunch, but a blind man can see that Roberto Martinez has lost the dressing room (sorry to use a cliché!) and the players do not believe in his philosophy any more.

Semi-final not make-or-break for Martinez

A couple of weeks ago Everton were fancied to win the FA Cup and now they are considered underdogs at odds of 11/4 to make it past Manchester United in Saturday’s semi-final.

The fact that Martinez’s team suffered such a terrible defeat against Liverpool last time out will have done nothing to lift the spirits within the Everton camp. To make matters worse they will head into the vital clash with a centre-back crisis.

Ramiro Funes Mori is suspended following his sending-off at Anfield. England centre-backs Phil Jagielka and John Stones are both also struggling with injuries, so it is not exactly ideal preparation for a cup semi-final.

Word on Merseyside is that Bill Kenwright has stated that Roberto Martinez will not be sacked this summer, but Saturday’s FA Cup semi-final should be make-or-break for the Spanish boss.

Kenwright is an Evertonian, but he also has a habit of being very loyal to bosses and it seems that is what is happening with Martinez. New majority shareholder Farhad Moshiri may not be as patient and will have a major say in what happens this summer.

Everton have gone backwards under Martinez and most Everton fans can see it. The derby defeat just confirmed what most Toffees know, Roberto Martinez is out of his depth at Everton.

I am not one for sacking bosses, but if the Spaniard does not leave Everton in the near future the club could sink to even new depths next season and it is the fans that would have to face up to the reality of the situation.

Should Roberto Martinez be sacked by Everton?

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

David Nugent


David is a freelance football writer with nearly a decade of experience writing about the beautiful game. The experienced writer has written for over a dozen websites and also an international soccer magazine offline.
Arguably his best work has come as an editorial writer for Soccernews, sharing his good, bad and ugly opinions on the world’s favourite sport. During David’s writing career he has written editorials, betting previews, match previews, banter, news and opinion pieces.

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