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Roberto Martinez could be set for Everton exit

David Nugent in Editorial, English Premier League 29 Apr 2016

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The Everton board are set to meet about the future of boss Roberto Martinez

The Everton board are set to meet about the future of boss Roberto Martinez

According Sky Sports, the Everton board are set to hold a meeting about the future of boss Roberto Martinez.

The Spaniard has been criticised for the team’s underperformance in the Premier League for the past two seasons and it seems the board are now ready to take action.

The tide of Evertonian public opinion is against the Spaniard and it now looks like his position is untenable at the Merseyside club.

This comes just under a week after the Toffees suffered an FA Cup semi-final defeat against Manchester United.

Martinez is underperforming in his role

Everton have an undoubtedly talented squad of players, the best squad of players the Toffees have had for a long time. Unfortunately last season the side from Merseyside finished in 11th last season and it looks likely that they are set for another bottom half finish this season.

Martinez has always remained positive about his team and his future in the job, but in truth he should be getting more out of the group of players at his disposal. The Spaniard has been backed relatively heavily in the transfer market, unlike predecessor David Moyes.

He brought in the likes of James McCarthy, Romelu Lukaku, Gareth Barry and Gerard Deulofeu, who have for the most part been successful, but there are also signings like Arouna Kone, Antolin Alcaraz and Aiden McGeady that have not worked out so well.

There are even doubts about new signing Oumar Niasse, who has hardly featured since a £13million move from Lokomotiv Moscow in January. He has hardly played, so Everton fans do not know if he has the quality to cut it at the club.

A woeful defence

Roberto Martinez has a very set football philosophy, but in his debut campaign as Everton boss he displayed some decent tactical acumen. His changes and tactics more often than not worked, as Everton secured a club-record Premier League point’s tally of 72.

The last two seasons have laid bare Martinez’s tactical ineptitude and inability to organise a defensive unit. The Toffees, just like the Spaniard’s old team Wigan, have been woeful at the back in the past two campaigns.

Granted some of the football that the Toffees have played under Martinez has been easy on the eye, but that is no good if a team cannot defend well enough to win games. The strangest thing about it is that everybody else seems to see Martinez’s shortcomings apart from the Spaniard himself.

It does not take a world-class manager to work out that Everton cannot defend and that is why they are currently in midtable Premier League limbo. There must have been a simple solution to Martinez making his team more organised, or maybe the former-Wigan boss is actually blind to his shortcomings.

He could have hired a defensive coach to work on the backline and then been able to concentrate on his strengths as a boss, which no doubt lie in the opposition half of the field. Last season at times the Toffees even struggled to score goals, so I guess maybe his attacking nous is not perfect either.

The Toffees home form at Goodison Park, formerly a tough place to go for opposition teams to visit has been awful. Three home wins in the Premier League all season tells the sad truth of the campaign for Blues.

Replacements lined-up

According to unconfirmed reports the Toffees board have already drawn up a list of replacements for the Spaniard and Saturday’s home game with Bournemouth may well be his last in charge at Everton.

A number of bosses including Ronald Koeman, Marcelo Bielsa and even Jose Mourinho have been linked with the job (no really!). However, it seems there is a surprise favourite for the job in Manchester City’s out-going boss Manuel Pellegrini, who is currently odds of just 3/1.

It seems the fans have already decided that Martinez is no longer the man to move the club forward. When such a big majority of fans have turned against a boss you know that it is only going to end in his exit and I have a feeling Martinez will soon be heading through Goodison Park exit door.

Will Roberto Martinez be sacked in the near future?

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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