Mixed Results. Mixed Feelings.

Everton FC - The View From My Seat

Mixed Results. Mixed Feelings.

Well my previous article was only written the night before Everton hosted Swansea City at Goodison on the 24th January 2016. Well almost exactly 24 hours later this match has happened and I couldn't wait a week before posting my next piece. 

Am I writing this because I'm angry, frustrated, devastated, confused, slightly emotionally unstable currently....YES! I am all of these feelings right now. 

I've just watched Everton, the club I love get beat at home by Swansea City. No disrespect to Swansea, but they're currently having a terrible season and find themselves being pulled into a relegation battle. I think they will admit themselves and the facts prove that they just can't score goals. The commentator said something before the match that really should have told us exactly how today would go. "It's the team that can't score, against the team that can't stop conceding". So what happened? 

The team that can't score simply did.... Aided directly from the team that can't keep the ball out of their net! John Stones with a poor back pass and Tim Howard not reacting quickly enough saw Swansea awarded a penalty. 0-1. Gerard Deulofeu was like a conveyor belt of quality balls into the box today for us to only once supply a finish worthy of the cross. Gareth Barry 1-1. Tim Howard I think had one save to make and did so, only to then be beaten by a deflected shot that looped past him off John Stones, neither really to blame but a turn of good fortune for Swansea, the team that can't score had scored 2! 

The second half went as expected really. We bombarded, wait, Deulofeu bombarded the Swansea defence with quality cross after quality cross for no-one to gamble and finish off as Barry had done in the first half. Another day Lukaku may have scored a brace, others might have slid one home and we win 3-2 or 4-2. It wasn't meant to be today but for some reason this has flipped a switch in myself that has given me a slightly different perspective on our immediate and distant future that I'd otherwise have been putting off. 

I'm a fan of Martinez. When his tactics are working and Everton are in full flow we look simply unstoppable. When we aren't in possession of the ball and the other team put any sort of delivery into our 18-yard box, we are simply terrible. I think the fancy attacking football and goals for tally has been to some extent cancelling out just how bad our goals against tally is. Not entirely, I'm not blind to the poor defensive showings, I'm simply saying the goals we have been scoring has been slightly masking this for a while. Having said that, when the attacking isn't quite working, such as today, then our defensive frailties really let us down massively. 

I mentioned the feelings I am currently experiencing at the start of this and the confused feeling is coming from the fact that Coleman, Stones, Jagielka, Baines, Mori, Galloway etc on paper are a very strong sounding defensive unit. Stones isn't being looked at by all the biggest teams in Europe because he's rubbish. Coleman for me is the best right back in the league. Baines has been the best left back and our own best player all round for several years. Jagielka is solid. Mori is proving a very good signing and Galloway has shown he's ready to slot in whenever called upon. 

So why is our defensive record an absolute shambles? It has to be our tactics. We can delve in even further... McCarthy, Barry and Besic are also quality defensive minded players who can cover the back 4 no problem, can't they? So surely it has to be the tactics these players are being asked to abide by. In Martinez's first season we had a fantastic defensive record. I believe that's because we surprised everyone with the free flowing attacking football that Roberto introduced. The downfall in that impressive season though is now evident after over a season and half of trying to continue in the same fashion despite everyone knowing exactly what we're going to do! There's no Plan B! 

Other teams have figured us out and we're becoming easy to play against. So if I know the tactics need adjusting and you know the tactics need adjusting, when will the guys paid tens of thousands of pounds figure this out? Peter Reid said on Goals on Sunday "What is the right way to play football?" referring to the phrase "Play football the right way" which we associate I suppose with Barcelona?! It got me thinking, he's right! The right way to play football is to play to your strengths. He mentioned Leicester City. They are a counter attacking team, don't mess around at the back, they sit in and when presented with the opportunity they get the ball right up the field and throw bodies forward and attack the opponents box. They're currently top of the league by the way. 

Our strengths are obviously not passing it around in our own 18-yard box. I can count on one-hand the times Tim Howard has launched forward a goal kick to 6"4 Romelu Lukaku as opposed to rolling it to an under pressure centre half. (It's probably more than 5 times but you know what I mean!) 

I guess I'm trying to say we need a Plan B and probably a Plan C too, just incase. Does Martinez have it in his make-up to come up with a different style, to mix it up a little to give us the surprise element again? I'm not sure, but what I am sure of, is that he's running out of time to show us. We look a real top team in that final third, Geri on the right, Barkley through the middle and Rom up top, so why not get the ball up there and play from there, not from our third. 

Moving on, if Martinez isn't able to show us something else, we're dumped out of the cup mid-week and our season therefore effectively over, where do we go from there? Takeover rumours have been flying around for a decade now but we are yet to hear anything solid from Mr Kenwright. So the club is in real limbo at the moment. No takeover, stick with Martinez possibly lose our most valuable assests? Takeover happens, keep our prize possessions and really kick on with Martinez or the new owners choice of replacement? It's really difficult to hazard a guess at what's next for Everton. Even if we do win the Carling Cup and qualify for the Europa League via that route, we had a go at that last year and blamed it for a terrible league campaign, what will be different next time around?

I think the situation off the field needs to be resolved before we can plan for the future. New owners, new manager and go from there. Or Kenwright pledges there is no imminent sale, we will cash in on Stones, Barkley and Lukaku AND bring in a new manager to spend the money we make and rebuild?

I honestly don't know. What do you think? Let me know!! PLEASE! :) 

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