A fluke no. That season we played exceptional well and part of that was due to Martinez's new attacking doctrine and for that he deserves credit.
However, it was also underpinned by a solid defence (partly due to Moyes?) and tactics that were at the time new, fresh and highly effective.
Personally, the problem now is that those sound defensive principles have been slowly undermined to a point whereby we can't defend well.
Going forward now we're in the mainstay much better; it's not perfect by any stretch of the imagination and especially at home, but it's improving.
Add to the above that the tactics as a whole are now predictable - at home at least. Teams know how we're going to play and easily counter it.
The two defensive midfielders, which at first worked so well, now shackles us. The slow build up play is easy to read and became mind numbing.
So to me it all boils down to a stubbornness and lack of adaptability in our approach; constantly shoehorning tactics that aren't working.
Then there's loads more to do with the wrong players in positions, poor substitutions et al. but they all come back to the lack of adaptability.
Martinez had a great first season and I've always praised him for that. Yet, his second wasn't good enough and the jury is still out on the third.
The first is as less as a fluke as are his last two: Martinez has reached his glass ceiling and now his frailties are there for all to see.
