If Koeman wanted to avoid Martinez's mistake he'd have binned the barrack room lawyers who downed tools intentionally not a boy who gives his all when he takes to the pitch.
I'm sorry, he's needlessly hung a talented and good lad out to dry here...maybe because he doesn't fancy taking on a serial moaner like Mirallas or a misfiring Lukaku.
I support Koeman, but I tell you what he will store up some ill feeling if he continues a line that throws his players to the dogs like he has today. Up to him. He'll either be a roaring sucess and win stuff and thereby get away with stunts like this, or he'll be bang average or worse and players will have him out.
I think a lot of that is fair. My two questions would be;
1) Was Barkley immune from the lads who downed tools. I see him as very much part of the group that dropped off. In all honesty I blame the majority of them equally.
2) Re Mirallas/Lukaku has he not already admonished them publically?
At his first press conference he stated "Lukaku needs to work harder and improve". When he returned to fitness he didn't go straight back into the team.
Mirallas likewise was told "he needs to work hard for 90 minutes" and remember him being dropped pre season. He too has been substituted early in games.
I think the issue for Koeman will probably be how long can he be publically critical of players for before they, their agents and the local press start to turn. I'm not sure you can manage indefinitely by being so open, at least very few other managers adopt this. That being said if he's here for 2-3 years he may well avoid the problem.
As for me I am in favour of his approach, for two reasons one which I accept is not a good one. Primarily because I see that group of players let the club down last season and let down someone who I felt was a decent man who had tried to talk most of them up. While Martinez has rightly taken a lot of flak I won't forget the Anfield capitulation for some time to come. I accept though this is not a particularly helpful instinct and doesn't lead to good management.
The more important reason is that I think they require a stricter approach. In the latter years of Moyes and Martinez Everton became quite a closeted, tight knit group where favouritism developed. It's an extension of the "family club" stuff Kenwright has always pushed. I think lads need to be pushed more, even if just for the short term.
I can understand why you think it's targeting of Barkley but I'm not sure it is. I think this is Koemans approach to management. There are definitely faults to it but right now do you not think we need such an approach. Secondly would making a lad like Barkley immune to it not lead to a world where the favouritism would be re-created?
I am a big Barkley fan but it is up to him now. If he can't cope with some honest criticism in public from his manager I don't think he will emulate Scholes/Gerrard/Lampard which should be his aim.
