Aiming for the Champions League? Damn Right!

[davek]

Agreed.

Exectutioners Bong's article here is my view on it.

We apparently spend more time in the oppositions final third than any other team in the league but don't capatilise on that with the amount of goals you'd expect, largely because in Eb's eyes we're too slow to get forward, so we allow their defence to sit back and wait for us, the exact oppsotie of how a coutner attackign team works.

From the article - "Everton score more and are better at converting chances when they’ve been territorially dominant – chance conversion is around 95% of that expected. This is compared to around 87% when Everton spend less than a third of their time in the attacking third."

We're a team that do better when we take the initiative, already. That's precisely why I've been calling for moyes to be more proactive.

Martinez doesn't need to change a team that likes to counter attack to one that doesn't, he just to needs to let a team that likes to dominate play do so.

That sounds easy. If the transition toward progress was that easy we could have just hired Fred the Doorman.

What is it that you see Martinez bringing to the table mate, is it just positive energy?

 

[noharmdone]

Tubey, wonderfull stuff. Whats that pokemon!

Pikachu I always thought ?

 

[hinchcliffesleftfoot]

Roberto Martinez promised Bill Kenwright a run at the Champions League - and I for one applaud the ambition, and say it's about bloody time.

If there's one thing I won't miss about the Moyes era it's the non-stop pessimism. I grew tired and increasingly angry at the "plucky old Everton" tag that was exacerbated by a manager who "aimed for the 40 point mark" every season and "went from there".

This was regurgitated throughout the club. Last season, captain Phil Neville proudly declared that a top ten finish is a "massive achievement" for a club like Everton. I'm not going to lie, I pretty much despised Phil Neville, and that quote summed up why.

But that's been the mindset for a long, long time. In short, it's always been painted by the media that Moyes has done us a favour by sticking around as long as he did, and his failings as a manager - e.g. bottling it spectacularly whenever a game of note came about - were glossed over as "to be expected" because of limited funds or whatever excuse Sky or BBC decided to go to air with.

So to see Martinez come out and say he's going to give it a proper go is a massive breath of fresh air.

And why is it unrealistic? We've just finished 6th, after giving the Champions League qualification places a reasonable push for much of the season. And, thanks to Moyes (a genuine genius in the transfer market), we've got a talented squad full of players with great potential and good experience. We've got the best to come from the likes of Barkley, a developing superstar, and Jelavic, who may come good now he's working with a manager who knows how to use a striker. We've got assets in our squad worth many millions of pounds, and the extra TV money gives our new manager a chance to really push on.

Yes, it could all go tits up. Martinez could prove to be a terrible manager and we'll finish 10th or whatever. But isn't it refreshing to see a man who wants to be a winner; especially when set against Moyes, a man who simply did not want to be a loser. There's a difference.

It's going to be an interesting season. But one thing is for sure - whilst Martinez wasn't "my guy" as a managerial choice, the media can get f***ed with the way they're laughing at our new manager for dreaming of better.

Nil Satis Nisi Optimum may be gone for the badge for the time being, but we still live it and breathe it.

Give it a go Bobby lad.

Just read this post, agree 100%. Not everyone loves the appointment, but we have a great squad and with a bit more depth (and dare I say it a more attacking mentality) a European finish should be an expectation with Champs League a real target, lets get behind the new manager and move on to bigger and better things...

 

[Allezfan]

That sounds easy. If the transition toward progress was that easy we could have just hired Fred the Doorman.

What is it that you see Martinez bringing to the table mate, is it just positive energy?

To put it simply, yes.

We have a good enough team that just bringing in a manager who lets them off the leash, tells them to attack and gets them believing might just be what we need.

This team doesn't need to be taken apart, imo.

The biggest flaw it has, is it's mentally weak and it tends to panic and retreat into itself when a bolder approach might do better. Given that martinez' wigan gave the best perfomance of their year ina cup final vs city, one would imagine he knows how to solve that and get them calm and confident and believing in themselves.

I maintain that we don't need to change styles, we just need a manager with the confidence to let us play like we did early autumn this year and not tighten us up in the home stretch.

 

[Ihaters]

A very good first season that'd be too. I'd be prepared to give him two seasons to judge him, tbh. He's going to have to turn the mindset of our squad around a fair bit from a counter attacking game to one based on possession. That's not happening overnight. We need to be patient.

No.. is wrong.

 

[griffla]

Maybe, but if so it won't be because of his passing abilities. He hoofs it just as much as the other two and with just as little effect.

Shorely he ish a dutshman so likesh to play the füshbäll nice and shexy.
Seriously though its difficult to say, he could be off anyway, but Heitinga is definitely a better player than the liability we saw this season.

 

[davek]

To put it simply, yes.

We have a good enough team that just bringing in a manager who lets them off the leash, tells them to attack and gets them believing might just be what we need.

This team doesn't need to be taken apart, imo.

The biggest flaw it has, is it's mentally weak and it tends to panic and retreat into itself when a bolder approach might do better. Given that martinez' wigan gave the best perfomance of their year ina cup final vs city, one would imagine he knows how to solve that and get them calm and confident and believing in themselves.

I maintain that we don't need to change styles, we just need a manager with the confidence to let us play like we did early autumn this year and not tighten us up in the home stretch.

Fair enough mate. I think we might largely be saying the same thing in a different way. I must say though I think he'll need to provide a cultural change (which he may or may not be up to). This club has been mired for more years than I care to remember with a long ball culture that Moyes only in part got under control. It rears its ugly head still too many times (Moyes was of the opinion, according to Jagielka, that the ball was best served out of Everton's half quickly into the opposition's...and we all know the quickest method of achieving that). To be fair though, I tend to believe its not just the fault of players and manager. Despite all the conceit about the 'school of science' there's an impatience amongst punters to not dwell on the ball at the back with a lot of lateral passing but to get it forward. Martinez is stepping into that culture and it'll be a hard one to break down. This is where we came into the debate: on the issue of whether it's possible for him to take things on quickly and get success. We have the personnel to play a different way and do that, that's for sure, but it'll take a big effort to discipline players into a method of play whereby confidence and patience to retain possession and pick the right pass at the right time might not find favour overnight.

 

[Allezfan]

Oh and I agree with Tubey.

To finish top 4 we basically need to find ten points we didn't have this season.

Does anyone honestly think that team couldn't have picked up ten more points, anyone?

Better luck with refs, better luck with injuries, better form from jelavic, better use of the squad, not playing neville, heitinga and osman when better options were on the bench, hell whos to say barkely wouldn't have won us ten points by himself.

I don't expect it, I'll be honest, but it's absolutely the right aim and absolutely achievable.

 

[electricblue]

We've been aiming for the CL spots for most of the last decade; got there once and came close several other times. Just because Bill blurted out that it was Martinez' ambition to get us there again doesn't mean that there has been a massive change in policy regarding what can be achieved in the near future.

The fact that Moyes dampened fans' expectations via his comments to the media could be a tad irritating, but anyone with any nous could read through the lines - what he was saying was for public consumption only and a different thing was being said in private to the players. That some took his comments on face value is their issue. To claim that our ambitions have suddenly changed now that we have a new manager is well wide of the mark IMO.

 

[griffla]

Barkley could be a big help to Martinez if he comes into the first team and does well. Then all he has to do is scout us a Chilean Gareth Bale and we can look forward to tw@tting the whole league

 

[hinchcliffesleftfoot]

So could Stones, Oviedo and Velios. So many people are looking at the negatives, if we add rather than subtract to this squad we have a very real chance of Europe. If we can add a striker (or utilise Jella and Mirallas properly) we will be a very good team. People will scoff at Kone from Wigan but his 10 goal return would have got us Europe last year. Have a bit of faith...

 

[chicoazul]

Enjoyed that lid. Liking the optimism even if were likely to be fuming over something come May.

I tried doing a few words about the new manager the other day but you've said it well better.

 

[Brennan]

Oh and I agree with Tubey.

To finish top 4 we basically need to find ten points we didn't have this season.

Does anyone honestly think that team couldn't have picked up ten more points, anyone?

Better luck with refs, better luck with injuries, better form from jelavic, better use of the squad, not playing neville, heitinga and osman when better options were on the bench, hell whos to say barkely wouldn't have won us ten points by himself.

I don't expect it, I'll be honest, but it's absolutely the right aim and absolutely achievable.

We're also going to drop points though.

I don't think a Martinez led team would have held out against City at home this season after going 1-0 up, especially not with ten men.

 

[hinchcliffesleftfoot]

Enjoyed that lid. Liking the optimism even if were likely to be fuming over something come May.

I tried doing a few words about the new manager the other day but you've said it well better.

I won't fume young Chico, this change will do us good!!








See you at Colchester in '17:blink:

 

[chicoazul]

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