Allardyce On Left Backs

[MikeH72]

Pickford, throws it out to Kenny, played back inside to Williams, forwards to Schneiderlin who turns, passes back to Holgate who finds Gueye. There's no movement so the ball goes back to Holgate who sprays it wide for Martina. His first touch is with his right, his body shape changing from forward-facing to infield-facing, meaning he literally cannot make a forwards pass. The ball ends up back with Pickford after 90 seconds of possession where the ball hasn't even crossed the halfway line, or even worse to with one of our players under pressure who then goes on to lose it before we concede yet another silly and easily-preventable goal.

Not even just Martina's fault that, the fact we don't have any left footed players at all means we're effectively playing the game in 2/3rds of the pitch when in possession. An absolute farce. ONE left footed outfield player registered at the start of the season, not including Mori who's been out injured for all of it. It's impossible for us to put out a balanced team because of it.

 

[trueblue10]

Literally every single team in world football has a left back.

We don't.

 

[trueblue10]

That’s an absolute disgrace. Our scouting set up and the great Steve Walsh are incapable of finding the one player we actually need?

Why exactly are they employed then Everton? Get someone in who can do their job.

Gets CV out and emails it Moshiri.

 

[Big Fat Sam]

We don't.

lol

 

[trueblue10]

If this doesn’t confirm Walsh’s departure in the summer I don’t know what will.

Why wait until the summer?

If he can't find a left back before 23.00 tomorrow night he needs to go at 23.05 .

 

[CRIMHEAD]

I think the negativity on Martina on this board and toffeeweb over the past few months is blown out of proportion. He is obviously an easy target because he came for free and was a Koeman favourite at his old club.

Firstly I'll say he makes mistakes, he'll miss a clearance or a header and it'll lead to a goal. But I think he's defensively very solid for most games and there are some games where he's good for 75 minutes, and he'll have a brain fade for 10-15 minutes. Other teams also much prefer to target Jonjoe Kenny's side rather than Martina's, because he's easier to get past. Martina has good size, isn't slow and can read the play better. He also puts in a much better effort and appears to give a s*** on the pitch as opposed to mercs like Schneiderlin who walked into the team on reputation. In fact, I'd even go so far as to say, Martina's a better signing than Sigurdsson because he was 45m cheaper and can play in the first 11. He's also just a backup/squad player, and Baines is out at the moment.

Anyway I think people should give him a chance.

Wow.

 

[trueblue10]

I think the negativity on Martina on this board and toffeeweb over the past few months is blown out of proportion. He is obviously an easy target because he came for free and was a Koeman favourite at his old club.

Firstly I'll say he makes mistakes, he'll miss a clearance or a header and it'll lead to a goal. But I think he's defensively very solid for most games and there are some games where he's good for 75 minutes, and he'll have a brain fade for 10-15 minutes. Other teams also much prefer to target Jonjoe Kenny's side rather than Martina's, because he's easier to get past. Martina has good size, isn't slow and can read the play better. He also puts in a much better effort and appears to give a s*** on the pitch as opposed to mercs like Schneiderlin who walked into the team on reputation. In fact, I'd even go so far as to say, Martina's a better signing than Sigurdsson because he was 45m cheaper and can play in the first 11. He's also just a backup/squad player, and Baines is out at the moment.

Anyway I think people should give him a chance.

Have you actually watched us this season, at all, ever?

The man is a complete liability.

He is probably a real nice fella, its just he is not a left back and never will be.

 

[trueblue10]

I don't agree with @arbok that Kenny is easier to past than Cuco or that we're over-exaggerating how bad Martina is (he's awful), but he's not wrong that teams have targeted Kenny over Cuco. Away at Bournemouth they exclusively targeted Kenny with Fraser - and minced him. Away at Spurs, Kenny was the prime target for Son (yes they did attack Cuco's flank as well but not as heavily). Manchester United tried to find pockets in behind our midfield but when they did attack the flanks it was usually Martial against Kenny.

I believed going into January that we needed to sign fullbacks for both sides. I know Kenny is young but he hasn't been good enough and I think he needs a loan in the championship to toughen and smarten him up. Throwing him to the wolves every game in the Premier League isn't the right way to improve him. Martina is obviously a lost cause and how he hasn't been replaced is bordering on criminal negligence in a football sense.

They probably got bored after they scored their third down our left, they thought they'd have a pop at JJK just to make it more interesting for them.

 

[trueblue10]

I was happy to give him the benefit of the doubt in those first couple of months due to being left an absolute disgrace of a squad to work with by Ronald Koeman. However, the failure to identify and bring in a left back or even a left sided player of any description, along with the frankly insulting attempts to pull the wool over our eyes regarding how good Martina is, have not done him any favours at all. He has to be held as accountable as Walsh if we end up balls deep in the [Poor language removed] these next few weeks.

Same here, i was prepared to give him a chance, but i was wrong. The man is a complete buffoon, he is slowly dragging us back to where we were before he arrived.

If we do not get some left sided cover before tomorrow night we could, in all seriousness, be in a relegation battle by the end of February.

 

[Prevenger17]

I put Mahrez in my fantasy football team. I hate betting against my own football team FF wise, but it's about all I can get out of Everton these days

 

[trueblue10]

Pickford, throws it out to Kenny, played back inside to Williams, forwards to Schneiderlin who turns, passes back to Holgate who finds Gueye. There's no movement so the ball goes back to Holgate who sprays it wide for Martina. His first touch is with his right, his body shape changing from forward-facing to infield-facing, meaning he literally cannot make a forwards pass. The ball ends up back with Pickford after 90 seconds of possession where the ball hasn't even crossed the halfway line, or even worse to with one of our players under pressure who then goes on to lose it before we concede yet another silly and easily-preventable goal.

Bang on, been saying this for weeks.

We have zero balance in our team because we cannot attack down our left.

If we can see it, every manager we face will set his team up to attack down our left and they will defend centrally and down the right, so reducing our attacking options.

There's no movement because the opposing defence packs the middle of the park because they know we don't have an outball left. Therefore we turn and play backwards.

Its so frustrating.

Its getting so desperate now i would even take Van Arnout or whatever his name is.

 

[Big Fat Sam]

Will be putting a tenner on Leicester to win with both teams to score.

At least it'll make the loss less painful.

 

[gianthogweed]

This is this about money it looks that way
we a have a billionaire at the club and there must be plenty of decent left backs with a clause in their contracts if there was any serious ambition this would of been sorted 1st of January

 

[sageyefc]

Taxi for him and Walsh please, get both of these parasites away from the club

 

[TraffordBlue]

I think the negativity on Martina on this board and toffeeweb over the past few months is blown out of proportion. He is obviously an easy target because he came for free and was a Koeman favourite at his old club.

Firstly I'll say he makes mistakes, he'll miss a clearance or a header and it'll lead to a goal. But I think he's defensively very solid for most games and there are some games where he's good for 75 minutes, and he'll have a brain fade for 10-15 minutes. Other teams also much prefer to target Jonjoe Kenny's side rather than Martina's, because he's easier to get past. Martina has good size, isn't slow and can read the play better. He also puts in a much better effort and appears to give a s*** on the pitch as opposed to mercs like Schneiderlin who walked into the team on reputation. In fact, I'd even go so far as to say, Martina's a better signing than Sigurdsson because he was 45m cheaper and can play in the first 11. He's also just a backup/squad player, and Baines is out at the moment.

Anyway I think people should give him a chance.

You won't get many balanced replies in this thread as it contains an opinion on one of the team scapegoats, and some of our fans like to write a player/manager/coach off before they've had a chance to represent the club in whatever role.

After seeing him for half a season now, if he had been brought in as a squad player that was used when necessary then he would have received far less stick than he has. Unfortunately, Koeman brought him in with the intention of having him as our first choice right back and also as a backup left back. He was wrong on 2 counts because Kenny should have been in line ahead of him at RB, and Koeman gambled on Baines not getting injured.

At Left Back this is where Martina has been truly exposed as a weak link and part of it is down to his own lack of ability and the other part is extremely unfair on him as he is being expected to play out of position on completely the wrong side for him. You wouldn't have seen one footed full backs like Ashley Cole or Roberto Carlos being asked to play Right Back for 12-15 games and you wouldn't see Kyle Walker these days being expected to regularly play at Left Back yet Martina is being expected to do that and perform well in a disjointed side. The fact that Koeman and now Walsh twice has allowed the left back situation to continue to be neglected is a disgrace.

Martina has done well in certain games this season in doing the best he can and has contributed to some good defensive performances like against Chelsea at Home. However, I seem to remember him getting slated by many that day because some of our fans simply cannot ever go against their preconceived opinion.

That said, he is simply not good enough to be starting at this Football Club in any position. I don't think he was ever good enough, even at Right Back and is certainly not good enough at Left Back. He has regular moments of being poor defensively which include losing his man, backing out of tackles, poor positioning, failing to stop crosses, and heading the ball back in to danger. All vital parts of defending at the top level. His most glaring weakness at LB is his inability to even want to attempt to use his left foot to any sort of acceptable level. I've seen him pass the ball out of play 5-10 yards for an opposition throw in as he has a complete lack of confidence in his own ability to be able to clear the ball properly. That is not acceptable for a professional footballer expecting to hold down a starting position in the Premier League.