He took over a team which finished 6th the previous season, added Lukaku, Delofeu, Kone, McCarthy and Barry.
It’d be interesting to ask AI to convince me why Martinez was better for Everton than Moyes
KDH has been a revelation and you’ve already written off Dibling and Barry then I see. Good to know.
You conveniently forgot to mention the cup runs in the other two seasons.
The narrative here is largely right but it needs to be mentioned that he set out to make the team a better attacking outfit and failed at that. Yeah they got worse defensively but that could have been ok if they were a much better team up the other end. He didn’t build on 2013-14 at all though and that was as much a disaster as anything that happened with us conceding goals.Here are some damning, context-rich stats about Roberto Martínez’s time at Everton (2013–2016), framed around squad quality, where Everton started, and where they ended up:
Everton Before Martínez (Context / Starting Point)
Under David Moyes (2002–2013), Everton were:
- Consistently top-eight finishers (7 top-8 finishes in 8 seasons).
- Defensively elite: averaging 44 league goals conceded per season in Moyes’ last 5 seasons.
- Highly disciplined and structured, built around prime-age players (Baines, Jagielka, Coleman emerging; Fellaini; Pienaar; Osman; Howard).
- Financially stable but not extravagant—yet clearly overachieving.
Essentially: a top-7 club with a top-6 defensive record and a well-drilled identity.
Martínez’s First Season (2013–14) – The Peak Before the Collapse
It started brilliantly with a record points haul:
- 72 points – Everton’s highest-ever Premier League total.
- Only 39 goals conceded – still Moyes’ defensive structure.
- Baines–Coleman full-back peak, Lukaku on loan, Barkley breakout, prime Stones/Jagielka.
But this season increasingly looks like the illusion:
- 13 of the starting XI were the same players Moyes left, plus a loaned Lukaku.
- Expected goals against (xGA) trends already showed slippage in the second half of the season.
The Decline (2014–15 & 2015–16) – Where It All Fell Apart
1. Defensive collapse despite high-quality defenders
Martínez took a Moyes-built defence and turned it into one of the league’s leakiest:
This happened while fielding:
Season2013–14
39
3rd-best defence
**2014–15
50
Mid-table**
**2015–16
55
15th-best**
- Prime Baines
- Prime Coleman
- Prime Jagielka
- John Stones (one of the best young CBs in Europe)
No manager got less defensive output from more defensive talent than Martínez did in that period.
2. Massive underperformance vs. squad quality
The squad had Lukaku, Barkley, Deulofeu, Stones, Baines, Coleman, Mirallas, Naismith, McCarthy — on paper a genuine top-6 squad.
Yet Martinez delivered:
- 11th place in 2014–15
- 11th place in 2015–16
- Only 15 league wins across his final 50 PL games
For talent level, those finishes are among the worst underperformances in modern Everton history.
3. But the worst stat: leads blown
Martínez teams were notoriously fragile:
- Everton dropped 47 points from winning positions across his last two seasons.
- In 2015–16 alone:
- 22 points lost from leading positions
- Worst in the Premier League
This is the hallmark of a disorganised, naïve defensive structure.
4. A possession myth – sterile domination
Martínez often claimed Everton “controlled games,” but:
- Everton had the 3rd-highest possession in the league at times
- Yet finished with the 12th-best defence and bottom-half points return
Possession ≠ control → his possession was passive, sideways, and defensively costly.
5. Home form collapse (Goodison became easy)
Goodison, once one of the league’s most hostile grounds under Moyes, became:
- 11 home wins across his final 2 seasons combined
- Only 5 home wins in 2015–16
- Worst Everton home record in decades
Supporters turning on him became inevitable.
6. Cup runs masked league failure
Yes, Everton reached the 2016 FA Cup and League Cup semifinals…
…but in the league over the same period:
- Only 1 win in 10 league games before his sacking
- No clean sheet in the final 10 matches
Cup runs hid a near-total collapse of league competitiveness.
Ending Point vs Starting Point
Where Martínez Found Everton (2013)
- Top-7 club
- Elite defence
- Hard to beat
- Cohesive, disciplined squad
- Clear identity
Where He Left Them (2016)
- Back-to-back 11th-place finishes
- One of the worst defensive records in the league
- Dressing room fractured
- Fans openly hostile
- Key talents wanting out (Lukaku, Stones)
- Identity demolished
He inherited a high-floor, stable club and left it unstable, defensively broken, and mentally fragile.
Summary: The Most Damning Line
Roberto Martínez took Everton from their highest-ever Premier League points tally to their worst defensive record in decades within 24 months — despite having one of the strongest squads the club had in the 21st century.
If you want, I can also compile:
a chart of his defensive decline,
a comparison to Moyes and Koeman, or
a narrative-style “case against Martínez” you can quote.
He certainly does. Compare and contrast with the utter disarray at LFC and MUFC currently.
It's impressive in the same way the tallest pygmy in the tribe is impressive.
Yep, he’s our worst manager of the premier league era, when it comes to points total when he found us compared to when he left. If any of his following managers had lost 15 points on the previous managers total we’d of been relegated.
Moyes had some great players (& a few not so good ones)at United:-
Key Players Under Moyes (2013-2014 Season)
Forwards: Wayne Rooney, Robin van Persie, Javier "Chicharito" Hernández, Danny Welbeck, Adnan Januzaj.
Midfielders: Michael Carrick, Tom Cleverley, Anderson, Ryan Giggs, Marouane Fellaini (Moyes' only signing).
Defenders: Patrice Evra, Rio Ferdinand, Nemanja Vidić, Jonny Evans, Chris Smalling, Phil Jones, Antonio Valencia, Rafael.
Goalkeepers: David de Gea, Anders Lindegaard.
Those three are the thick end of the spending sir. About 100mil of the spending you’re calling out. Which players are you saying were a “waste? then?
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