First of all - I'm not calling players lazy or even unfit particularly, and this isn't a criticism of Martinez, as I am one of his biggest fans on here at the moment seemingly.
I played Rugby at a decent(ish) level, high enough to have a paid fitness coach. One of the things he always said, which has stuck with me, is that tiredness doesn't just affect your speed and strength, but also affects your decision making and reaction times. This is what I want to address, with yet another winning position turned over in the last 10 minutes.
In the case of the West Ham game, being considerably more tired than the opposition can be understood, and forgiven, given that the players had to play 65 minutes with a man down, doing the extra work. I saw that Barkley ran the most in the game (I think), yet in the last 10 minutes he couldn't close down at all. As I say no criticism of him, I don't consider him 'lazy', but I think its a sign of the technique over fitness approach Martinez has installed.
I remember when Martinez first took over, and everyone was saying about how Moyes wouldn't get the balls out for the first week of pre-season (or whatever it was) just working on fitness, whereas Martinez had the balls out from minute one (ooh Matron). Possibly the reason we are letting goals in is because we are losing that 5% due to less fitness than other sides, and so are reacting slower in the final 10 minutes. It seems to me Deulofeu has fitness issues, and Lukaku looks like needs a break, as does Barkley.
In my opinion, Niasse for Lennon was a like for like switch as Lennon played the role of second striker during the second half. Personally, I would have brought on Deulofeu, but the point is, possibly the reason for the switch in momentum wasn't tactical, but merely fitness issues?
