One read “Baines is one of us” and the other “Martínez Out”. Leighton Baines
questioned his side’s chemistry following the
1-0 defeat at Manchester United on 3 April and, after Martínez
said the left-back’s comments were misinterpreted, it was clear whom the Everton fans sympathised with.
“I think that comes with the job,” Martínez said of the banners. “Since day one, my first season at
Everton, I’m extremely proud and honoured to be the manager and I accept that the fans are not going to be happy with the team losing and I accept and understand. What’s important is the fans always support the team, always support in whatever way they can and help us to win games – and that’s the only thing that matters.
“They know I would give my life to achieve a winning team. Everything we do is to make them proud, so I’ve got no problem with their discontent at times and football is an emotional game. I wouldn’t expect anyone to be happy with poor standards and losing three games in the league for me, in my eyes, is very poor standards. There were some banners but I understand that completely.”
Asked what he thought of the Baines banner, Martínez said: “I thought Leighton performed extremely well and that’s the only thing you can change as a manager. Leighton, like all of us, is disappointed that we haven’t been able to win football games. It needs to be changed by performing well and winning games, and I thought Leighton didn’t put a foot wrong and his performance was outstanding – and that’s what we all want.”
It wasnt a European game.
Leighton Baines has claimed Everton’s players lack chemistry following a third successive Premier League defeat at the weekend.
Everton fell to a 1-0 loss at Manchester United on Sunday and were booed off by the travelling fans, whose side are 12th in the table and level on points with Bournemouth.
Although Roberto Martínez’s side have an FA Cup semi-final to contest later this month, their league form has frustrated supporters who believe a squad featuring John Stones, Ross Barkley and the 25-goal striker Romelu Lukaku should be higher up the division. Baines insists Everton’s current team are not gelling together as they should.
Speaking to the Liverpool Echo, he said: “I just don’t feel as though the chemistry is quite there with the team on the pitch at the moment, and it hasn’t been for a while.
“We are maybe leaning too heavily on individuals to come up with something.
“We’re in games; we were in the game on Sunday and had a couple of chances, but we’re not performing as a team to the level we know we can or we should be.
“Results have an impact on that because chemistry and confidence go hand in hand. Look at the teams who are having success this year and you’d say they have chemistry.
“If I had to say one thing, I just don’t know if it’s there with us at the moment, for whatever reason.”
With 13 points separating Everton and sixth-placed West Ham, European qualification through the league is now seemingly out of reach.
Baines has therefore urged his team-mates to put things right ahead of their semi-final date at Wembley to try and salvage what is turning out to be a disappointing campaign.
“We’re not where we should be,” the 31-year-old said.
“We haven’t won enough games to make excuses. You get judged at the end of the season and we’re getting towards the end of the season, and we’re not near a position we should be in given what we’ve got.
“We’re all accountable. We try and put it right but we’ve not been able to. That’s the third loss on the bounce in the league which is disappointing to us all.
“We want to win every time we go out to play and we’d like to go into that cup game with a few wins behind us. That’s our season in some respects now, it certainly is from the fans’ point of view and we’ve let them down a lot, it’s our only way of making it up to them.”
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