Martinez and Defending

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toffeemax

toffeemax

Player Valuation: £15m
So far this season we have conceded 24 goals in 17 games, that averages out at roughly 1.4 goals per game. Fortunately for Martinez he has had Lukaku scoring for fun which invariably has led to lots of score draws.

We are one of the highest scorers in the league with 31 which is unbelievable but we won't get anywhere if we can't keep clean sheets, something we have only managed in 4 out of our 17 league games... two of those only yielded a point.

Look at a team who are level on points with us - Stoke - they have only scored 14 goals all season, but their defence has meant lots of times when they have scored 1 or 2 they have won matches.

Is this an Everton problem or is it a Martinez problem? In Stones, Baines, Coleman, Jagielka, Funes Mori, Galloway we have an extremely capable back line, one of the best in the league. Dare I say it in this forum Howard (the team scape goat) isn't a terrible keeper by a long shot. I feel they are all being let down at times by Martinez. Whether this is his style - trying to retain possession and play out from the back, or more simply that they don't focus enough on defending in training e.g set pieces, there is something that is apparent, the defence are just not performing to their capabilities.

Whilst at Wigan many did question how good Martinez's defensive record was, 'he's manager of wigan, with the resources he has it's not his fault,' many lamented, but now, 2 and a half seasons into his tenure the same sorts of trends are starting to develop. We conceded 50 last season, 1 less than hull and 3 less than burnley, who both that went down. the season before - 39, fewer than arsenal and them lot who both finished above us.

So why did it change so quickly? Well, people have sussed us out, the innovative beautiful way we swept the ball about the park in Martinez's first season was probably a large factor, but now other teams have clocked onto this, we now need to change our ways in order to out-think them, something Martinez is reluctant to do. If this is the case then he needs to place a much larger onus on keeping clean sheets whilst playing his style of football otherwise we will continue to be perennial mid-table underachievers at a time when we have one of the most talented an exciting squad that we have seen in decades.
 


It's harder to score goals than stop conceding them.

As you say, 31 goals is phenomenal. Add 10 from the cup games and that makes it an average of over two goals per game.

Let's have the positives as well as the negatives, eh?
 
I think inevitably teams let us play in front of them so instead of a slide pass behind 2 players to get us in we are trying to get past 10 players which is very difficult, as we play so nice football passing and intricate it starts to involve a good proportion of our midfield passing amongst themselves across the park which looks good but doesn't always come off, and in those frequent mistakes that we make the team is always out of position thus leads to a counter attack which leads to a shot or rushed mistake by our defence which leads to a corner or goal and in our case one in the same. Regardless if howard is better than robles or not you need to make the team function as one and our defence is scared with howard in nets, so mistakes happen, take howard out even to see if things change. Howard will cost Martinez his job. Though Martinez is making a good job of losing his one job himself whether its through bad subs or not changing the team, this team individually might be the best players in each position but if they keep drawing or losing then they don't work as a team and it needs managerial balls to make the correct rotation and changes which sadly lack from Martinez.
 

davek said:
It's harder to score goals than stop conceding them.

As you say, 31 goals is phenomenal. Add 10 from the cup games and that makes it an average of over two goals per game.

Let's have the positives as well as the negatives, eh?
Click to expand...
Davek would you be happy losing 12-11 every week?
 
davek said:
It's harder to score goals than stop conceding them.

As you say, 31 goals is phenomenal. Add 10 from the cup games and that makes it an average of over two goals per game.

Let's have the positives as well as the negatives, eh?
Click to expand...

Ah, stats again.

Another way you could look at it is, after flat-track bullying Sunderland and Villa (10 goals in two games) we've scored 21 goals in 15 games - so 1.4 goals a game, roughly the same as we are conceding.

All we need are some pie charts really.
 

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