Whose fault - Howard, Osman -- or Martinez?

[Walken]

We've been doing that, though.

Osman could have done literally anything except what he did.

this all over the shop

 

[Azzurri]

Got to say having watched that back I'm starting to lean towards blaming Osman. Ki looked closer at the time from my angle.

 

[ToffeeDan]

Unfortunately Leon Osman has shown that he can struggle when the deepest midfielder - under pressure he's dropped a few passes short. Today he was the culprit but I have to say we were awful without Barkley and it was kind of inevitable Sunderland would sit on the lead so he needed to be on much earlier - like the start basically. We have been starting games slowly and this was one example of it costing us. Anyway if their play had given them a proper goal lead rather than a gift one (which was deserved on the balance of play) we might have had 11 men on the field and got more from our spirited efforts in the 2nd half. A few lessons for Martinez - don't save Ross, don't drop Leon deep and start pressing weaker sides from the start.

 

[Goat]

Got to say having watched that back I'm starting to lean towards blaming Osman. Ki looked closer at the time from my angle.

Same, to be fair he only pounced once Osman forgot how to kick a ball.

 

[Big Doug]

were ****ed with Osman starting as Southampton press high up the field meaning expect alot of closing of our players down Robles is gonna have to play a blinder with that ****house in the team

 

[WarwickHunt]

I'll go for Martinez. For not playing Barkley when he must have been chomping at the bit with the adrenalin still flowing in his veins after his winner at Swansea. I can never understand why you would weaken a team just because at some time in the future a player might be tired. If a player is tired that's the time to leave him out, not before. It was obvious from the first 20 minutes that we would miss his forward runs that commit defenders and so create space for others.

As for the other two clowns, it's a close call. Anyone can cock up but Howard made two bad mistakes, not just in playing the ball to Osman and putting him under pressure but then bringing down the attacker. Bad enough to concede and go a goal down -- to have us down to 10 men is a nightmare. Howard should have made sure in trying to retrieve the situation that he didn't make things worse instead.

I think it shows us something when we are relying on a 20 year old attacking midfielder to change the game for us.

This is according to what you've said.

 

[Brennan]

A pass like that happens dozens of times every weekend in the Premier League, keeper plays it short, defender/midfielder plays it back to him and the keeper hits it long or out wide. No excuse for Osman to be messing that up.

Blaming Martinez is f***ing daft as well. He chose to put Osman in, it's not his fault that the guy decides to forget how to pass a ball.

 

[MartSlinger]

Barkley-McCarthy with Naismith behind Lukaku for me against Saints as well. Need energy and ****ing pace in midfield. Barkley and Naismith will give us that. Osman wont.

 

[WarwickHunt]

I thought they would've learnt not to play around in the 18 yard box after the Chelsea incident.

Every time the ball is played short I gasp.

 

[Big Doug]

A pass like that happens dozens of times every weekend in the Premier League, keeper plays it short, defender/midfielder plays it back to him and the keeper hits it long or out wide. No excuse for Osman to be messing that up.

Blaming Martinez is f***ing daft as well. He chose to put Osman in, it's not his fault that the guy decides to forget how to pass a ball.

if Osman didn't start that wouldn't have happened and we would probably be sat in 3rd/4th right now with howard and maybe barry both available for Southampton. Martinez has to take flak for dropping our best attacking midfielder in great form atm for 2 stone charlie

 

[harry]

I have only seen it once from the parkend as it happened so I might be wrong but, from memory the Sunderland player was quite a bit behind osman so I have no . Problem with the pass. Once osman had completely messed up and they were clear through I thought Howard may have used his brain and not tripped the player. I personally wouldn't have either of them in the first team.

 

[canuckblue]

Completely Osman. People blaming Howard are neglecting to realise he's instructed to deliver that pass as an option from the goal kick by Martinez. It's not his fault Osman is abysmal there.

Which means he had other choices. He had to have seen Ki starting to close Osman down and could have punted it long or gone wide. Still, Osman getting knocked over by the pass....

 

[Goat]

But come on hey lads, we win together, we lose together, the blame game isnt Everton.

 

[Brennan]

if Osman didn't start that wouldn't have happened and we would probably be sat in 3rd/4th right now with howard and maybe barry both available for Southampton. Martinez has to take flak for dropping our best attacking midfielder in great form atm for 2 stone charlie

You don't know what would have happened. Barkley could have misplaced a pass (like he did today after coming on which Sunderland nearly scored from, btw) and we could have been in the same position. You can't blame Martinez for a ridiculous situation being created between two players.

 

[Eric Djemba-Djemba]

Osman 100%. Martinez shouldn't have picked him but I'm sure he thought Osman was actually capable of controlling the football in such a way that it didn't gift a 1 on 1 to Sunderland.