Capitulation is defined as ceasing to resist an opponent.
What was witnessed at Goodison Park yesterday was a shocking and sickening example of this. Three goals in 12 second half minutes ensured that Everton have now secured only 16 points from a possible 45 at home, with only four from the last 21 available. The statistics are damning enough, but it is the manner of this abject surrender that is the most galling aspect of yesterday’s defeat for most Evertonians. Responsibility and culpability for this falls firmly with Roberto Martinez, a man who is clearly not the answer or solution for Everton to reach their potential. He is well and truly the problem.
Make no mistake; with two thirds of the game gone, and despite being down to 10 men since the irresponsible dismissal of Mirallas in the first half, Everton were cruising in a game that was arguably on track to be their best home performance of the season. If Romelu Lukaku had shown more composure and scored the 69th-minute penalty awarded to the Blues, the tie would have been dead and buried. West Ham fans would have likely been resigned to the fact that they were getting nothing from this game. Before this fixture, they had only won away in the league at Bournemouth and Palace since the start of October.
But regardless of the fact that Lukaku’s weak penalty was saved by Adrian, Everton were no worse off than they were five minutes before its award. The real turning point in the match was the ridiculous decision to take off Aaron Lennon, once again probably Everton’s best player on the day, and replace him with Oumar Niasse for his home debut. This change appeared to be completely pre-meditated, and was certainly not appropriate for what should have been the ultimate objective of seeing the game out and securing a desperately needed home victory.
Quite frankly it was akin to committing professional Harakiri. Niasse appeared lost, unsure as to what his role was. Was he playing alongside Lukaku or a direct replacement for Lennon? Was he expected to track back and assist one of the full-backs, or hold the ball up and occupy one of West Ham’s centre-halves? The game was going on around him, and he looked like a rabbit in the headlights. The work rate and defensive responsibility provided by Lennon was lost, and the team’s shape disappeared almost instantaneously. West Ham seized the momentum and started to pump the ball into the box at will, looking for the aerial threat of Andy Carroll and Diafra Sakho. It was crude, a return to the much maligned Sam Allardyce style of football that was unceremoniously rejected by Hammers fans during his tenure, but it was what was needed for them to claw their way back into the game.
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They could do this because Martinez allowed it to happen. He allowed West Ham to get down the sides at will. He left his full-backs constantly exposed, two against one, especially a clearly struggling Bryan Oviedo. As he has done all season, he instructed his players to stand off the opposition in wide areas and allow the crosses to come in time after time. It was clear for anyone in the ground to see that the threat was going to be when the ball was crossed into the box, so why not try and stop the threat before it is allowed to develop? When it has happened once, why let it happen again? It was blatantly obvious that Sakho and Carroll had the beating of Phil Jagielka and Ramiro Funes Mori in the air, so why leave them isolated? Stopping the source would have rendered two of their players relatively redundant. Instead they were allowed to do exactly what Slaven Bilic intended them to do when brought on, and Everton paid the price. It was all far too easy.
The fact that Gareth Barry was brought on for Lukaku when the lead had been wiped out only exacerbated the wretched situation further. Dropping one of Everton’s most consistent performers this season (and one of the team’s few on-pitch leaders), to seemingly accommodate Stones in a reshaped defence, seemed strange but understandable given the lack of rest he has had for a player his age. But why wait until the lead had gone to desperately attempt to protect the defence from the West Ham attacking threat? Surely bringing Barry on after the penalty miss, or at least when the score was 2-1, was the smarter and more responsible thing to do?
At 2-2, West Ham were in full control and pouring forward. There was only ever going to be one winner at that point, and Barry’s introduction further supports the argument that Martinez is far too reactive rather than the proactive visionary he proclaims to be. With 15 minutes to go, Barry’s introduction could have been the calming older head that steadied the nerves and marshalled Everton through to the win. At 2-2 with five minutes to go, he was on a hiding to nothing. If not Barry then bringing on someone like Gerard Deulofeu to carry the ball and allow the team to keep a shape, or even Leon Osman who could hold onto the ball, would have been a better option. Throwing Niasse into a game like that was foolish and downright wrong. The manager must take the blame for that, but of course he so far has not.
The usual post-match waffling excuses were churned out after the game. Martinez blamed the referee for sending off Kevin Mirallas unjustly, making a tenuous link to the same official dismissing the Belgian against Swansea earlier in the season. While Anthony Taylor was poor all game, Mirallas was reckless and fully deserving of his second yellow card. While undoubtedly talented, he is an unreliable luxury that Martinez does not know how to harness. He must surely be questioning why he extended his contract to work under a man who clearly can not get the best out of him.
The Everton boss also insinuated that the missed penalty was the reason for the game changing. Lukaku will no doubt be delighted that his manager seemed fit to lump the blame for this result squarely on his talismanic shoulders, when until the penalty miss he had been outstanding. What odds on these men being at Goodison together next season? Infuriatingly, the Spaniard described the result by saying it was a “shame” that the team could not secure a win.
A shame!
Is it “a shame” that Everton have won just four games at home since April 2015? Is it “a shame” that only Palace and Villa have secured less points at home than Everton this season, with both having played one less game? Is it “a shame” that Everton have conceded more goals at home than any other Premier League team this season?
This ill-advised, off the cuff remark sums up Martinez’s views on football. Apparently, to him, the result is secondary. Performance is more important than end product. Not to thousands of Evertonians, and certainly not to the majority of the 30,000 plus at Goodison Park yesterday. He should not be allowed to continue in his job, sleep walking the team further away from relevance and competitiveness. Away form alone should not satisfy the new regime, one that has been initially accepted with waves of positivity.
Regardless of his self-serving objections, the man has a track record of failure and was incredibly lucky to have been given the opportunity to manage Everton in the first place. At Wigan, he took a team that had finished 11th in the season before his appointment to four consecutive relegation fights before eventually consigning them to the drop. They finished no higher than 16th under his charge, and their goal difference was no better than -20. Prophecies of ‘attractive football’ are no more than fanciful nonsense when you cannot secure the results to go with them.
This is Martinez’s Everton. They are mentally weak and physically lacking. They are unable to defend consistently and incapable of changing their approach to secure victory. They have become far too ‘nice’, meekly accepting when decisions go against them on the pitch before crying about them after the event. Bar Mo Besic, there is no spite or ‘win at all costs’ mentality in that team. Like a frightened and neglected animal, they have become an image of their incompetent and incapable master. The club has recently been using the marketing phrase “nothing will be the same” to introduce its new season ticket pricing structure. Unfortunately, as long as Martinez remains in charge, everything will remain the same.
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