Everton boss Roberto Martinez is supporting American goalkeeper Tim Howard, who is currently the subject of a lot criticism.
The Spanish manager insisted that ‘[he] will never submit to the blame culture.’
Martinez is under pressure to drop his experienced USA international ‘keeper in order to play Spanish ‘keeper Joel Robles.
The young Spanish goalkeeper played well in his team’s midweek Capital One Cup fixture at home to Norwich.
A recent poll has shown Everton fans demanding that Howard should be replaced by the promising Spaniard, but Martinez says that the American’s experience is crucial for the Toffees.
Despite a few out-of-form performances from Howard, the ex-Wigan manager said that ‘[he] would never manage in a blame culture. I would never work like that, otherwise you would never see players like Ross Barkley and John Stones coming through.’
‘I always take the fans views into consideration, of course, the only thing we do is to create a winning team to make our fans proud.’
Robles didn’t live up to his expectations in his first season at Goodison Park, following a £2.5m deal from Martinez’s former club Wigan. However, his performance for the Blues against the Canaries midweek has assisted his club to the quarter-finals of the League Cup.
Martinez believes that Robles’ time will come and that he also believes that he should back American goalkeeper Tim Howard.
Howard has one Barclays Premier League goal to his name after scoring from his own box against Bolton several seasons ago.
The Everton coach said that he ‘will always protect players if they make a mistake.’
‘Joel has an incredible talent as a goalkeeper, that’s why he was brought to Everton. It is a healthy competition, it’s not the case Tim one and Joel is two, but there are moments when you need experience, and it’s important for us to hve such experience with the young defence that we have.’
Everton face Sunderland at Goodison Park tomorrow [Sunday] but will have Seamus Coleman unavailable. Leighton Baines and Mohammed Besic are back at training but will not be considered for the match.
A win could potentially send The Toffees to seventh in the table.
