Former Everton goalkeeper Neville Southall has backed Roberto Martinez to stay in charge of the Blues next season but has recommended that the club bring in a defensive-minded assistant to help improve the leaky backline.
The Blues play some lovely attacking football at times, with Ross Barkley, Gerard Deulofeu, Romelu Lukaku and company posing a real threat to opposition defences.
Unfortunately, Everton still concede too many goals. They’ve let in 35 goals in just 26 league games – only Liverpool have conceded more out of the top eleven sides.
The Blues have scored an impressive 46 league goals – only Leicester, Man City and Tottenham have scored more – so if they can find a solution to help keep the backdoor more secure next season, a push for Champions League football will not be out of the question.
Speaking to Bwin news, Southall thinks that bringing somebody in to help Martinez with defensive coaching could be the way to solve this issue.
He said:
I personally wouldn’t get rid of him as I think he’s a fantastic manager but in the summer, he needs to sit down and see if he can find someone to work on the defensive side of the game.
Our problem is balancing attacking prowess with defending. I’ve got no problem with our attacking play, it’s old-school in that it’s outscoring your opponent rather than keeping it tight. But to be honest, they’ve got international players in goal and across the backline.
They’ve got a good back four and if you can’t defend with five internationals, you shouldn’t be playing in the Premier League.
