Everton boss Roberto Martinez has said his side are shooting themselves in the foot.
Everton came away from Saturday’s game disappointed in a 3-2 loss, despite playing league leaders Leicester City as they dominated large parts of the game. Leicester’s first two goals were penalties with Ramiro Funes Mori and Tim Howard the culprits. For their third goal, it was poor defending all around.
The results makes it a disappointing three points in four Premier League games, with draws against Norwich, Crystal Palace and Bournemouth bringing frustration as the Christmas period looms.
When asked about the defensive frailties, Martinez said:
I think we weren’t at our best. I think the previous two games I thought we were fantastic for periods and the previous three draws were very unfortunate and on Saturday, up to a point, it’s a very different type of game.
We’re playing against a top of the league team, full of confidence and full of belief and you saw that. I just thought that scoring two goals against a well-organised side should be enough to win a football game and I just thought that the three goals we conceded were very, very poor from our point of view.
But it’s where we are.“It’s where we need to learn and it where we need to become better, individually and as a team to make sure no-one is allowed to come to Goodison, frustrate the atmosphere, frustrate the referee and frustrate our play.”
We shouldn’t allow Leicester to score three goals. It’s about what we can do about the situation.
On social media, some Evertonians want Martinez gone due to his ‘stubbornness’ with set pieces and defending, but the majority still want him to stay.
But Martinez isn’t worried about this, as he insists the defensive set-up had nothing to do with the three goals conceded at the weekend.
The defensive set up has nothing to do with it because two of the three goals came from our throw ins and our possession, but we probably felt that we were so in control that we weren’t thinking that we could be punished by Leicester.
The first action was very unfortunate from Ramiro when he asked the referee to make a decision when there was no real need and no real threat.
We all know Leicester have the best counter attacking weapon in the league and probably the only time that Mahrez is allowed to run at our centre-halves is for the Vardy run at that was a very heavy punishment for the times Leicester broke at our goal.
Martinez suggests Everton will be fine if they develop and gain more experience. Although, the last few displays have really highlighted the importance of Phil Jagielka, who is likely to be back in the next few weeks.
Do you agree with Martinez, or is this just an excuse? Also, if Everton continues this form over the Christmas period, what should happen to the Catalonian?
