Everton’s season became so wretched on Wednesday night that Roberto Martinez had to sound miserable.
“Highlighting negatives doesn’t get you anywhere,” Martinez said a couple of years ago and it is a philosophy he has always clung to, even if the referees regularly criticised by him might disagree.
As Everton were torn apart by Jürgen Klopp’s side, Martinez knew he had to reflect the implosion in their season, even if it meant highlighting the negatives which again were easy to find.
Martinez described the defeat as a “pretty shocking night”, and admitted to feelings of “embarrassment”.
In that he may have finally reflected the views of the Everton supporters, but reflecting their views has probably come too late.
Martinez had no option on Wednesday night, but if Everton are beaten by Manchester United at Wembley on Saturday, then his words won’t matter, then Martinez will need the loyalty of Bill Kenwright to save him.
“After Wednesday night, I can’t see it,” Kevin Kilbane says, when asked if Everton can get past United. “There was nothing in the way they played that would make you hopeful.”
Everton will be without Séamus Coleman at Wembley, while captain Phil Jagielka may come back to bring some authority to the defence, despite not being “medically fit” according to Martinez.
Those who believe in Martinez see him as a victim of raised expectations, which were a consequence of a thrilling first season where he used the foundations David Moyes had built to develop a side of attacking flair.
They will say Everton have been unlucky this season, but the dropped points from winning positions may tell another story. Is it bad luck to lose the lead in injury time as they did against Bournemouth, Chelsea, Stoke and West Ham or does it highlight a chronic failing in Martinez’s side, who make a habit of dropping points from winning positions?
According to WhoScored.com, Everton have committed fewer fouls per game than any other team in the Premier League, but only Southampton have picked up more red cards this season.
This may be as a consequence of Martinez’s apparent disregard for the fundamentals of defence which leaves defenders isolated and frustrated. Only Aston Villa have conceded more goals at home this season than Everton.
The eight home defeats have probably made a greater contribution to supporters’ dissatisfaction than Martinez’s press conferences, but those events haven’t helped.
After Everton lost to United earlier this month, Martinez praised his side for controlling the tempo of the game when most observers had seen something else. “Is he mad?” Chris Sutton asked on the BBC later.
In a world where the plausibility of the manager is important, comments that continue to baffle supporters and ultimately alienate them can bring even more pressure on a coach.
“He knows to his core that it’s a results business,” says one source close to the manager, who insists that Martinez’s eternal sunshine when facing the media doesn’t mean he is unaware of the realities.
Martinez’s problem is that he has appeared to promote a different kind of reality. Alex Ferguson would never criticise his players in public, but he had a way of making sure his displeasure was transmitted (often by being angry with the media instead).
Martinez takes a different approach, trusting players to express themselves.
The former Ireland international Thomas Butler worked under Martinez at Swansea City and he remains an admirer of the manager and his ways.
If Martinez was disappointed in you, he says, he would give a player a look and the player would know he hadn’t met the manager’s standards.
Garry Monk described Martinez’s style in similar terms a few years ago, telling the Guardian that the manager could convey unhappiness in less obvious ways.
“You could tell because he would turn stern and you could see the anger in his face, even though he wouldn’t convey it by shouting,” he said.
These players hated the idea of letting Martinez down and it may be that his methods depend on a unity of purpose which, once lost, is hard to regain.
On Wednesday night, Everton’s players seemed lost and played as if they weren’t worried they might be on the receiving end of a bad look from their manager.
“Players need to be dug out occasionally,” Kilbane says, but Martinez will continue to do things his way, highlighting the negatives only in extreme circumstances.
Funes Mori grabs the Everton badge after a potentially leg-breaking tackle on Divock Origi 😡 https://t.co/qSv2I5y6g5 #LFC
— SportsJOE (@SportsJOEdotie) April 20, 2016
Martinez’s assistant Graeme Jones – who had something to say to Ramiro Funes Mori as he went down the tunnel after his sending off at Anfield – could be more blunt, but the manager has always remained committed to a grander ideal.
“I get on better with human beings than footballers,” he told Michael Calvin in Living on the Volcano. “A footballer is just a term for someone over a specific period of time. He turns up on match day. I work with human beings the other five or six days a week.”
For those who believe in his ways, it was a good thing that he preferred human beings to footballers. It was one of the reasons they saw Martinez as a refreshing antidote to the standard methods in football.
“He always had a good energy, that’s what we liked about him,” says Butler, but the good energy that seemed to be everywhere at Everton during Martinez’s first season at the club has faded from view.
After the 4-0 defeat at Anfield on Wednesday, it would be hard to discover any good energy. But Martinez was back at the club’s training ground on Thursday, looking forward and, according to those inside the club, planning for the game against Manchester United with that same relentless positivity which has become grating for many this season.
Of course, Martinez won the Cup with Wigan in the same year they were relegated, so it’s possible he could salvage something from this season.
Martinez has spoken about the intensity of working at Swansea, but it cannot compare to the pressure of a club like Everton where there are memories of league titles among the older fans.
If Martinez has a long-term plan, then supporters probably take an even longer view. Everton’s supporters have waited 21 years for a trophy so they are entitled to be impatient with a manager who promises things will be different at some point in the future, or insists that the performances they’ve witnessed were better than they appeared or the results indicated.
Martinez’s hero was Johan Cruyff and he has never forgotten Cruyff’s line that “quality without results is pointless. Results without quality is boring”.
He could claim that Everton have not been boring, even if throwing away a two-goal lead against West Ham at Goodison Park may not be the kind of excitement supporters want.
Yet Everton’s fans have turned against Martinez and the performance on Wednesday night was the latest, if most brutal indication, that the players no longer seem to share the manager’s vision.
A few weeks ago, Martinez said Leighton Baines had apologised for his comments that Everton lack chemistry.
“I just don’t feel as though the chemistry is quite there with the team on the pitch at the moment, and it hasn’t been for a while,” Baines said.
Martinez subsequently said that Baines had apologised for his comments, which didn’t give the impression of a manager protecting his players at all times.
Others like Romelu Lukaku want Champions League football and while that remains an ambition at Goodison Park, it has looked unrealistic this season even as clubs like West Ham chase down a place in the top four.
With new investment coming this summer, Martinez has picked a bad time to run out of road. Expectations will be raised again, but Kenwright has always been loyal to his managers and he has a close relationship with Martinez. Martinez described Kenwright as “an incredible human being” and it may be that the new investor Farhad Moshiri has no appetite for a change of manager.
There are plenty of things Everton could be doing with their money so they will hope that they don’t need to look for a new manager with all the uncertainty that comes with any appointment.
For that, Everton will need to beat Manchester United, and play with the style that sometimes has been more than just a fantasy under Martinez.
Those who make the decisions at Everton will hope they can believe again in the abstract concepts that Martinez promotes, the development of “human relationships” with people who share common values and a unity of purpose.
Those values are only a fantasy at the moment and the reality may be very different. The reality could be ugly and require the kind of toughness that Everton seem to lack right now.
