Why is so little being said about Everton?

[PorkChop]

They spent a ton of money in the last transfer window (mostly on Lukaku, but Besic, Barry and Galloway cost about 10 millon on top of that), and they've had a horrible season by their standards. They're 13 points worse off than they were at this point last season, they've dropped down to midtable and look like missing out on qualifying for Europe for the first time in years.

Yet, it's mostly seemed to have fallen under the radar - teams like Liverpool have been hounded upon by the media for having a bad season this year, while not much has been said about Everton at all.

Where do you see Everton finishing? How long before Martinez finds himself under pressure?

[AkydefGoldberg]

Because it's the smiley, happy chappy, media liked, Roberto Martinez at the helm.

Lukaku's been fucking woeful since he signed his new deal, doing an Emmanuel Adebayor (plays well before signing a new deal, then does shit afterwards)

I think he's prioritising the EL but his comments that they played well yesterday is bizarre considering Southampton fully deserved the points yesterday.

[prophet]

Because Liverpool are doing equally as bad and are a bigger club, therefore Rodgers will be the one under all the scrutiny whilst Martinez will coast on by poorly until Everton pick up a few back-to-back wins against lower league opposition and he'll be heralded as a top manager again.

[Kyle]

Liverpool was 2nd last year so the expectations were really high whereas Everton is always in that 5-9 range.

[PorkChop]

Everton lose again... and not much is said.

Why is the pressure not being lumped on Martinez? £40 million spent, and they're in the bottom half of the table - something like 16 points worse off than they were at this point last season. It's not like they're suffering from injuries either - they basically have a fully fit squad. Martinez looks like he's completely run out of ideas and has been cutting a pretty nervous figure on the sidelines lately. He must know he's probably not going to be receiving any significant funding after shelling all that money out during the summer, too.

They're one or two points off teams who were expected to be in a relegation dogfight, many of which spent a fraction of what Everton did in the summer and have much worse players at their disposal than Everton do. I don't understand why Martinez has so far escaped reasonably unscathed, even though Everton are in the midst of their worst season for many years, on the back of spending the most money they'd probably ever spent in a single transfer window.

Martinez should be getting hounded for Everton's recent form.

[Enygma]

Because people would rather slag off Arsenal and Liverpool instead.

[AkydefGoldberg]

Again, he's fairly pleasant with the media so that probably helps. But he has been a tad agitated in some of his TV interviews. Lukaku - £28m? Chelsea are STILL laughing.

[prophet]

Another loss at the weekend, still not a shred of bad press for Martinez. Rodgers has had an excellent festive period and still talk after the game was about how he's eased the pressure on himself. Laughable really, just goes to show what happens when you cosy up to the media and appear on MOTD every now and then.

[Romo]

people only mock and criticize the big clubs

[AkydefGoldberg]

Another loss at the weekend, still not a shred of bad press for Martinez. Rodgers has had an excellent festive period and still talk after the game was about how he's eased the pressure on himself. Laughable really, just goes to show what happens when you cosy up to the media and appear on MOTD every now and then.

TBF, Martinez was discussed on the Sunday Supplement but no real criticism of him - touched upon of Lukaku's poor form, ageing squad, EL etc.

[Romo]

Another loss incoming...

[PorkChop]

LOL MARTINEZ

[PorkChop]

Putting things into perspective -

- Everton have lost 7 out of their last 9, winning once. This is with a fully-fit squad at their disposal.
- They've slumped so horribly that they're now below the lowest scorers in English football in the table
- At this point last year, they were a point off 4th place
- They spent 40 million in the summer to help push them into the Champions League, which has so far proven to be a tremendous waste of money
- They are currently 4 points off the relegation zone with some difficult fixtures ahead

If this was any other manager, he'd be fighting for his job right now. But because it's Roberto Martinez, everyone's like ayyy lmao, don't worry about it m8

[Romo]

It's obvious now...

[PorkChop]

Is that Beiber?

[Romo]

Is that Beiber?

That is believer

[prophet]

Top trolling from Carra, Everton fans are losing their shit over this on Twitter.

[AkydefGoldberg]

Breaking news people - a question has been posed by Her Majesty's - footballing - press on Martinez by the brilliant Guardian journalist Daniel Taylor > http://www.theguardian.com/football/blo ... -thatcher-

[PorkChop]

Breaking news people - a question has been posed by Her Majesty's - footballing - press on Martinez by the brilliant Guardian journalist Daniel Taylor > http://www.theguardian.com/football/blo ... -thatcher-

The author has a point. People should be taking a long, hard look at both Everton's current situation and Martinez' ability as a manager. I agree that people definitely had a skewed impression of him during his tenure at Wigan - everyone praised Martinez for keeping Wigan up each year, whilst ignoring the fact that they made no progress with Martinez at the helm and played dreadful football which kept leaving them in relegation battles in the first place. For some reason, Martinez took all the praise but none of the criticism.

I remember he turned down Villa a few years ago because, basically, he thought he could do better. This was while he was scraping 17th place in the league season after season, yet he felt he was ready to manage a team with Champions League credentials such as Liverpool. He hadn't demonstrated that he can take teams up the Premier League table and he still hasn't - Wigan stayed in the same position year after year during his tenure, and last year Everton did the same. This season however he's taken a good team several places down the table, wasted a bucketload of money and now they look like they're on course for their worst placed finish in several years. I bet he must feel ready for the Real Madrid job now!

[AkydefGoldberg]

Breaking news people - a question has been posed by Her Majesty's - footballing - press on Martinez by the brilliant Guardian journalist Daniel Taylor > http://www.theguardian.com/football/blo ... -thatcher-

The author has a point. People should be taking a long, hard look at both Everton's current situation and Martinez' ability as a manager. I agree that people definitely had a skewed impression of him during his tenure at Wigan - everyone praised Martinez for keeping Wigan up each year, whilst ignoring the fact that they made no progress with Martinez at the helm and played dreadful football which kept leaving them in relegation battles in the first place. For some reason, Martinez took all the praise but none of the criticism.

I remember he turned down Villa a few years ago because, basically, he thought he could do better. This was while he was scraping 17th place in the league season after season, yet he felt he was ready to manage a team with Champions League credentials such as Liverpool. He hadn't demonstrated that he can take teams up the Premier League table and he still hasn't - Wigan stayed in the same position year after year during his tenure, and last year Everton did the same. This season however he's taken a good team several places down the table, wasted a bucketload of money and now they look like they're on course for their worst placed finish in several years. I bet he must feel ready for the Real Madrid job now!

A recurring theme here with managers rejecting Villa who in turn incur your wrath? Solksjaer, now Martinez?

But yes, on reflection, Wigan's defending - in the words of Alan Hansen - was shocking.

Mourinho must be chuffed getting rid of Lukaku for £28m - seems he might attitude/motivation problems.