“Hate to say I told you so” was a 2000 hit for the Hives, and was also going to be the heading for this article but I didn’t think it would go down so well.
I’ll start with some stats:
Everton knocked out of the domestic cup competitions without winning a game for the first time ever.
From: @ellbretland on Twitter:
- Martinez’s Everton have won 6 games in 26 matches. Walter Smith’s side of 01/02 had won 7 by this stage.
- We have the same number of points (28) as Smith’s side had at this stage of the season.
From: @stevejohnson95 on Twitter:
- EFC have had 3 PL games kick off at 2.15pm and drawn all three 2-2. Next away game? Arsenal – 2.05pm…
- 5 successive home draws in all competitions for the first time in our history.
- Everton have won 0 of the last 21 games in which they fail to score in the first half (W0 D10 L10)
- Everton have been level 13 times at half time and not won any of these matches (W0 D9 L3)
The article I wrote as a preview for the Leicester game was basking in the performance from Thursday night v Young Boys, but also wary that we’d have a very different team to play on Sunday. A team that would come to us not to attack but to sit in banks of 4/5 players and try and nick something on the break as we get frustrated.
The first half was pretty depressing with few chances occurring apart from the odd shot blazed over by the enthusiastic but terrible Lukaku (someone suggested that if he’d been the only person on the pitch waiting for that cross we’d have lost 2-1…) and the increasingly poor Barkley. Saying that, no-one really did themselves proud apart from mainly Naismith who ran around a lot…
Added to that were the goal-conceding displays of two senior players that you get the feeling will never be dropped if they are fit. Step forward Messrs Howard and Baines.
The case of Tim Howard is bizarre. Since the Summer (when he got plaudits from Obama for getting in the way of 16 shots in a game they lost) Everton have bought Robles from Wigan but played Howard in every game he is available for. Robles had a run in the team at a time where Martinez suggested he was defo going to buy a keeper and stayed there, eventually getting three clean sheets in a row. We felt that he should stay in nets.
Since that point Howard has played in each match and been responsible for throwing in goals in every game. I have never seen a keeper play for us this badly and been so nervous every time a simple cross comes in. Well, okay, Richard Wright, but that’s not the point.
As for Leighton Baines, the decision not to sell him for a load of cash and then play him in this way seems stranger by the minute. Why bother having him in the side if he is just left isolated as every person who plays left midfield then decides to drift off and leave him be. Baines was at fault almost as much as Howard due to his positioning but we need to consider whether it was his form, fitness or something else.
I mean, why even play him so quickly when returning from injury when Oviedo has been doing a good job and Baines can play in the dead rubber on Thursday night?
This season is slowly but surely turning into one that we all want to forget very quickly. Imagine if we didn’t have the Europa League to look forward to? And what worries me is what will happen if and when we draw a decent side and get a good hammering in the last 16. Without anything further to look forward to for the rest of the season apart from a relegation fight will the squad we have really have the spirit to do anything about it?
Well, we know Martinez has experience of being in relegation dog-fights. Oh god…