Relative to most, I’m a young Evertonian. At 19 years of age, I’m only old enough to remember life under two managers; Roberto Martinez and David Moyes. My early years of supporting the Moyes led Everton taught me a lot about the DNA of this brilliant club, most importantly that passion and effort are undoubtedly two of the most important qualities of any team representing Everton Football Club.
However, as the Moyes era unfolded I began to get increasingly frustrated. Every season seemed to be painfully repetitive. Whenever the pressure was off and we’d have nothing to lose, we’d always look a fantastic side. Baines and Pienaar produced some of the best combination plays we’ve seen in the Premier League in the last decade and Fellaini was consistently a monster in the air, bringing down any hoof up field from the defence and turning it into a great attack. That coupled with our solid defensive foundations (owed almost entirely to David Moyes) meant that on our day, would could produce the upsets and stellar performances that entertained the Everton crowds several times every season.
On the other hand, when the pressure was on we ALWAYS lost. Whether it was a crucial league game, an important cup game or a derby, we always found a way to bottle it. Under Moyes, we made it into European football only 4 times in 11 seasons, including our famous Champions League campaign, which lasted one game as we bottled the qualifying round. His derby record was appalling; he only won 4 times in 25 games against Liverpool and lost over half of them. In terms of trophies, one FA Cup final and an FA Cup semi final (which we coincidentally lost to Liverpool) were the closest I’d ever been to seeing my club come to winning any silverware. By the end of the 2012/13 season, I was so ready for Moyes to leave.
The Martinez appointment was beyond refreshing. We started playing the ball on the ground and playing a possession based style, qualities that all of the top sides in modern football possess. Martinez turned us from a side which only had two attacking options (defence lumping it up to Fellaini, or wide players crossing it into Fellaini) to a side who had a more patient, precise and consequently more effective attacking build up. This partnered with the defensive foundations Moyes left behind guided us to a very tight battle for Champions League football and our record points total.
This Everton was very short lived, however. As time grew on, the Martinez effect took its toll on the side defensively. Our defence has got weaker and weaker season by season, which for so many of our matches this season has left our attacking strength redundant. Amd when I say attacking strength, I mean it. Despite popular opinion, I am a firm believer that in terms of attacking we are still very strong. If we sorted out our defensive weaknesses and started keeping more clean sheets, the results will soon follow as we have averaged an impressed 1.7 goals this season and 1.5 goals per game over the 3 seasons Martinez has been in charge. This is why if I was being selfish, I think the option of bringing in a defence coach to work alongside Martinez should be looked into.
But I do not want to be selfish. I am aware that I’m one of the 1% of Everton fans who still believe there is light at the end of the tunnel Martinez is driving us down. It took me along time to try and decipher the cause of this immediate criticism after a few season under Martinez when Moyes was virtually unscathed in his 11 unsuccessful years at the club. Although I’ve recently discovered the answer; the style. In the 3 years under Martinez our sides have had progressively less passion, progressively less effort and subsequently have been progressively less “Everton”. This is what has sucked the life out of the Goodison Park crowd; the style. These qualities are by no means essential to successful sides with teams like Barcelona proving this, although it isn’t what Evertonians are used to. The precise, passing on the floor style is one that I admire and have great patience with, considering I waited nearly all of my entire Everton supporting life to see this sort of football arrive to the club. Despite this, I do not want to be a fan that gets in the way of seeing Goodison Park rocking again.
Don’t get me wrong, Everton fans in years gone by have seen their fair share of sides that play nice on the eye attacking football. In 1946, then chairman William Cuff stated, “It has always been the unwritten but rigid policy of the board, handed down from one generation to another of directors to another that only the classical stylish type of player should be signed. The kick-and-rush type had never appealed to them.” Players such as ‘the Golden Vision’ Alex Young and the Holy Trinity of Harvey, Kendall and Ball all helped give Everton the reputation as the “School of Science” as we were the forefront of stylish attacking football.
However, this era was long before the time of the majority of Everton fans. The School of Science was replaced with players in the mould of the “Dogs of War” and recent legends Duncan Ferguson and Tim Cahill. This is what current Evertonians are accustomed to and therefore what current Evertonians signify as what Everton is all about. This is why a style like Roberto Martinez’ is never preferred to a high energy, aggressive one. Martinez was doomed from the start, as if ever the going was getting tough, the fans will be quick to criticise this different and frankly unwanted new style of football.
