One-nil: it was a scoreline weighing heavily on Roberto Martinez as he stood on the Goodison Park touchline on Tuesday night. And no wonder. One-nil to West Ham United as the clock ticked into injury-time meant that Everton were heading out of the FA Cup at the first hurdle and looking at a fifth straight defeat.
Then, 49 seconds into added time, Romelu Lukaku bustled in an equalizer, Martinez punched the air and internally sighed a sizeable sigh.
Horrendous setback
“It would have been a crime if we had been out of the cup,” Martinez then said after the game, extravagantly. “At the moment the cup is such an important competition for us, it would have been an horrendous setback.”
Martinez went on to say he hoped Lukaku's first goal in his last seven matches would prove to be a "turning point" for the €35-million player – Everton's record transfer had been €19 million, for Marouane Fellaini from Standard Liege– and for the team. Beneath the fever of relief and excitement, Martinez also accepted that Everton are "still aware we are in a bad run".
Everton host Manchester City today in the Premier League. They do so with the distant ring of another one-nil in the air. This came from San Sebastian last Sunday: Real Sociedad 1 Barcelona 0.
This was not so much about the victory – "La Real" had beaten Barcelona at home last season, and the season before – nor was it wholly about the fact that Martinez' Everton predecessor David Moyes is managing Sociedad. No, this was as much about the nil, the clean sheet.
Everton have not had one of those in the league since a goalless draw at home to Swansea on November 1st. Everton have stopped defending.
Real Sociedad were not much better, they had not kept a clean sheet since last April – until Moyes arrived.
Clean sheets
In Moyes’s first match, Sociedad drew 0-0 at Deportivo La Coruna. There have been five league games since and two more clean sheets.
In total, including two cup-ties against third tier Oviedo, and Wednesday night’s against Villarreal, Sociedad have five clean sheets in Moyes’s nine games in charge.
This is not a revolution but it is evidence of coaching and tactical work, every bit as much as Martinez’ attacking ethos.
“I always want my teams to be attacking and entertaining to watch but I think you have to have a really good backbone and get the basics right,” Moyes said, pre-Barcelona.
Moyes’s arrival in the Basque country has coincided with Everton’s downturn. Last season Moyes’s downturn at United coincided with Martinez’ arrival and flourish at Goodison Park. They can be cruel, these football coincidences.
It was under Martinez that Everton won at Old Trafford for the first time in 21 years, prompting much lampooning of Moyes, and there will have been quiet satisfaction in May in the new manager’s office at Goodison that not only had Everton finished fifth, two places above United, but that they had done so by scoring more and conceding less than in Moyes’s last season on Merseyside.
Martinez was one of the flavours of the season, and rightly so. He displayed qualities that marked him out. He took what was there and added to it.
Yet it was the same for Moyes when he was at Everton, his work over a decade marked him out. Now Martinez is being marked out by defeats, by the inability to keep clean sheets. Everton have conceded as many times as bottom club Leicester. And from within the manager community you can hear the whisper: “Wigan.”
Martinez has enjoyed good press throughout his managerial career and there are managers who do not like that. They come from the group who noted that Martinez got the Everton job 22 days after Wigan Athletic were relegated from the Premier League having let in 73 goals, an eye-watering number.
Momentous victory
The fact that Martinez had, in the same season, engineered a momentous FA Cup final victory over Manchester City was skirted around. Yes, Wigan did go down and yes, they let in 62 goals the previous season, suggesting a pattern, but Wigan won the FA Cup.
They may have faced only one Premier League club before the final – Everton – but that’s the luck of the draw.
Luck has also had an outing in relation to Martinez lately. It has been said Martinez is a lucky manager. It’s a curious accusation given the positive impression he has made in seven years at Swansea, Wigan and Everton. That is surely about work and talent as much as fortune.
Martinez’ abilities, however, do not mean Everton will beat Man City, or West Ham in the Cup replay next Tuesday. But this is a manager who gave Evertonians a lot of pleasure last season, when fans and boardroom lined up to sing of his virtues.
As Martinez said on Tuesday he is aware the bad run has not ended but that is not a reason to jettison previous belief. If there is a defensive lesson from Moyes in San Sebastian to be heeded by Everton’s manager, then there is a lesson for the club from Moyes’s treatment at Old Trafford to be recalled.
It is that if you believe sufficiently in a certain manager to award him a long contract, then one awkward spell, even if it lasts a season long, is a price you pay.
Martin O'Neill could do worse than look at Aberdeen's Adam Rooney There has been a lot of fuss about an Irishman at Aberdeen this week. Niall McGinn was pictured in the away end – Celtic's away end – which probably isn't the wisest given Aberdeen and Celtic are the top two in Scotland's Premiership.
The fuss should really be about Dubliner Adam Rooney. When Rooney scored his second goal for Aberdeen at Motherwell last week, it was his 19th goal of a rousing season.
At 26, and with spells at Birmingham City and Swindon Town in England, and Inverness Caledonian Thistle in Scotland, among others, Rooney has got to this stage in his career without winning a senior cap.
He has played under-18, under-19 and under-21 level, but if he continues to score goals and Aberdeen continue to challenge Celtic, then Rooney may well appear on Martin O’Neill’s radar.
Derek McInnes said this week that he has left a message with O’Neill on that very subject.
An Aberdeen-watching colleague says that McInnes has also been most impressed with Johnny Hayes.
Hayes, too, has played for Republic of Ireland under-21s.
At 27 he may feel his chance of a senior cap has gone but if Aberdeen stay where they are – top – Pittodrie Stadium in the north of Scotland might be worth a visit for O’Neill.
