Our season so far looking at both good and bad

I think one of the reasons many fans are freely critical of Roberto Martinez is because of the number of resentful fans who've done nothing but slag Moyes off since he left, whilst putting Martinez on a quite unearned pedestal.

Nobody likes the way we parted company, but few are the reasons to hate a man who gave us 11 years, and I personally think it's a little ironic when those not yet ready to proclaim Martinez as the new messiah are called negative, by some clearly on the managemental rebound.

Once the 'good riddance' brigade pipe down and stop trying to convince everybody that Moyes was bad and Martinez is good the quicker everybody can move on, as the worst way to introduce a new manager is by knocking the old one. Martinez has had 11 league games. This is hardly grounds for comparison with 11 years.

Moyes has gone and Martinez is here.

"Good luck to Moyes and welcome Roberto" should be the attitude from now on if we are to all come to terms with our new situation, and although a few things happened during the transfer window that will no doubt make Goodison Park a cauldron upon Moyes return, I hope there will be a show of appreciation by the home fans too, once they've made their initial feelings known.

Martinez needs to be judged on his own merits, and it is far too early to be contemplating as to if he is a better manager for us, so that needs to be put on hold and returned to after a few seasons. Even if we were to win a trophy this year, it's still too early, so instead of worrying about it, perhaps just look at the facts so far this season, and take things in small steps.

First of all, our pre-season:

We couldn't have asked for a more exciting opposition than we faced in USA regardless of the fact that it was clearly evident that officials were not going to allow us to spoil the occasion.

John Stones was the highlight for me, not just for his penalty, but more for his actual performances, and another I must mention is Steven Naismith, who looks a totally different player this season.

Transfer window:

Overall I'm not as satisfied with the window as many others, but that's not to say it was a bad window. We sold a player in Victor Anichebe who was just starting to do well here, and yes, we received fair money for him. He's not found the net with West Brom yet in the league, but that has no reflection as to what might have been here. Still, good luck to him.

We brought in Arouna Kone on a 3yr deal for similar money, and unfortunately, Arouna hasn't worked out for us, be it preseason fasting or eventual knee injury. The big difference I guess is that Victor is 5 years younger than Arouna, and that in asset terms is bad news for us, given that Arouna is now 30 and may miss the rest of the season. I'm going to put it down as bad luck as far as my opinion goes, but the facts are we are a striker down.

Anton Alcaraz is an interesting one, as he is 31, but came to us on a 2 year deal on a free. 31 isn't old for a defender these days, and he could still go on to become a great signing, just like Distin, although even if he was fit, would he get in ahead of Jags or Distin? Perhaps if we play 3 at the back?

Joel Robles arrival has certainly given Howard something to think about, and Howard has responded well. He could prove to be a great signing for us by the time he gets to take over, should things work out. 

Marouanne Fellaini leaving was a big gamble that will yet turn out one way or another, but in losing him, we also lose a good source of goals, and aerial threat, not to mention a damn good midfielder. He also gave us quite a bit of media exposure too, which had it's own benefits.

In return, we signed James McCarthy. A slightly different player with different skills, but bags of experience for his age. £27m for Fellaini was good money, but did that allow us to possibly spend more than we might have done on James? Time will tell as to how good an acquisition James is.

Phil Neville left us for a career change at United, and with it, we lost a very experienced player, but enter Gareth Barry, another experienced player, all be it another older one too, and on a season long loan that could end with a short contract for him if things go well, but he'll be 33 in February, so not a long term investment.

Had we finished there, I suspect that fans might have been a little disgruntled with our window, but signing 2 young strikers in Lukaku and Deulofeu probably made our glass half full in terms of the window, but they aren't our players, and while they play, our own players don't, and Jelavic needs to get back on the horse quickly.

Great if they are scoring, but so far so good with Lukaku while Deulofeu plays a more minor role. We need more from Lukaku though in terms of 90 minutes.

Our performances so far this season?

I think last seasons Everton would beat this seasons Everton, but it's early days.

I personally thought over the last few seasons that we were playing some good football under David Moyes, and there were times when pundits such as Paul Merson and managers such as Martin Jol were so impressed they were comparing us to Barcelona.

So why is it that all of a sudden Roberto Martinez is being credited with us playing great football, and David Moyes labelled by the press as defensively minded? The reason is that the press don't know squat about football, or about Everton football club, that our own fans don't already know, but the difference is we watch every second of every match, while they write about whatever they think will get readers at the time.

Yes, we appear to be passing it more enthusiastically, but let's not make out that this is a new Everton style, as anybody who watched us before will know we passed it around quite well already. Yes, in the first 6 or 7 years under Moyes we were very much a direct styled team, but credit where credit is due, we eventually became closer to Arsenal than Stoke (no disrespect to Stoke) so it's not a huge shift as many make out.

Defensively this season, we have been a little charmed.

We've actually kept 6 clean sheets in 11 matches which only Tottenham Hotspur can better with 7 in the whole Premier League.

We should be absolutely delighted so why are the media (the so called experts) talking about our defensive frailties?

Last year, we only kept 10 clean sheets in the League unless my counting is wrong.

The main difference has to be that last season, and previous seasons, we were a team that knew our jobs, and had stability and experience of playing together. Most of our conceded goals came from silly mistakes, but we generally gave little in terms of clear cut chances to the opposition.

This season, we are giving every team we play enough chances to sink us, but fortune has favoured us and they haven't taken them. In a few years time, we'll look back and stats will simply say 'clean sheets', and we won't really remember each individual game, just like we don't really remember each game under Moyes in detail.

Last year, we were very attack minded, and if you cast your minds back, we were for a long time the team with most shots at goal, and most times hitting the woodwork. For the life of us, we just wanted the ball to go into the net.

I don't see as much of that this year.

Last season, after 11 league games, we had 21 goals and 14 against, with 20 points and a +7 difference. We had won 5, Drawn 5, and lost 1.

This season, we have 14 goals, 10 against and guess what? We have +4 difference, 20 points, and have won 5, drawn 5, and lost 1.

Were also out of the League cup both seasons already.

So, we are doing very well to be matching last seasons stats in terms of total points, and w/d/l, but in terms of performances, we're not quite as good as we were, and scoring 30% less goals is disappointing, but we have conceded 4 less, despite being shakey.

Let's be honest though.

We probably expected to be worse at first, given the fact that we have a whole new coaching staff, so despite our inconsistent displays, we have to be happy points wise.

Why then are we inconsistent?

Well, we have the same 4 defenders, and it's probably our Full-backs who have let us down so far this season in terms of both attack and defence. Neither Baines or Coleman have hit the heights we know they can in terms of form. Other than Baines wonderful free kicks, he's been fairly subdued, and Coleman has been both sloppy in defence and mediocre in attack.

Baines has 2 goals, and zero assists.
Coleman has 1 goal and 1 assist, but has given 2 pens away, and probably should have been 3.

I don't think the Centre-backs have done much wrong on the whole.

Our midfield is the biggest concern right now in my opinion.

We have had Pienaar injured and missing for 4 1/2 games. Darron Gibson is once again injured (just like last year) and has played just 28 league minutes. Marouanne Fellaini has been sold (he had 5 goals this time last season).

Ross Barkley, James McCarthy, and Gareth Barry are new to the first eleven so must be given time to gel, and this effects us both in defence as well as attack.

Attacking midfielders / strikers, call them what you will, Steven Naismith has been lively, but Kevin Mirallas has by his own standards been innefective, with 1 goal each, although Mirallas has 3 assists.

Last season at this stage, our midfielders and defenders had given us 14 league goals, with Jelly and Anichebe chipping in 6 and an own goal courtesy of Mr Shawcross against Stoke.

This season we have 9 goals, 5 coming from Lukaku, the rest from midfielders / defenders.

I'm not sure that we have many goals about to come from our current line up unless we bring Mirallas into the game more, and I'm not a fan of him playing the right wing at all. Barry had a reasonably good goal / assist rate in his Villa days, but does he still have it now?

I don't think Naisy, Osman, Barkley, Deulofeu, or Lukaku are 90 minute players at present but Lukaku with some support might get the best from him, and indeed maybe Jelly.

I'm not a manager so don't have the answers, but the above are my thoughts on our season so far.

What are your thoughts?