Howard Kendall: On solid foundations for flair, Everton FC's belief in themselves and who's winning the managerial sack race
6 Dec 2013 09:33
Former Blues boss on the talking points at Goodison Park
Soccer - Barclays Premier League - Manchester United v Everton - Old Trafford Everton manager Roberto Martinez on the touchline during the Barclays Premier League match at Old Trafford, Manchester
Everton have a solid base under MartinezEverton, under Roberto Martinez, are a team playing with real freedom. It’s like the shackles have been taken off the players and they have become free spirits.
Roberto has always set his sides up to play like that.
But it’s impossible to do that successfully without a secure base – and the importance of Everton’s back five can’t be under-estimated in what they have allowed the new Blues boss to do.
When Arsene Wenger arrived at Arsenal all those years ago he had a magnificent platform to build on.
Lee Dixon and Nigel Winterburn were the full-backs he inherited – with that famous central defensive triumvirate of Adams, Keown and Bould.
Then behind that he had the England goalkeeper David Seaman.
Roberto’s position is not dissimilar at Everton.
Seamus Coleman and Leighton Baines are modern, international class full-backs – Phil Jagielka and Sylvain Distin are an outstanding partnership, while behind them Tim Howard has proved a superbly reliable goalkeeper.
Roberto might have changed his side around a little in recent weeks, but the one constant has been that back five.
And that has allowed the players in front to play with a real freedom.
Roberto has always set his sides up to play like that.
But at Wigan he didn’t have defenders of the same quality he has at Everton.
That’s why they ultimately ended up being relegated.
At Everton Roberto’s back five have given him the foundation to allow players to express themselves further forward – and that’s been invaluable for him as he implements his philosophies.
Instilling a winning mentalityRoberto Martinez spoke of the ‘mental block’ his players had to overcome to win at Old Trafford.
Soccer - Barclays Premier League - Manchester United v Everton - Old Trafford Manchester United manager David Moyes (left) and Everton manager Roberto Martinez on the touchline during the Barclays Premier League match at Old Trafford, Manchester.
Footballers are only human and if they are hearing a record at a particular ground being written about in the papers and spoken about on the television and the radio, of course it will play on their minds.
It’s why at the start of every season I always said to my players ‘let’s get our first home win’ then ‘let’s get our first away win’ – so nobody could keep harping on about it! The great thing about Wednesday night’s result was that when Everton next go to Old Trafford nobody will be talking about bogey grounds.
I couldn’t believe it when I read I was the last Everton manager to win there!
Not any more – and I’m delighted about that.
The sack race is hotting upTHE silly season for managerial sackings is upon us – and there’s been a worrying trend developing this week.
It’s well known that the arrival of a new manager often brings an improvement in performance.
Martin Jol
But this week the arrival of a new boss has actually seen teams record instant victories!
Crystal Palace were rock bottom of the Premier League before Tony Pulis arrived as manager – yet in his very first home game Palace went and beat West Ham.
Barnsley were rock bottom of the Championship, yet Micky Mellon took over as caretaker after David Flitcroft was sacked and they instantly went down to promotion chasing Brighton and won!
Then Sheffield Wednesday sacked Dave Jones – and promptly beat top of the table Leicester.
When Fulham led against Spurs on Wednesday night, straight after Martin Jol’s sacking, you could sense chairmen up and down the country getting itchy trigger fingers.
But no new manager – regardless of his quality – can gauge for goals of the quality Tottenham hit back with in midweek.
Chairmen should realise, sometimes sacking a manager is only a short-term fix.
Source: Echo
