Roberto Martinez Sure He Can Turn Around Everton Fortunes

Source: thewillnigeria.com

Roberto Martinez has no plans to compromise on Everton's traditions as he looks to engineer a return to form against Hull City on New Year's Day.

Everton have endured a torrid first half of the Premier League season and go in to 2015 on a dreadful run of form away from Goodison Park.

The Toffees have not won a top division match away from home since beating Burnley on October 26 and have picked up just a single point at Sunderland since then, losing 3-2 at Newcastle in their most recent outing.

But Martinez is refusing to compromise on the club's tradition of entertaining possession football as he looks to climb in to the top half of the table – they currently sit 12th, only five points above the bottom three.

Philosophy
“Knowing what your philosophy is as a club is important and ours is one that I think fits very well,” Martinez said.

“It represents Everton from the 1930s to the great years in the 60s, to winning titles in the 80s and as a team we want to control the ball and as a team we are great in possession but in any team you need to be able to defend.

At the moment we are suffering, sometimes through individual errors, sometimes you get three or four major decisions that don't go in your favour and they go against you and you have to cope with that.

“I think it's going to make us a stronger unit and there'll be a real fight to show who's ready to cope with our expectations.

“It's a bit of a negative run of results at the moment and we need to stop it but there's never a question mark over the style and how we want to play.

“What's a question mark is whether we've been good in the way we want to play and at the moment we've conceded too many goals for one reason or another and that's quite easy to rectify.”

Martinez admits the current spell of one win in seven games has been his most challenging since taking over from David Moyes but he says the last 12 months still have to be seen as positive for the club.

Deceiving
“We've become a stronger team than we were last season in many aspects in my eyes but we've become a little bit more open and exposed in terms of conceding goals,” he added.

“That's come a little from individual errors but a little from bad luck as well but I think we need to get rid of that negative momentum that makes you a little bit exposed and conceding goals. I do think that from where we were last campaign we've improved as a team going forward, our goalscoring record in every game is outstanding.

“Before the Southampton game we had the third best defensive record in the last six games in the league. The stats are very deceiving so you have to be careful.

“What's important is that we're all fighting with real responsibility and understand what it means to be at Everton and we need to find the right way of playing to compete and get through periods like the one we're experiencing now.”

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