Romelu Lukaku scored his 50th goal for Everton last time out and Roberto Martínez is sure there will be many more. The striker has appeared in every game this season and despite a busy festive schedule, and a daunting fixture list in January, his manager has no plans to rest him.
“When you are 22 years old and enjoying your football, you can’t wait for the next game,” Martínez said, before Saturday’s visit to Norwich City. “The players you need to be careful with are those around 28, 29 or 30. We have a few of those, and you have to measure their recovery times really well, but players who are 21 or 22 can recover in 12 hours because they’ve got so much energy.”
There is a theory that young players who are still developing are more at risk of early burnout, although Martínez does not subscribe to it. “I don’t see such a problem, I think it is the opposite for young players,” he said. “I’m happy to keep players like Romelu, Ross Barkley, Gerry Deulofeu and John Stones in the team together, it is a matter of keeping the momentum going. It is different if they pick up a knock or a strain but until that happens as long as they are playing well they can carry on. Burnout comes when you are not playing well and still forced to play. That makes you play with pressure and that can be tough.”
Lukaku was in that situation a year ago, still not back to his best after returning from the World Cup and struggling to live up to expectations, so Martínez dropped the Belgian for a game at Newcastle United. At the time the manager called it a rest but now says he lost his place. Either way, Lukaku was not happy about it.
“That period was tough for him, he wasn’t enjoying his football, he was physically catching up, so I dropped him for the Newcastle game,” Martínez explained. “He didn’t like it one bit, though from that point on there was a mindset change. He suddenly started to think: ‘I need to fight for my place’ instead of: ‘I need to win a game.’ From the moment he lost his place he became very clear about his priorities and now he looks fresh in every game. That is all young players need – to be enjoying their football. I think last season was tough for Ross Barkley, too, at times but he’s learned from the experience and now the pure enjoyment is back. Those players don’t need to be rested.”
Martínez is not only relaxed about next month’s transfer window – “We never lose anyone in January unless it is someone who hasn’t been playing and we need to find a solution” – he is unperturbed about the prospect of three meetings with Manchester City next month. One in the league, the other two in Capital One Cup semi-finals. “We thought it was going to be four before the FA Cup draw was made,” he joked. “It is a tough schedule but for the right reasons. We want to be involved in big games like that but the focus we have now is the next 12 points in the league. We have four league games before we go into the semi-final and that period is going to be vital.”
