Roberto Martínez has said Everton’s visit to Newcastle United represents a pivotal moment for the team after suffering back-to-back league defeats for the first time this season.
Having opened the season with aspirations of Champions League qualification Everton find themselves 11 points adrift of fourth-placed Southampton and only six above third-from-bottom Crystal Palace following an alarming run of form. Martinez’s side have won only one of their last six league games after Stoke City’s victory at Goodison Park on Boxing Day, with the Everton manager facing growing criticism for several ineffective displays.
Martínez’s problems have mounted for Sunday’s trip to St James’ Park where goalkeeper Tim Howard and captain Phil Jagielka are expected to miss out with the respective calf and ankle injuries they sustained against Stoke. John Stones and Kevin Mirallas are also doubts while Steven Naismith is suspended after collecting a fifth booking of the season on Boxing Day. The Catalan admits Everton’s reaction to consecutive festive defeats by Stoke and Southampton will have a major bearing on the remainder of the campaign.
“I don’t think in general we are lacking confidence,” he said. “Maybe the expectation is on us more now and opponents are setting up with a lot of respect for us, but we are in a bad moment of the season and it is pivotal how we react. We got an unfair reward against Stoke. Now the reaction has to be that we show we know what we are doing. If we keep performing like that then the results will come. This is the challenge of the season now – to come through this period stronger than ever.”
Everton have 13 points fewer than at the corresponding stage of last season, when they stood fourth in the table rather than 12th, and Boxing Day was the latest example of Martínez’s side being unable to break down a resilient, compact opponent.
But the Everton manager countered: “The second half against Stoke was frustrating but it wasn’t the type of game where you could measure our performance in terms of breaking teams down. There was an accumulation of incidents that made it difficult for us, and that’s why the first-half performance was very different to the second.
“We couldn’t make changes because as well as Tim Howard and Phil Jagielka we had John Stones carrying an injury from early in the game. When we conceded we had three really good opportunities to score but when you miss those kind of chances there becomes a sense of frustration and you start playing with the heart instead of with the head.”
