Everton and Martinez Can Still Turn Their Season Around...but Must Do so Soon

With the problems that many other teams have suffered this season, Everton's travails have perhaps gone a little under the radar.

However, travails they have, with Roberto Martinez's side languishing in 11th place at Christmas, 10 points off fourth place in one of the most open races for Champions League qualification in years.

They are closer, in terms of points, to the bottom three than the top four, and have 13 fewer points than at the same stage last term. In addition, they were rather meekly dumped out of the early stages of the Capital One Cup by Swansea City in September—a competition they had a realistic chance of winning.

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After all the good work done by Martinez last season, this should really have been their time to push on, particularly after securing Romelu Lukaku on a permanent deal, along with the maturing Ross Barkley and John Stones and adding the nous of Samuel Eto'o.

Frustration is growing at Goodison Park, and their defeat to Southampton at the weekend was a perfect example of why. It was perhaps not just the defeat that irked the Toffees faithful so much, more the way it arrived, seemingly through a series of basic managerial and playing mistakes.

Barkley, consistently lauded as one of the best young playmakers in the country and a man Martinez has said will not be sold even for a world-record fee in January, according to Andy Hunter in the The Guardian, was deployed on the left flank during the 3-0 reverse, a position he has played before and clearly demonstrated his discomfort in.

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When Barkley has played in the middle—such as against Queens Park Rangers a couple of weeks ago, when he scored and was Everton's standout player—he has been much more effective, but when he is shunted out of position it not only minimises the impact the youngster can have, it also makes the team lopsided.

Perhaps more unforgivable was Martinez's dithering in trying to change things at St Mary's. It was clear for all to see that Plan A was not working against a Southampton side in terrible form and should really have been there for the taking, but Martinez sat on his hands and made no changes in personnel, leaving the likes of Aiden McGeady, Steven Pienaar and Arouna Kone under blankets on the bench.

Martinez may feel that accommodating the likes of Eto'o and Gareth Barry is necessary, but it shouldn't be at the expense of their most talented and exciting young player.

Martinez clearly retains the affection of many Everton fans, but one of their big fears upon his appointment seems to be coming true, specifically that his teams do not defend well. This season, Everton have kept just three clean sheets in the league and have conceded more goals than both Burnley and Hull City, both in the bottom three.

This could be down to an ageing back line (Tim Howard, Sylvain Distin, Phil Jagielka and Leighton Baines are all on the wrong side of 30), but Martinez's issues in defensive organisation that finally did for Wigan's Premier League place are undoubtedly a factor.

Despite this, Martinez remains optimistic of making the top four, as quoted by the Daily Mail:

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The league is more open than it was the last campaign. I must admit that at this stage you could feel the first three positions were taken but I don’t think that is the case.

Southampton and West Ham have been the best teams for me this season when you look at how they have performed. That opens a real competitive edge in the top six.

Spurs and Arsenal are there. I still think there are a lot of points to fight for. There are a lot of teams who are going to get a lot of points from each other.

From our point of view it is about getting a good run of results, making sure we reach a good level of performance and we try and get into the final third of the season with an opportunity to finish as high as we can.

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He's right, too. Everton still have plenty of time to turn their sluggish season around, but they and Martinez need to change things pretty quickly in order to do so.