A couple of things I wanted to mention. Everton seem to be getting off easy based on the fact that they were without key players Distin & Coleman. That needs to be flipped right on it's head though. Maybe you are ONLY where you are as you have been exceptionally lucky with injuries so far.
The one thing I always thought of Martinez is that he struggled to build a solid platform for his team to play for. He was forever messing around with his defence trying to get it right and his sides ended up shipping a LOT of goals. At Everton he walked into a job where the platform was built he just needed to get the players playing on it. Which he did. Now what happens when parts of the platform need replacing... well maybe we are answering that right now because that was a shambles. Remember that out of that backline Alcatraz is his man.... the guy he brought over from Wigan.... and the drop off in quality between him and Jagielka or Distin was huge. Then again was it tactical naivity on Martinez's part to play a high line? How many times was Stones struggling to catch Sturridge, Sterling in behind Baines or Alcatraz chasing instead of defending? You would think managers would watch AVB's pink slip game and try to avoid those same mistakes. Evidently not.
As for his "makeshift" defence last night. He was without his first choice RB & CB only. We were without both first choice full backs, and one (I would say both) of our first choice center backs. Oh, and the human shield of Lucas infront of them and his usual replacement, Allen. However we don't get to make excuses. If we defend badly it's because we bought badly. Or signed the wrong players. Or shouldn´t rely on loan signings. Everton loose a couple of players and all the apologists in the media come out to sympathise their plight.
The Average Positions of our players last night were pretty interesting:-
Looking at that it does make you think what would happen with a dominant left back on that side. Real Madrid's formations looked something like that when they had Zidane in front of Roberto Carlos. He would probably be a touch over FSG's ideal age for signing players but I do think someone like Coentrao is from the same mould and is being criminally under utilised at Madrid (has played <400 minutes of football this season in all comps).
The main reason for the big shift to our right side is because that is where Everton focused their attacks. I must say Sterling had a fantastic game against Baines, best LB in the world™. I still don't see a flaw in the idea of him becoming a full back. Given there is a massive shortage of quality full backs in football at the moment, creating our own may be an easier route than replacing Johnson.
A lot has also been made of how Everton "dominated possession" and "played well for the most part" and "didn't look that bad". It really isn't true at all though. Everton seriously lacked penetration. They played the ball around in front of us a lot but never got in behind us or set anybody free in the channels all game. The resorted to long shots and crosses which was more likes a Moyes team than a Martinez one. Last night they had 24 crosses to our 5 and 1 through ball to our 5.
I'm noticing more and more the importance of through balls recently and never was it more apparant than in this game. Everton just didn´t have the player to unlock us the way Coutinho was them. He murdered that Everton side last night. He wasn´t alone of course but that really was an absolute masterclass by our little Brazilian. It reminded me so much of Modric in many ways. Just a quick table to surprise you first of all:-
Wait, What? That was actually my favourite part of the night. My concern with Coutinho as a CM was always how much protection he would offer Gerrard behind him. Last night the answer was a lot. He never gave up the chase once and won the ball back for us more times than anyone (Most of Cissokho's tackles resulted in a throw in or corner wheras Coutinho took the ball standing). At the other end he created the most chances for us with 4 goalscoring oppertunities created, 2 from though balls and wasn´t dispossessed once the entire game. Now just think about how many times you saw him wriggling through a pack of angry bitters. Hard to imagine that not once single time did they knick the ball away from him. It really was a masterclass and I just cannot look past him for MoTM despite the Sturridge goals or Gerrard rolling back the years. If he can become our own Modric then he will do a LOT of damage in this league. (Shooting needs to improve still
)
I also want to give Luis Alberto a quick mention. A lot of people are asking questions about him, especially with many opinions being we need a better player in his position now to compete and not understanding his signing. Just speaking purely in terms of statistics here, when he is on the pitch a very high proportion of his passes result in created chances with a lot of them from through balls. Now maybe he doesn´t adjust to this league or maybe he will just take a little time to do so but if we can turn his cameos into first team performances he could start throwing up scary numbers of assists.
He had an 11 minute cameo last night during which he created 2 goalscoring oppertunities from 3 passes with 100% accuracy. His otherpass was a long pass with the outside of his foot first time to switch the play from right flank over to a completely open Cissokho on the left. Now that is a very small sample size of course but it does show what many people know about the player. He is always looking for the most dangerous ball and is a very precise player also.
His last league appearance was against Spurs and it was a similar story. He played 11 minutes and created a goal from a through ball with just 11 passes in the game and 91% accuracy.
So our problem with Luis Alberto isn´t if he is good enough, it is how to make these small samples bigger. He really could be a frighteningly good player but one that will require that one commodity most fans don't appear to have, patience. May very well be 2015's Lucas Leiva.