Paraguayan centre-back Antolin Alcaraz endured a difficult game as Everton suffered a 5-2 defeat against Dinamo Kiev to exit the Europa League at the last-16 stage on Thursday night
Everton crashed out of the Europa League at the last-16 stage on Thursday night after being hammered 5-2 by Ukrainian team Dinamo Kiev and beaten 6-4 on aggregate over the two legs of the tie.
The Ukrainians produced a superb performance to defeat the Premier League outfit, but were given a big helping hand by defending that schoolboys would have been ashamed of.
Defence
Everton boss Roberto Martinez is a nice guy, who has a football philosophy that is admirable with the right players, but he has a big deficiency when it comes to how his teams defend. They are simply too naïve for the top level of football.
His Wigan team’s played very good football at times, but ultimately after battling against relegation for season after season were relegated under Martinez, despite the Latics going down in a blaze of glory by winning the FA Cup in the same campaign.
Last season Martinez took over a Toffees team that were defensively solid and well-drilled from the previous regime of David Moyes. He also gained a group of players that were of better quality than the ones at Wigan.
He has added the likes of Gareth Barry, Romelu Lukaku and James McCarthy to his squad since his arrival. In essence he has a better squad than the one he inherited, yet the big problem is that he just cannot get his team to defend well enough to win games.
This facet of Everton’s play has been displayed in the Premier League and the Europa League, as even in the run to the last-16 of the European competition Everton have given their opponents a plethora of chances, Dinamo were the ones that took them.
Terrible
None of the Everton defenders covered themselves in glory on Thursday night, but one in particular produced a terrible display. That defender was Paraguayan international centre-back Antolin Alcaraz. The experienced 31-year-old is the only centre-back I have ever seen that cannot tackle, pass or head a football.
When he arrived at Everton, he had just endured an injury-hit campaign with Wigan in their relegation year. He was mediocre for Wigan and he is simply a liability for Everton. He produced a awful defensive display and was largely responsible for two of Dinamo’s first half goals.
After such a terrible first half display, the majority of fans would have expected Martinez to replace the centre-back at half-time, which seemed like the logical decision. Instead the Spaniard persisted with Alcaraz and the Toffees conceded two more goals, one of which he could probably have done better with.
Bright
At the start of 2015, Everton began to keep clean sheets, which coincided with the return of highly-rated young centre-back John Stones to fitness from injury. The youngster is regarded as one of the best defensive prospects in England.
Stones missed the first leg against Dinamo Kiev through suspension and Alcaraz filled in. However, it was surprising that Stones was not restored to the starting line-up for last night’s game in Kiev, especially as Alcaraz was less than convincing in the first leg at Goodison Park.
The youngster may not be perfect, but I believe most Evertonians would have rather had the former-Barnsley star in the centre of defence than the Paraguayan.
Even veteran French centre-back Sylvain Distin would have produced a far more convincing display, despite struggling for form this season. The former-Manchester City centre-back seems to have been frozen out at Goodison Park.
Survival
Everton’s whole campaign now consists of surviving in the English top-flight and attempting to finish as high up in the table as possible. It looks unlikely that the Toffees will go down this season, but Martinez cannot completely ignore the flaws in his own make-up.
In the last few games it looked like Everton had turned the corner, but that improvement may just have been down to the players, rather than their affable boss.
If it was not for the Toffees decent run in the Europa League, Martinez may very well be facing the sack, because Everton have gone from a team that regularly finishes in the top six, or seven to a team fighting relegation.
Roberto Martinez is a football man and surely he can see that the gaping hole in his tactical knowledge is just like the gaping hole in the Everton defence on Thursday night, absolutely massive.
Can Roberto Martinez still be a success at Everton?
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