Everton v Cardiff - e-Everton Review

Article by e-Everton Correspondent Kenneth Jarvis

What a difference a goal makes. If Coleman makes a better contact on that ball, it goes over the bar and Everton draw the game. Everton fans would have questioned Martinez, the club would have been negative and ultimately Everton wouldn't have capitalised on Man Utd and Tottenham dropping points. Instead Coleman's total fluke nestled in, in some sort of slow motion end to an action movie scene and the Gwladys Street went ballistic. Martinez' mistakes can be forgotten, the club is in a more positive frame after the cup exit and 5th place in the Premier League is ours to lose.

If it wasn't for David Marshall's brilliance then the game would have been long gone well before the 93rd minute. The Cardiff keeper was sensational and clearly gave the best performance of the day. It felt like one of those "we're just not going to get passed in today" moments were you felt it may take something a bit special, or lucky, to get passed him. It was lucky. Gerard Deulofeu, like Barkley, hasn't been quite the same since his injury. Bad decision making in part and parcel of any young footballer but he made a lot of wrong choices on Saturday. But then again, Mirallas is 26 and make equally poor decisions. Both extremely talented players who just had one of those games. What was poor though was Martinez' decision to take Deulofeu off straight after that goal. He is a young guy who is trying to get back to top confidence and the goal would of helped a lot with that. Martinez was planning to take him off before the goal which would have been fair enough but after that goal he should have reversed his decision. Deulofeu's goal may have been lucky but his touch to get in on goal was brilliant. Martinez also took Mirallas off which also seemed strange at the time, and after Cardiff's lucky equaliser, it was all the more baffling. Everton now had to chase a win with two of their match winners on the bench. McGeady came on though and looked very lively and ultimately changed the game. He hasn't had too many opportunities since his arrival but surely now merits a starting place given the injury to Pienaar and the indifferent form of Deulofeu and Mirallas.

As mentioned, Barkley hasn't been in great form since his injury, but still most Everton fans disagreed with the man chosen again to replace him. Leon Osman started the game quite brightly but then faded badly in the second half. Cardiff scored their goal in the 68th minute but Martinez, who has usually been proactive with his substitutions, waited until the 82nd minute to bring Barkley on. It was Barkley's play in the middle in feeding McGeady down the right that ended up leading to the goal. After that performance Barkley is another who should be starting the next game, but as with Moyes, the managers over use of Osman is starting to become a little worrying.

Everton are now left two points behind Tottenham with a game in hand a three points ahead of Man Utd. It would appear that 5th place is Everton's to lose. In our last 10 games, the only ones against European rivals are matches at home against Arsenal, Man Utd and Man City.

A lot of Everton fans feel that Martinez has made a few mistakes in the last few weeks in selection and through his substitutions. At the end of the day against Cardiff, it didn't matter. Hopefully now Everton can go into the next game against Swansea with even more confidence where hopefully possession of the football actually produces a suitable goals tally. 68% of the ball would represent dominance in most matches but Everton yet again failed to show that cutting edge in front of goal, it's long been a problem this season and one that so far, Martinez seems unable to fix.

© e-Football 2014 All rights reserved no part of this document or this website may be reproduced without consent of e-Football