Martinez: Everton defence not to blame for Dynamo Kyiv hammering
The Toffees were taken apart by their Ukrainian hosts as they exited the Europa League with a 6-4 aggregate defeat but their manager refused to pin it all on the back five
Everton manager Roberto Martinez refuses to blame his defence for the Toffees’ Europa League exit at the hands of Dynamo Kyiv.
The Merseyside club held a slender 2-1 lead from the first leg at Goodison Park but were hammered 5-2 in Ukraine on Thursday to ensure that there are no English sides remaining in European competition this season.
Andriy Yarmolenko, Lukasz Teodorczyk, Miguel Veloso, Oleg Gusev and Antunes all breached Everton’s back line as the home side ran riot but Martinez wants the whole team to take responsibility.
He told reporters: “The back five have been very strong in the last two games – the same back five only conceded one goal in the last two games from a corner in the first leg against Dynamo, and kept a clean sheet against Newcastle.
“I felt the communication experience between them would be important today. Both teams used the pitch in a good manner but the whole team didn’t defend well enough.
“The second goal started from an attacking corner and sometimes those situations you can’t completely control in the game. It wasn’t a case of the personnel; I felt Dynamo built momentum with the home crowd and capitalised on that.
“A couple of times we made some defensive mistakes but there was also some incredible finishing from the opposition. Some of the goals, it would be difficult to see them again in the same game.”
Open all references in tabs: [1 – 3]