Tuesday 16 December 2014 08:47, UK
Roberto Martinez commended Ross Barkley for his influential performance and experimental play following Everton’s 3-1 victory over Queens Park Rangers at Goodison Park.
The 21-year-old brought an end to an uneventful opening half hour on Merseyside with an exquisite solo effort on 33 minutes, before Kevin Mirallas’ deflected free-kick and Steven Naismith's header handed the hosts the points and only their third home victory of the season.
Bobby Zamora, who started the game on the bench, came on and pulled a goal back for the visitors but the lead proved unassailable and the Toffees leapfrogged Merseyside rivals Liverpool into 10th in the table.
And Martinez was not only pleased with the England midfielder’s performance on the night but his attitude on the training ground.
“The big enjoyment of working with Ross is how quickly he takes concepts on and how quickly he experiments with different starting positions,” Martinez told the Monday Night Football.
“The power and pace he has combined with that technical ability and ball control makes him special. Sometimes you get a really talented footballer that is skilful on the ball, or the powerful and strong (player) that can show that physicality on the pitch. He’s got both.
“He’s played that No 10 role, been getting into the box and having the freedom to find that space, but in a deeper position I think he makes very good decisions on the ball, the link-up play today was very good at times and it’s good for him at such a young that he experiments in different roles.”
The only blotch on what was otherwise a great night for the Toffees came in the closing stages at Goodison when Mirallas was caught by Jordon Mutch and had to be carried from the field.
And despite acknowledging the injury, Martinez would not let that detract from his side’s dominant performance.
“I’m really pleased with the result because I think we saw a QPR performance that was full of energy and they were well organised and it was important to take the chances,” Martinez added.
“I thought the difference today was going to be how clinical we could be in front of goal and I was really pleased with the manner in which we carried that sort of threat. Maybe sometime it was individual brilliance – I thought the first goal is as good as you’re going to get in individual quality of how to break lines of pressure and finish it with that quality from outside the box.
“From that point on we always had a good balance, we defended well when we had to and we had good pace on the counter attack and overall we were clinical in front of goal and had real quality in front of goal.”
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