Roberto Martinez has no problem with Kevin Mirallas' penalty, but says Leighton Baines is Everton's main taker
Tuesday 20 January 2015 09:39, UK
Everton manager Roberto Martinez insists he had no problems with Kevin Mirallas taking his side's penalty in the 0-0 draw against West Brom, despite admitting Leighton Baines is the club's main penalty taker.
Mirallas missed his spot-kick minutes before the break despite obvious calls from his team-mates to give the ball to Baines, who has missed just one of his 16 penalties in the Premier League.
The Belgian was then substituted at half-time, but Martinez claimed Mirallas was not feeling 100 per cent at the break.
Martinez told Sky Sports: "Obviously our penalty taker is Leighton Baines, he's the No 1. But we had a penalty shoot-out against West Ham, Mirallas always takes penalties really well.
"He was feeling he could take the penalty and Leighton Baines was happy to allow him to do that.
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"Both have got the quality to score goals. It was an unfortunate kick, missing the target, it makes a big issue.
"But at that moment he felt really confident. The big disappointment is that we couldn't convert the penalty, not who took it.
"He wasn't 100 per cent [at half-time], he was feeling his hamstring, as you could see straight after the penalty, there was a couple of moments he wasn't moving freely. We needed dynamic players in the second half, full of energy."
Everton are now without a win in eight games in all competitions, but moved up a place to 12th in the Premier League.
The Goodison Park crowd made their disappointment at the performance obvious towards the end of the game, and Martinez shared their frustration.
"The way they had their game plan was to have men behind the ball and hit us on the counter. We've been used to having to break well-organised teams at Goodison.
"The second-half performance was a little forceful, without the confidence you need to get that goal."
