Roberto Martinez criticises 'negative' Everton after defeat to Manchester United
Saturday 17 October 2015 19:43, UK
Roberto Martinez blamed his Everton side's "negative" first-half performance for a 3-0 defeat to Manchester United.
Everton were 2-0 down after 22 minutes and went on to concede a third to Wayne Rooney after half-time despite an improvement.
The morning of the game was dominated by news that Howard Kendall, a title-winner with Everton as a player and manager, had died at the age of 69.
But asked if the news had affect his side Martinez said: "I wouldn't want to think so.
"It was the worst shocking news and everyone was really sad but we wanted to change it around and make it a real celebration. Howard was such an iconic footballer and what he achieved as a manager will always be an inspiration.
"We looked like a group coming back from internationals and that's something that can happen at times.
"We conceded a goal from a dead-ball situation and I felt that affected us too much. The big disappointment is from that point on, we wasted the first half. I thought we were very slow, we couldn't see a forward pass and we became negative.
"We were quite reactive in what we were doing and that's very uncharacteristic."
