Everton feel the heat as Kevin Mirallas’s mutiny adds unwanted problem

Posted Wednesday, January 21, 2015 by theguardian.com

· Mirallas to travel on club's trip to Qatar
· Furore over penalty miss adds to doubts over winger's future
· Match report: Everton 0-0 West Bromwich Albion

Everton's Kevin Mirallas reacts after missing a penalty during the goalless Premier League draw against West Bromwich Albion.

Everton fly to Qatar on Wednesday and, contrary to rumours, Kevin Mirallas has not insisted on piloting the plane. Warm-weather training is the official reason for the trip but they are also searching for answers for how a season of high but attainable ambition has disintegrated into a fractious relegation contest.

Mirallas will travel despite being a) injured; b) in search of a transfer; c) despicably in breach of team orders; or d) one of Everton's few in-form players, who took a penalty against West Bromwich Albion on Monday but missed. Delete as appropriate.

What is known following the otherwise drab goalless draw against Tony Pulis's team is that Mirallas was not involved in a bust-up inside the dressing room at half-time or hauled off as punishment by Roberto Martínez, although Everton's players are angry with the Belgium international for taking the penalty instead of the designated taker, Leighton Baines.

Both Baines and Phil Jagielka, the captain who did not intervene in the dispute, have been criticised for allowing Mirallas to proceed with the 44th-minute penalty but the winger shoulders responsibility. The miss was compounded by doubts over Mirallas's future at Goodison Park, with Tottenham Hotspur among the interested parties, as well as his failure to reappear for the second half and Everton's subsequent inability to create a chance of note in the second half.

Martínez could not castigate Mirallas in public afterwards for the simple reason that the 27-year-old represents the one functioning creative talent in a team desperately short of creativity. A recurrence of a persistent hamstring problem was the manager's explanation for Mirallas's replacement by Bryan Oviedo at the interval.

Monday provided the latest example of Everton's lack of imagination, urgency or aggression to punish an opponent content to sit back and let Martínez's team play in front of them, confident that little danger will materialise in behind. But it also signalled a worrying change for the Everton manager.

Frustration at laboured, harmless passing has been simmering at Goodison throughout the season but it boiled over when Muhamed Besic was substituted in the 79th minute. Cheers for the introduction of an extra striker in Arouna Koné gave way to fierce condemnation of Martínez when the Bosnian's number appeared on the board. Another injury explanation was provided by the manager post-match but did not tally with Besic's reaction to being replaced. "It did surprise me," said Martínez of the widespread boos. "But I can understand the frustration around the crowd as well."

Besic's departure was also a signal for the crowd to lose patience with Ross Barkley who, along with Gareth Barry, had delivered a more convincing case for substitution. Barkley again found himself in the invidious position of trying to rescue another poor performance by his boyhood club but succeeded only in magnifying his mistakes and erratic decision-making.

Martínez's recently admitted that he has been "bombarding Ross with information to grow quickly", but it appears to have reached overload. The 21-year-old missed the first two months of the season through injury but needs the break in Qatar more than anyone.

"It is a chance to go away and take a bit of time to take a step back and look at where we are going wrong," said Baines. "We have to because we are going wrong at the minute. This will give us more time together to try and put things right. It gives us the chance to put more work in and cover some more points that we need to go over and address. Hopefully we can get more spirit back amongst the lads and keep everyone together. It is difficult at the moment. We have to stay together and look after each other. Hopefully this trip can be beneficial in all those ways."

Mirallas's penalty miss will assume greater significance should Everton's malaise continue on their return from the Middle East. A looming fixture list of Crystal Palace away, Liverpool and Chelsea does not bode well for a team on a run of one win in 13 matches.

"We are going to take this opportunity to go for some warm-weather training and reset ourselves for the second half of the season," explained Martínez.

The second half of the season commenced three games ago.