I won’t pull any punches here and unlike some you will read today, I won’t be using fancy words or false positives to dress up what is quickly becoming Everton’s worst season in many years.

“We won’t go down,” say some. “Too many poor teams below us,” say others. Everton have won 6 league games out of 28. Everton are one of those poor teams people keep referring to, make no mistake. I’m also sick of being told “Martinez says one thing to the media and is different with the players in the dressing room.” Really? Are there any indications he isn’t telling our players they’re phenomenal or on the wrong side of fine margins, or my personal favourite: “in a good moment.”?Utter bollocks.

Everton and Liverpool were on the same amount of points after 16 games this season. 12 dreary, stagnant and generally pathetic efforts later and the gap is 23. It was ok back then though, we were above them on goal difference – the only objective of a season for some, but that’s a conversation for another time. Point is, Liverpool’s manager, loathe him or not, had the presence of mind and the self awareness to realise things had to change. He went to the drawing board and found a way to make things work. Brendan Rodgers, of the same branch of football philosophy as Roberto Martinez, decided to put substance over style. He recognised the need for points in a difficult situation, sacrificing some of the purities he’s devoted a career to learning and teaching.

But it wasn’t an overhaul. You couldn’t look at Liverpool and see a side unrecognisable to the juggernaut that went so close to the league title last season. Allowances were made. Pragmatism was put ahead of ideals and almost instantly, Liverpool started working again. In the middle of their resurgence, one person put it to me that “Liverpool were top of the form table but it didn’t feel like it.” How nice that would be for Everton.

However, whilst Liverpool got their act together and re-assessed their season, Roberto Martinez persisted with what he knows best. Initially, who could blame him? A record points tally for the club last season was born from the same philosophy, so surely it had to turn our fortunes around sooner or later? Obviously not. As each game passed, the desperation for change became all the more clearer. Persistence with the likes of Howard and Barry piled on the misery for those of us starved of points. You got the impression Martinez had his victory speech in hand ready to tell us all how he knew better and once the “fine margins” started favouring Everton the we’d start to see something resembling last season. There haven’t been any signs of that. Yet still the Spaniard refuses to veer from a path which increasingly looks like ending in disaster.

There are double standards all over the place. Mo Besic, probably our most consistent player, is constantly substituted or dropped whereas Gareth Barry is a guaranteed starter providing he has two legs. Martinez even failed to harness a piece of good fortune in Howard being injured and Joel Robles beginning to look like a good goalkeeper. Arouna Kone – again a other who has looked decent when given a chance has constantly been glued to the substitutes chair so much so it might as well have his name on it.

It’s clear now, the man is not for changing.

Even the notion we could meander through until May in mid table coziness whilst obliterating what’s left in the Europa League has to sadly be confined to another “what if” narrative.

I fear where Everton are means Martinez has little of the credit he accrued last season and it’s hard to argue with those who want change.