Martinez has no case for the Everton defence ahead of Man United test

The last time Manchester United played Everton, they lost in insipid fashion to a bang-in-form Roberto Martinez team.

The result at Goodison Park completed the Toffees’ double over United and ended any mathematical possibility that they might still sneak in a top-four place. Two days later, David Moyes was sacked.

Everton didn’t quite make the Champions League, either, but the consensus was that Martinez had taken Moyes’ old team and made it better.

They meet again this afternoon, this time at Old Trafford, and much has changed.

United are trying to settle in to some kind of stability after a summer that brought a new manager, £150-million worth of new players and the loss of core Sir Alex Ferguson players such as Ryan Giggs, Nemanja Vidic, Rio Ferdinand, Patrice Evra and Danny Welbeck.

Louis van Gaal has a lop-sided-looking squad of expensively-acquired forwards, a treatment room full of significant injuries and problems getting his players to understand his much-vaunted philosophy.

The absentee list now also numbers Wayne Rooney, the Dutchman’s new captain and the one man in his squad who has “special privileges” as far as selection is concerned.

Rooney was sent off last week for a wild hack at Stewart Downing in a mad moment interpreted by some as symptomatic of the frustration he has always shown when things around him are not going right. Van Gaal is having none of that explanation.

He says: “Five minutes after the game, I said what I thought and, in my view, it is not for discussion between Rooney and me.

“I have seen it again and again, and I’ve explained that it was a professional foul, and he did it too unfriendly.

“He agrees with that. He gets his three matches and that is deserved. We are not appealing because of that. It’s done.

“I don’t think it is a big problem but, of course, it’s a big problem for him that he cannot play three matches, including against Chelsea.”

With no Rooney, who is always ultra-competitive when playing against his former club, United would be expecting big trouble if the Everton of last season had been pitching up this afternoon.

But this is nothing like the team that threatened the established hierarchy a few months ago.

This Everton side had the worst defensive record in the Premier League going into this weekend’s fixtures.

They’ve won just once in the League and been dumped out of the Capital One Cup. Players who were the epitome of reliability last season have been the exact opposite this time round.

They’ve missed Ross Barkley badly, and their headline summer signing, Romelu Lukaku, has looked far less effective as a permanent acquisition than he did as a loanee.

Martinez has always batted away suggestions that the Europa League would impact heavily on Premier League form. All the evidence says the gruelling distances travelled will inevitably take a toll.

Everton’s problem, however, was evident long before they flew to Russia for their first away game.

As an attack they may not have clicked, but as a defence they’ve been more akin to the porous back lines Martinez used to send out at Wigan than the tight unit of last season.

When they played at Old Trafford in December, they won 1-0. In his 11 years at the club, an Everton team under Moyes had never won at United.

It was a performance that convinced people that Martinez had finally arrived as a fully-rounded coach.

Everyone knew he could play pretty football, not everyone was sure he could be functional and win ugly.

But this season the fragility associated with the Spaniard’s teams of the past is back, and today it will be tested.

Say what you like about United, they still have enviable firepower in players like Radamel Falcao. Robin van Persie and Angel di Maria.

And whatever holes they leave behind them, players like that will run amok against soft defences.

For now, Van Gaal’s best tactic is probably to unleash his attacking Gaal-acticos and hope that they score more than his own extremely dodgy back four concedes.

The result, then, is likely to hinge on how much damage Lukaku, Steven Naismith and perhaps Samuel Eto’o can do to United, because it looks pretty likely that Van Gaal’s front men can do plenty.