Everton at Swansea City: Instant Reaction

As I've said in other articles I've written, the defence needs immediate attention. At the minute we are happy to bombard teams with attack after attack after attack, but they just soak it up then kill us in defence.

Sylvain Distin is no longer the answer. His haphazard, boot the ball anywhere defending has to come to its end before he completely destroys our confidence at the back. Phil Jagielka has been rocky yes but he has a lot more control and composure on the ball and he would line up next to John Stones.

Now onto the game. Roberto Martinez made a strange team selection for me. It was neither here nor there. It didn't scream "we aren't interested in winning", which maybe might have been worth while after the result, and it didn't shout "we want to win" either. Nor was it set out to control the game. I'd have gone either way and not sat in the middle as he did. You either pick your full and strongest side or you pick a young side with players like Bryan Oviedo and Antolin Alcaraz that haven't seen football in while through injury.

The second thing that caused me concern, adding to my worry regarding Sunday's changes, was the substitutions again. And once again they were neither here nor there. You bring Romelu Lukaku on to replace Samuel Eto'o at half time and you think "Ok, there is some intent to win the game", but to then bring on Leon Osman and James McCarthy when losing 2-0 is beyond me. What impact, if any, is two central midfielders going to make for your side? If you bring Lukaku on you back that intent up with Kevin Mirallas or Arouna Kone and go all out. Or you don't make the Lukaku change and bring McCarthy and Osman on and show a clear sign that you happy to sit back.

Finally, I feel Martinez is ridiculously over positive in his post match press conferences after a defeat. He was quoted as saying to the BBC "We had two or three very good situations, In many aspects, I was fairly pleased with that". Now I'm not sure about you, but his constant dodging of the defensive issue is just as much concerning as the actual defence itself. He needs to come out and tell the press that he sees that's our downfall and he is looking to address it. At the moment as a fan, I feel he is satisfied with the defensive performances as he is saying nothing on the situation.

I'll be honest, losing in the Capital One Cup isn't the be all and end all this season. As we have to compete in the Europa League, give the FA Cup a good go and try to improve on our previous season position in the league. Maybe Everton just aren't made for the competition after only progressing past the Fourth Round 4 times in the last 24 years. That's still not a comforting though having conceded 17 goals in 6 games as a defence.

Lets hope this is all washed away with a win against the team across the park on Saturday.