It's boarded on inexplicable in a number of ways, because there doesn't appear to be any logic or safe rationale to justify it. Why are Everton so utterly mediocre this year?

You can usually point to some defining moments of a club to plot the root of their downfall. Hindering finance, changing personnel, injuries. None really bare true in a consistent manner. Romelu Lukaku's permanent residence on Mersyside has undoubtedly bolstered the strength of their squad in a permanent manner. Roberto Martinez is steering his way through a second season, where you'd think his players would now be more susceptible to his methods and ideologies. Leighton Baines has signed a new contract, ending the distracting uncertainty over his long-term future.

Instead, the same base of players vying to implement their possession-orientated gameplan are falling short, consistently. It's now got to the point where people are genuinely considering whether the club could get relegated. There's been mindless-myopic-mutterings of Martinez getting axed.

The fact of the matter is, Everton are now 'barb-wired' in no-man's land, glued to a sort of liminal medium of disappointment. In no uncertain terms, there's absolutely no way they'll get relegated, yet they are so far from salvaging any form of points tally that will rescue them a respectable Premier League finish. Their domestic campaign is effectively over. Barring a miraculous run in the league, their domestic-cup exits mean all of their hopes rely on the Europa League, where the paradox of their strange form takes a further twist.

[ad_pod id='football-friends' align='center']

Martinez now finds himself in the absurd situation where he can legitimately rest his key players on the weekend to keep them in fine health for Thursday nights. This is their only pathway to retrieve any commendable status from a season that is now skewed upon on a competition that is usually a liability for most title-aspiring teams.

In an ironic twist, it would strangely make perfect sense for Everton to now take this tournament by storm. Martinez's possession-based dogma has seemingly found fertile soil on European nights, reaping lucrative rewards in games gone by. That challenge looks to be an Italian one for now; all five of their entered teams (Napoli, Fiorentina, Roma, the Parma-replacing Torino and Internazional) have made decent headway, and you'd suspect one of them to challenge for the trophy to re-deem Italy's diminishing reputation upon Europe's elite.

Everton's devoted fanbase will naturally be hugely disappointed that their season has succumbed to just one knockout competition, but in that there's probably more positives than meet the eye. They don't have to worry about balancing this run with the overly-competitive top four race, which might have over-stretched their squad to a medium where they failed to meet their best in both.

They can forget about the strains of the Premier League and now solely focus on a competition that has long tempted teams into competing but yet always never really lived up to its name.

Everton, and Martinez, will probably never find themselves in this bizarrely unique situation again, and it's time they put their disappointments behind them and appreciate that they may never get a better shot at Europe's second tier competition, an opportunity that could pay big dividends.

[ad_pod id='ffc-video' align='center']

[ad_pod id='ricco' align='center']