Performance better than points for Martinez

It’s fair to say that so far this season, the grit and determination that former manager Steve Bruce installed into the team last season has not been as consistent so far this campaign.  Some fantastic performances have been mixed with some very poor games which can be likened to a Jeckll and Hyde approach.

Martinez though, believes that points are not as important as performances this season. This is not ruling out how important points are in the quest for survival with as many as 12 teams scrapping it out for Premier League safety but Martinez believes that the better you play, the more chance you stand of winning games.

Martinez told the Evening Post "I don't look at points. We lost at Everton to a penalty in the last minute, so you can't look at just the points tally. "I am far more interested in the performances and the good performances we have had have been exceptional.

"In that respect, I feel we are probably where we deserve to be in terms of our performances.

"I feel it was always going to be this way for the first half of the campaign, simply because there was such a big turnaround in playing staff."

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