Everton manager Roberto Martinez has claimed that he replaced Kevin Mirallas in his side's goalless draw against West Bromwich Albion because the winger was struggling with a hamstring injury.
Mirallas had missed a penalty at the end of the first half and did not reappear after the break, leading to speculation over why he had been taken off, but his manager has insisted that he was not unhappy that the Belgian took the spot kick.
"Our penalty taker is Leighton Baines but in the same way we had a penalty-shoot out against West Ham in the FA Cup, Kevin Mirallas took the penalty really well and wanted to take it," he told Sky Sports News. "He wanted to take the penalty and Leighton was happy to let him do that. Nothing else apart from it was an unfortunate kick, missing the target. Both players have enough quality, personality and character to convert at that moment.
"At that moment Kevin felt really confident and wanted to take it. For me, Leighton is the number one penalty taker. At that point I would have been happy for the two players to discuss it. There are a few penalty takers in the squad and they could have stepped up in that moment, the big disappointment is we missed the penalty, not who took it.
"[Mirallas] was not feeling 100%, he felt his hamstring straight after the penalty. That was the reason for the substitution."
Everton have moved up to 12th in the Premier League table due to today's result.
Alex Meyers
