Is Roberto Martinez the right man to oversee Belgium's golden generation?

Roberto Martinez, a former defensive-minded player himself, is apparently inept at teaching teams how to ward off attacks. That has been a popular criticism of a manager whose curriculum vitae isn't actually bad on paper; featuring the implementation of a more continental playing style at Swansea City and taking the third-tier club to the cusp of the Premier League, and later silverware in the FA Cup with Wigan Athletic.

Now, he finds himself presiding over arguably the most talented contingent in the history of Belgian football, but his throng of Eden Hazard, Kevin De Bruyne, Thibaut Courtois, and other household names is being written off. But why? With a stronger group of players than he is accustomed to handling, shouldn't his forward-thinking philosophies be easier to execute?

"There's no doubt about it, he makes every player that comes his way better," Steven Caldwell, who played under Martinez at Wigan during the 2010-11 term, told theScore.

"When James McArthur came to Wigan, we were like 'this kid's miles away from being the level of the Premier League. He should be back in Scotland, not here.' The improvement in that player was incredible, and I put a lot of that down to Roberto."

Caldwell also credits Martinez's long-term assistant Graeme Jones for McArthur's development. The Glaswegian was one of the best midfielders outside the top six last season, especially in the latter half of the campaign when Crystal Palace successfully staved off the threat of relegation.

Tactics

Caldwell only needed a season with Martinez to change his outlook of the game. At Wigan there was an emphasis on playing out from the back - this was long before Pep Guardiola's Manchester City obsessively followed his blueprint - and coaxing the opposition out of position before exploiting the gaps they had vacated. The no-nonsense Scottish defender was suddenly performing la pausa, a popular tactic in Spain.

Martinez's focus on game plans was different from what Caldwell previously encountered in training. His former clubs' sessions were usually based around routine, with each day allotted for rest or certain exercises. Under Martinez, a weakness in the upcoming opposition was identified, and the team would then use the week to work on ways to exploit it.

In a match at Tottenham Hotspur in August 2010, the squad honed in on cutting the supply to Aaron Lennon and Gareth Bale on the flanks, leaving Spurs to resort to hopeful punts upfield to Peter Crouch. Wigan took a 1-0 victory from White Hart Lane. In April 2011, Chelsea wrung out a 1-0 win at Stamford Bridge, but was repeatedly caught short-handed when Wigan won the ball back and posted quick deliveries to forwards Hugo Rodallega and Charles N'Zogbia, who were instructed to sit wide behind the advancing full-backs.

However, there is a debilitating idealism to Martinez's work; an obsession with playing the ball along the ground, and then not adapting if the game requires tweaks or full-blown revisions to stymie or breach the opposition. Caldwell encountered this in a December duel with Everton, when he took it upon himself to instruct the backline to squeeze up and aggressively deal with Marouane Fellaini and Tim Cahill. The Latics took a commendable 0-0 draw from Goodison Park.

"I'm delighted, I feel like I've showed some leadership, got a clean sheet," Caldwell recalled. "So we go into the next game, Boxing Day, Wolverhampton away, and he pulls me in the pre-match meal and he's like 'I'm leaving you out. I'm playing (brother) Gary (Caldwell).' I was raging."

Caldwell managed to keep his cool, preferring to address being dropped from the lineup when the match was over.

"A few days later he pulled me in and said 'the professionalism you showed was incredible. As long as you need my help I'm there for you,'" Caldwell continued. "So I said 'OK, I appreciate that but why did you drop me?' He sort of went around about telling me it was because I went against his philosophies as a manager."

As Caldwell acknowledged when he shepherded the defence on Merseyside, in-game management and a dollop of pragmatism is sometimes required to see out results, but it seems Martinez suffers from tunnel vision when it comes to his approach. He wants continental, pretty football, to the point that he struggles to respect basic components of the game.

"He hated corner kicks," Caldwell said. "He said you should only get half a goal for scoring from a corner kick. He hated it. He wanted to make a rule where you had to play it short and get the ball in play."

A peculiar outlook, particularly from a manager who later saw his Wigan side win the FA Cup final thanks to Ben Watson's near-post header from a corner kick.

Man management

Caldwell doesn't speak highly of Martinez's man management, remembering cliques in the camp between Spanish- and English-speaking players in Lancashire, and his aversiveness to deal with matters in an up-front manner. It may go some way to explain why he excluded Radja Nainggolan from Belgium's World Cup squad - an incredibly talented midfielder, but one who is known to enjoy a drink and a smoke.

"He hates face-to-face confrontation," Caldwell shared.

Caldwell remembers one match against Bolton Wanderers in October 2010 when Antolin Alcaraz, a Paraguayan who followed Martinez to Everton, nearly gave up a goal after dwelling in possession. Caldwell criticised his defensive partner, purely in footballing terms, but believes Alcaraz must have misinterpreted one word as he proceeded to approach Caldwell, go nose-to-nose with him, and then headbutt him. Luckily, Caldwell could play down the incident to referee Howard Webb to avoid any punishment, and the pair had to be kept apart in the dressing room after the final whistle.

Despite Alcaraz being the aggressor, Martinez took his side.

"You need to understand where Antolin grew up and what he's about and what certain words mean to Antolin," Caldwell recalls of Martinez words. "I'm not blaming you, but you need to be respectful of his traditions and cultures."

Martinez's stance wasn't going to heal the divide in the Wigan dressing room, and Caldwell, who insists he didn't say anything disrespectful in the spat, was left wondering what Alcaraz himself was doing to be respectful of the values in his country of employment.

One of the fascinating aspects of Martinez's tenure is the hiring of a new member in his coaching team: Thierry Henry. Caldwell believes that while the World Cup winner's reputation speaks for itself, the French great acts as someone who can get along with a demographic Martinez and Jones aren't necessarily comfortable with, and is a person who can allow Martinez to avoid confrontation.

"Hazard or De Bruyne are not going to say anything to Thierry Henry - it's Thierry Henry, best player in the world. That's why he's there," Caldwell opined. "I'm sure he's got some great ideas in the game as well, but he connects with a group of players that Roberto might find it difficult to."

He added: "Roberto would not like to go up to Hazard and say 'this happened on Saturday, I want you to play a bit more here, or you did this wrong, you did that wrong.' He'd never say that to Eden Hazard. No way. He'll want Thierry to say that to Hazard."

Can Martinez improve?

Like Caldwell, Maynor Figueroa is another player who improved greatly under Martinez, with the liberation he felt in his boss' system demonstrated in the left-back's famous long-distance strike against Stoke City in 2009. The Honduran told theScore in May that he believes the Spaniard has since elevated his managerial skills.

"He can improve more and more, day by day because he has good players and everything what he wants to become a great coach there. In this moment they're much better than the first year," he said.

That is debatable.

"Mexico were just tactically better," De Bruyne complained following November's 3-3 friendly draw in Brussels. "Their system made our five defenders deep and we were swimming in midfield - it was five against seven."

He added: "As long as there is no good tactical system for the team, we are going to face difficulties against countries like Mexico. It's a pity that we have not yet found a solution."

The oddities of Martinez's tactical decisions and selection choices linger. Yannick Carrasco is still (at least for his national team) a wing-back, and Laurent Ciman started June 6's friendly with Egypt despite being left off the 23-man squad. Thomas Vermaelen was excluded from that squad altogether, while Dedryck Boyata was restricted to a late cameo off the bench. Vermaelen was again left out of the final dress rehearsal against Costa Rica last week.

Why would Martinez not give Boyata and other genuine centre-back candidates more minutes in light of Vincent Kompany's injury problems, rather than hand opportunities to someone who hasn't travelled? Is there already disharmony in the Belgium camp? Caldwell doesn't have those answers, but he doesn't have much confidence in Martinez making the tough calls in Russia.

One of these, Caldwell believes, should be dropping Romelu Lukaku against the better teams. The Scot would pick Carrasco, Hazard, and Dries Mertens in a three-man frontline, but appreciates that this could be tough when Lukaku could race ahead in the scoring charts after facing the defences of Panama and Tunisia.

"I don't think he's a top-level striker. I don't think he holds up the ball well enough. I don't think he works hard enough. I don't think he's up to that standard," Caldwell said of Lukaku.

But whether it's Manchester United's hitman or another player, will Martinez show a greater tactical nous to change formulas during a fixture, or have the confidence to drop and criticise his players? The World Cup is a huge test of what the manager learned through his setbacks over the past five or so years - relegation from the Premier League, and being slammed for his tactics in charge of Everton and Belgium - or, rather, how much dirty work Henry is prepared to do for Martinez.

(Photos courtesy: Getty Images)