Everton boss Roberto Martinez says the players deserve full credit for their successful first-half of the season.

The manager has received widespread acclaim for the work he has done in his first seven months at the Goodison helm.

But he told evertonfc.com: "All the credit needs to go to the players. As a player, you have two options. Embrace the new challenge or be very stubborn and not respond to a new way of working and playing the game.

"The players have been phenomenal from day one. They have been good listeners, they have wanted to open up, be brave and try things.

"From my point of view, we wanted to change many things. But we didn't want to lose anything that was good about the Club. And there is a lot that has been important that we haven't changed.

"There has been a combination of factors which have helped make it a natural transition but all the credit should go to the players for being so open-minded and working so hard on the new concepts we wanted to put in place."