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Frank Lampard lambasts his Everton players and makes stark admission on future

Frank Lampard lambasts his Everton players and makes a stark admission on the club’s future after their FA Cup exit at Crystal Palace.

He has challenged his squad to prove they have what it takes for a relegation scrap as they put in a dire performance when thrashed 4-0.

Lampard’s side are just three points clear of the drop zone, but crucially have two games in hand over Watford who occupy the final relegation place in the Premier League.

And the Everton boss, who is worried for Andros Townsend who suffered a ‘serious’ knee injury at Selhurst Park that could rule him out for the rest of the season, said: ‘There’s only so much you can keep trying to butter someone up to give them confidence. There’s a balance of confidence and playing at the cut-throat end of football here.

‘This was a quarter-final today to get to Wembley and you need the confidence to play. Have you got the bollocks to play?

‘Because we didn’t play that badly today and Palace didn’t play that well and we lost 4-0 because of a lack of confidence.

‘It wasn’t tactics — the tactics showed in the first 20 minutes because Palace couldn’t get out of their half. When you do things right within that structure then you will be all right, but if you can’t be clinical in front of goal then you won’t score goals or feel like you can score goals.

‘If you allow people to stroll into your box and finish with ease, they will finish with ease. So it’s basics.’

Lampard hopes the fact his team have just one target in mind between now and the end of the season will help their fight to stay in the top flight.

‘There’s clarity now,’ he said. ‘The job is to stay up, that’s the reality of it.’

Also following the match, Lampard admitted that perhaps it’s not the right time for his side at this point to be looking at getting a semi final tie at Wembley booked.

He remarked: “Maybe it’s not Everton’s time, it’s not my time as an Everton manager to be there at Wembley. Crystal Palace have been together for a while, with the manager since the start of the season, invested in really important areas of their squad and their team which they needed to do from last year.

“It’s their time, and it’s not ours. The job’s to stay up, that’s the reality of it. If you offer any Evertonian did they want to win today and get to Wembley or to stay up, we all know what the answer is.

“It’s not that clear-cut, I know that. And that’s not me getting out that that was anywhere near the message because the players just performed at 70% throughout the whole game. 70%.

“That’s not good enough and the reality is that’s the league. We’ve got 11 fights left.”

Lampard admits that the issue of confidence and mentality after going behind is a challenge for him to solve, but made the point clear that it had been a problem long before he took the job on Merseyside.

“It’s a challenge, because the issue of it has been here long before I got here. I don’t have a magic wand to get inside people’s heads and change a resilience across a whole squad,” he added.

“So it’s a work in progress. The difficult thing is we don’t have lots of time in terms of the league to do that. So when you see a lack of consistency – a resilient-looking team on Thursday and less so today – my job title is quite vast as a manager.

“To get inside heads and change that with the flick of a switch is impossible. So we have to just keep working.

“As frustrating as it is for me, as frustrating as it is for the fans who travelled down or were watching, that’s one we have to fight against.”

On what he’ll do during the international break: “Work on the defensive and offensive structure. We will work physically and repetitively.

“Clearly we need to repetitively [work on] defending our box because we did it well against Newcastle and we didn’t today. The only way I know to get better without a magic wand is to work.”

Twitter users gave their thoughts as Frank Lampard lambasts his Everton players and makes a stark admission on the future…

@AndrewTurmer: No idea what Frank worked on during his year away from management. Still can’t set up a team, stop counter attacks or affect games with in-game changes. And he still blames it all on his players.

@DavidLee668: He’s been watching Boris Johnson and learning how to pass the blame on to others. Obviously, not a details man!

@nikhalton: I was waiting to find out how it would be Rafa’s fault.

@jt1anglais: Lampard was a top player, but out of his depth as a manager and coach. Remember Tuchel took same group at Chelsea and transformed them. He should be learning his trade in a lower division or as an assistant. Compare and contrast to Viera’s journey. #Everton

@michaelsharman3: Sour Grapes Frank, rather than Super Frank. Embarrassing post-match response.

@mag_1892: Been to the Steve Bruce school of excuse making I see

@Kershaw444: As soon as they go a goal down it’s game over, Lampard isn’t helping with how he is speaking either

@LUFCcirca1972: How could it be Lampards fault. He’s football royalty. Someone should apologise to him. Bless.

@RobConlon25: Love that he also says: “We didn’t play that badly today.”

@philthy50: Surely Lampard was brought in to galvanise the players, introduce new tactics, instill confidence. You know, be a manager. He blames everything and everybody but himself. Obviously things were bad before he took over otherwise Benitez would still be there. He’s had 3 months.

@agbnufc_: Lampard sounds like your typical football twitter account ‘average goal, fluke goal, average goal’ 😭 Yet the media love him, bias is real.

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