Frank Lampard has bemoaned the bad luck he believes Everton are having as they continue to be sucked into an almighty relegation scrap.
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Everton lost 2-1 at West Ham on Sunday, as they have now lost six of Lampard’s first eight games in charge in the Premier League to be dragged deeper into the relegation battle.
They face Burnley on Wednesday knowing a defeat would move to them to within just one point of the bottom three.
Speaking to our partners in the UK at Sky Sports after the game, Lampard believed his side deserved more than a defeat at West Ham and believes everything is going against them.
Everton being kicked while they’re down
“Disappointment because we deserved at least a point from the game,” Lampard said as he summed up his emotions. “At 1-1 I fancied us to score a second. There’s a mistake and they break away and score. It drops to them. The first goal is a free-kick in the top corner. The reality is that we are in that kind of moment where everything is going against us – decisions, moments in games, red cards. I can’t fault the players, their character, play generally. The performance was really positive and we have 10 games to perform like that again and more.”
“We weren’t so good at Palace but passion and desire has been there. Not many teams do it every week. The reason we are in this position is that we want to get better. Today it was there and this is a tough place to come. They are organised and have quality. But two or three seasons ago they were fighting relegation. Now look at them and were they are now. That is the reality of football. The curve moves quickly and you need to make that work in your favour. It is not going our way at the moment, but we have to keep working. It is not easy to take positives from no points but we have to take positives from the performance.”
Lampard hits out at other factors ahead of crunch Burnley clash
Frank Lampard also complained that Allan’s red card against Newcastle (Mar. 17) should have been rescinded but he said ‘people want to save face’ while Donny van de Beek joined Everton’s growing injury list and now a suspension to Michael Keane has left him with selection issues for the massive game at Burnley.
Everton sit four points above Burnley heading into the key clash at Turf Moor, as both teams have 10 games remaining.
Lampard pointed to Everton’s growing injury issues and admitted that Wednesday’s game is massive in their season.
“We are stretched. I am less worried about personnel and more worried about the character of the group. What I saw today showed that,” Lampard said. “Burnley is a huge game no doubt, but there are nine more after that. We have games in hand on other teams but we must stick to the next game. Burnley is absolutely the most important at the minute and we have to show more quality – and there is that in this group – to stay up.”
In their final 10 games of the season you would realistically say that Everton could win four of them, which includes the trip to Burnley.
That would take their tally to 34 points, which may not be enough to keep them in the Premier League. Remember: Everton have never been relegated from the Premier League.
Frank Lampard sounds like a manager up against it and his players are playing with fear. That is an awful combination at this stage of the season.
