GrandOldSte117
Player Valuation: £25m
What do you mean? I'm referring to the comment I made about Abraham being at Derby.
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Excellent in depth interview with Lampard. I've not seen it elsewhere so apologies if this is duplication.
Casually drops in "it's not my job to be scouring data of European players for a No6 " - so clearly he sees DM as a key position and that Lewis Dobbin needs a loan. It's a good read.
Frank Lampard exclusive: ‘Character is huge. Selfish players can be downfall of any team’
“Now when you look back at it five months later, it sounds daunting. At the time, I probably didn’t take it in that much. I just focused on the team, but I sensed that something wasn’t quite right.”
When Frank Lampard came through the door in January as Rafael Benitez’s successor, Everton had no director of football, no head of recruitment and no scouting manager. Key personnel had also left from other departments, including medical.
Speaking exclusively to The Athletic from the team hotel in Washington DC where Everton are on their pre-season tour, he is revisiting the challenging opening months of his tenure that saw him inherit a club languishing close to the relegation zone, stripped of key assets on and off the field.
In those circumstances, revitalising Everton’s fortunes was always going to be a “challenge”, as he puts it now — a “long-term challenge” at that. He knew, though, that talk of visions and blueprints would have to wait.
With the immediate threat of relegation hanging over their heads, the focus initially was on steadying the ship.
Much has been made of his decision to implement a fines system for players at Chelsea. At Everton, though, Lampard chose to adopt a softer approach to unify the club. After the failures of Benitez’s tenure, he sensed the squad needed something different. More carrot, less stick.
“We went out of our way — and it was a big thing for me — to make sure we didn’t miss a trick with any player or person here,” Lampard says.
“In simple terms, it was: give players confidence, enjoy training, be competitive and understand what the club means to the fans. Try to create a link. Fans and media were huge things for me to try to get right, because I wondered coming up as a London boy how that would work.”
Only occasionally did he deviate from the tone he had set. After a dismal 4-0 FA Cup defeat to Crystal Palace in March, he intimated his players lacked the “bollocks” to perform at the necessary standard — a word he regrets using, even if he felt it was necessary to be “honest” with the fans. Following that, Everton lost two matches in the league — away to West Ham and Burnley.
“I took quite a bit of stick after the Palace game because of how honest I was, but it was a good thing in a way — the Everton fanbase wants to hear that. We got beat 4-0 by Palace, let’s not sugarcoat it.
“Then it was about trying to make the staff feel included and happy. There are so many Evertonians on the staff. So many people that love this club, work hard and give everything for it that I wanted to make sure they felt involved in the process.”
The connection that developed from there proved to be the turning point in Everton’s season — the extra one per cent that carried the team over the line.
There was elation and emotion after securing safety against Palace on the penultimate day of the season, but above all, relief at a bullet dodged.
There has been little opportunity since to rest on laurels. As soon as Everton secured safety with one game to spare, the focus turned to preventing a repeat.
Lampard has been in regular dialogue with his backroom staff and other key figures this summer as he looks to drive the team forward.
This is his first pre-season as manager of Everton, and an opportunity to properly stamp his mark on the club after the misery of the last campaign. He heads a new regime with fresh ideas and objectives, representing what many hope to be a clean break from the past.
In tandem with director of football Kevin Thelwell, who joined in February, Lampard has made tweaks behind the scenes in key areas. Thelwell, meanwhile, has also set about completely revamping the academy with a host of new appointments and roles created.
“We’ve made some adjustments in the analysis, sports science and medical departments,” Lampard says. “We have to recruit from outside to make sure it’s not just the same type of people all the time. We have to bring in some expertise. That’s Kevin’s remit because my job is to get on with what happens on the pitch.”
Cultural shifts are happening away from the pitch, too. Lampard’s wife Christine and Everton chief executive Denise Barrett-Baxendale are working on a way of “better integrating” the players’ wives and families so they feel closer to what is happening at the club. “We want to make this a warm club to work at. Sometimes you lose that a little bit, but we’re a club with a big heart,” Frank Lampard says.
Lampard calls the revamp at Everton a “work in progress”, something “you can’t rush” and “have to get right”. It will be a gradual process of evolution, with him and Thelwell taking a long-term view where possible.
“If we want to make the club better in the academy, in terms of recruitment, we’re going to need to do a lot and it can’t all be done at once,” says Lampard. “When you’ve got departments that are broken, it needs fixing.
“It obviously needed Kevin’s expertise on the academy side and in recruitment because it’s not my job to be scouring the data of European players for the No 6 position. That’s for the recruitment department and us to get together.
“So those things you could see that there was a bit of a hole, but it was something the board were very keen to get right. The chairman would always be very close to me on the football side and communicate regularly before and after.”
Lampard and Thelwell are said to dovetail well together. Certainly better than any of Everton’s other recent pairings.
The latter, a former academy chief at Wolves, is leading the overhaul at lower levels. Yet Lampard is feeding in on broader issues such as style and team principles across age-group levels.
“I trust Kevin to get it right,” he says. “All I ask for is a good relationship with the under-21s and under-18s managers, making sure we have the same principles, even if we don’t play the same system. Myself and Kevin relay that (the principles) to the academy and it felt like that was broken a bit previously.
“Changing managers regularly means you can never really lay down that path, so it ends up being slightly split. Hopefully this year we will have a closer relationship (with the academy) because the priorities last year meant it just couldn’t be done.”
Transfers are now also a more collaborative process. One of the key findings in Everton’s strategic review was that they needed to take a more “collegiate” approach when it came to recruitment of players, staff and managers.
“I have a big input with transfers and that’s important for me,” Lampard explains. “I’m very understanding of recruitment teams, an owner who supplies the money, the chairman’s position and Kevin’s position. I try to be aligned with everyone. I have my strong opinions on which direction and which type of player we need and from then on it’s a close, constant dialogue.
“I’m very much in the middle of that. It felt quite clear in my interview (for the job) that decisions are going to be well thought through.”
Lampard, Thelwell and co are working hard behind the scenes to reinforce the squad ahead of the new season. To date, though, the only signing Everton have made this summer is James Tarkowski, who joined on a free transfer from Burnley.
Brought in for his leadership qualities as much as his defensive nous, Tarkowski offers an insight into the kind of players Lampard and Thelwell are looking to recruit this summer. While the age and technical profile of new signings may differ, there will be a focus on adding character and leadership to a side that was often far too soft-centred last season.
“Kevin and I are big on personality,” the Everton manager says. “We want to bring in players of a good profile and you look at age there too because you can’t be too young or too old.
“You want good people. Selfish characters can be the downfall of any team. James Tarkowski is a well-spoken leader and straight away gives off a professional tone. Character in the dressing room is huge and the main attribute for me.”
Out of necessity, Lampard played a pragmatic brand of football in the final part of the season. With Everton’s top-flight future dangling by a particularly precarious thread — at one stage, they were five points adrift of safety — the former Chelsea and Derby manager’s long-term vision was temporarily cast aside in the search for points.
The key question for every Everton supporter is what comes next. What does Lampard’s Everton ultimately look like?
“It always starts with having a team with a great work ethic and energy,” he says. “The first thing I say when I speak to players at a new club is that we have to be a team that outruns and outfights the opposition. You can’t be a successful team without it. As great as Manchester City are technically, their physical data and pressing stats are always right up there.
“I’m more about principles than whether it’s a back three or back four. It’s more about the balance of how we want to play. We want to be able to play through the lines but also, if we have to play an early ball into the front, we will be more than happy to do that. I want speed in the game, to move things quickly. Hardworking and pressing, whether it’s high or in a block.
“I like watching teams with speed in their game. We can’t always replicate the top teams at Everton but we can do it in our own way. It works with the area and what fans in Liverpool want to see when they come to the match.”
At one stage last season, no Everton player epitomised that vision, and those principles, more than Richarlison. But with financial fair play a concern, the Brazilian was sold to Tottenham this summer to balance the books.
Replacing his impact will be tough, especially for a side that narrowly avoided relegation and is no longer able to spend the sums they once did. In Richarlison, Lampard had a player capable of playing on either side and down the middle. So Lampard’s ideal signing needs to be “versatile”.
“If you play with three forwards as most do, you need five or six for the season. Having one that can play all three (positions) helps manage things throughout the campaign.
“Richy gave us that last year. So in an ideal world probably that, but the best ones are very expensive.”
As this summer has so far proven, finding the right solutions can be tough, particularly with Everton having to make sure their money goes further in the market.
In some areas, answers could come from within. Everton’s extended 32-man squad for the US tour contains a host of youngsters from the academy, including 18-year-old Stanley Mills.
Impressive at right wing-back in the 2-0 defeat to Arsenal in Baltimore at the weekend as Everton kicked off their pre-season fixtures, Mills, son of former England international Danny, leads a talented group of prospects looking to force their way into Lampard’s plans.
The Everton manager admits to being “pleasantly surprised” by the quality of Everton’s young players, including Mills.
“The reason Stan’s here is that he trained really well. One day we were looking for a player for training and the staff mentioned Stan. I know Danny, so had wanted to see Stan anyway. Straight away you could see he had talent and character. He brings energy and cover.”
Others may well need to be more patient, biding their time for opportunities and looking to catch the eye in training.
“It would be great for Reece Welch and Isaac Price to train and stay with us, to understand their position because they are young and have to be patient. That’s something harder to convey to young players now. If they train well, then, like Isaac did at the end of last season, they will get some time on the pitch.
“Lewis Dobbin is one where a loan probably will be the best thing for him. He was great last year, trained well and showed energy and spark. But it’s a good time for him to go and play.
“There’s still more to go with them, and it’s not easy to get in the team. But every opportunity I get to integrate them I will, with the new rule over five subs which I think is great.”
Crucially, Lampard is backed up by a strong and experienced coaching team.
He worked with his No 2, Joe Edwards, at Chelsea. Head of performance Chris Jones has been with him since the beginning of his time in management, and in first-team coaches Paul Clement and Ashley Cole, he has two figures bringing different qualities to the table.
Living away from family means the group spend more time together now than ever before, reinforcing bonds that in most cases already existed.
Asked specifically about No 2 Edwards, Lampard is effusive in his praise.
“We’re close,” he says. “When I was playing at Chelsea, Joe was a young coach. I remember he came over to train me and Didier Drogba. I was shocked at the time because he was young and baby-faced and he was delivering to experienced pros. I found it impressive. He is talented and conscientious, so when I went back to Chelsea I promoted him and found him such a good friend and someone to lean on.”
Edwards, he says, is a “solutions man” — the kind of figure to quickly come up with a way of fixing a tactical quirk, but also key behind the scenes in liaising with players.
“He’ll always come in the next day after a game and say something like, ‘I saw this about our build and here’s what I think we should do about it’,” Lampard says. “He’s giving me solutions, which is a godsend because, at times, I’ll have 100 problems to deal with.
“Joe’s very popular with the lads. He’s very humble but I think he’ll make a great manager one day. He’s a big part of what we do here.
“It’s a nice balance with the experience of Clem (Paul Clement). Chris Jones has been with me from the beginning and is great on the physical side. Ash (Cole) coming in is a big deal in terms of what he offers, too. We all get on well and spend so many hours together. I’m lucky with the staff I’ve got here.”
https://www.facebook.com/OmazeUK/?_...Xnjb7vOy-cYKr59brNs-wnUjvJKzu5g&__tn__=<<,P-R
Casually drops in "it's not my job to be scouring data of European players for a No6 " - so clearly he sees DM as a key position and that Lewis Dobbin needs a loan. It's a good read.
Frank Lampard exclusive: ‘Character is huge. Selfish players can be downfall of any team’
“Now when you look back at it five months later, it sounds daunting. At the time, I probably didn’t take it in that much. I just focused on the team, but I sensed that something wasn’t quite right.”
When Frank Lampard came through the door in January as Rafael Benitez’s successor, Everton had no director of football, no head of recruitment and no scouting manager. Key personnel had also left from other departments, including medical.
Speaking exclusively to The Athletic from the team hotel in Washington DC where Everton are on their pre-season tour, he is revisiting the challenging opening months of his tenure that saw him inherit a club languishing close to the relegation zone, stripped of key assets on and off the field.
In those circumstances, revitalising Everton’s fortunes was always going to be a “challenge”, as he puts it now — a “long-term challenge” at that. He knew, though, that talk of visions and blueprints would have to wait.
With the immediate threat of relegation hanging over their heads, the focus initially was on steadying the ship.
Much has been made of his decision to implement a fines system for players at Chelsea. At Everton, though, Lampard chose to adopt a softer approach to unify the club. After the failures of Benitez’s tenure, he sensed the squad needed something different. More carrot, less stick.
“We went out of our way — and it was a big thing for me — to make sure we didn’t miss a trick with any player or person here,” Lampard says.
“In simple terms, it was: give players confidence, enjoy training, be competitive and understand what the club means to the fans. Try to create a link. Fans and media were huge things for me to try to get right, because I wondered coming up as a London boy how that would work.”
Only occasionally did he deviate from the tone he had set. After a dismal 4-0 FA Cup defeat to Crystal Palace in March, he intimated his players lacked the “bollocks” to perform at the necessary standard — a word he regrets using, even if he felt it was necessary to be “honest” with the fans. Following that, Everton lost two matches in the league — away to West Ham and Burnley.
“I took quite a bit of stick after the Palace game because of how honest I was, but it was a good thing in a way — the Everton fanbase wants to hear that. We got beat 4-0 by Palace, let’s not sugarcoat it.
“Then it was about trying to make the staff feel included and happy. There are so many Evertonians on the staff. So many people that love this club, work hard and give everything for it that I wanted to make sure they felt involved in the process.”
The connection that developed from there proved to be the turning point in Everton’s season — the extra one per cent that carried the team over the line.
There was elation and emotion after securing safety against Palace on the penultimate day of the season, but above all, relief at a bullet dodged.
There has been little opportunity since to rest on laurels. As soon as Everton secured safety with one game to spare, the focus turned to preventing a repeat.
Lampard has been in regular dialogue with his backroom staff and other key figures this summer as he looks to drive the team forward.
This is his first pre-season as manager of Everton, and an opportunity to properly stamp his mark on the club after the misery of the last campaign. He heads a new regime with fresh ideas and objectives, representing what many hope to be a clean break from the past.
In tandem with director of football Kevin Thelwell, who joined in February, Lampard has made tweaks behind the scenes in key areas. Thelwell, meanwhile, has also set about completely revamping the academy with a host of new appointments and roles created.
“We’ve made some adjustments in the analysis, sports science and medical departments,” Lampard says. “We have to recruit from outside to make sure it’s not just the same type of people all the time. We have to bring in some expertise. That’s Kevin’s remit because my job is to get on with what happens on the pitch.”
Cultural shifts are happening away from the pitch, too. Lampard’s wife Christine and Everton chief executive Denise Barrett-Baxendale are working on a way of “better integrating” the players’ wives and families so they feel closer to what is happening at the club. “We want to make this a warm club to work at. Sometimes you lose that a little bit, but we’re a club with a big heart,” Frank Lampard says.
Lampard calls the revamp at Everton a “work in progress”, something “you can’t rush” and “have to get right”. It will be a gradual process of evolution, with him and Thelwell taking a long-term view where possible.
“If we want to make the club better in the academy, in terms of recruitment, we’re going to need to do a lot and it can’t all be done at once,” says Lampard. “When you’ve got departments that are broken, it needs fixing.
“It obviously needed Kevin’s expertise on the academy side and in recruitment because it’s not my job to be scouring the data of European players for the No 6 position. That’s for the recruitment department and us to get together.
“So those things you could see that there was a bit of a hole, but it was something the board were very keen to get right. The chairman would always be very close to me on the football side and communicate regularly before and after.”
Lampard and Thelwell are said to dovetail well together. Certainly better than any of Everton’s other recent pairings.
The latter, a former academy chief at Wolves, is leading the overhaul at lower levels. Yet Lampard is feeding in on broader issues such as style and team principles across age-group levels.
“I trust Kevin to get it right,” he says. “All I ask for is a good relationship with the under-21s and under-18s managers, making sure we have the same principles, even if we don’t play the same system. Myself and Kevin relay that (the principles) to the academy and it felt like that was broken a bit previously.
“Changing managers regularly means you can never really lay down that path, so it ends up being slightly split. Hopefully this year we will have a closer relationship (with the academy) because the priorities last year meant it just couldn’t be done.”
Transfers are now also a more collaborative process. One of the key findings in Everton’s strategic review was that they needed to take a more “collegiate” approach when it came to recruitment of players, staff and managers.
“I have a big input with transfers and that’s important for me,” Lampard explains. “I’m very understanding of recruitment teams, an owner who supplies the money, the chairman’s position and Kevin’s position. I try to be aligned with everyone. I have my strong opinions on which direction and which type of player we need and from then on it’s a close, constant dialogue.
“I’m very much in the middle of that. It felt quite clear in my interview (for the job) that decisions are going to be well thought through.”
Lampard, Thelwell and co are working hard behind the scenes to reinforce the squad ahead of the new season. To date, though, the only signing Everton have made this summer is James Tarkowski, who joined on a free transfer from Burnley.
Brought in for his leadership qualities as much as his defensive nous, Tarkowski offers an insight into the kind of players Lampard and Thelwell are looking to recruit this summer. While the age and technical profile of new signings may differ, there will be a focus on adding character and leadership to a side that was often far too soft-centred last season.
“Kevin and I are big on personality,” the Everton manager says. “We want to bring in players of a good profile and you look at age there too because you can’t be too young or too old.
“You want good people. Selfish characters can be the downfall of any team. James Tarkowski is a well-spoken leader and straight away gives off a professional tone. Character in the dressing room is huge and the main attribute for me.”
Out of necessity, Lampard played a pragmatic brand of football in the final part of the season. With Everton’s top-flight future dangling by a particularly precarious thread — at one stage, they were five points adrift of safety — the former Chelsea and Derby manager’s long-term vision was temporarily cast aside in the search for points.
The key question for every Everton supporter is what comes next. What does Lampard’s Everton ultimately look like?
“It always starts with having a team with a great work ethic and energy,” he says. “The first thing I say when I speak to players at a new club is that we have to be a team that outruns and outfights the opposition. You can’t be a successful team without it. As great as Manchester City are technically, their physical data and pressing stats are always right up there.
“I’m more about principles than whether it’s a back three or back four. It’s more about the balance of how we want to play. We want to be able to play through the lines but also, if we have to play an early ball into the front, we will be more than happy to do that. I want speed in the game, to move things quickly. Hardworking and pressing, whether it’s high or in a block.
“I like watching teams with speed in their game. We can’t always replicate the top teams at Everton but we can do it in our own way. It works with the area and what fans in Liverpool want to see when they come to the match.”
At one stage last season, no Everton player epitomised that vision, and those principles, more than Richarlison. But with financial fair play a concern, the Brazilian was sold to Tottenham this summer to balance the books.
Replacing his impact will be tough, especially for a side that narrowly avoided relegation and is no longer able to spend the sums they once did. In Richarlison, Lampard had a player capable of playing on either side and down the middle. So Lampard’s ideal signing needs to be “versatile”.
“If you play with three forwards as most do, you need five or six for the season. Having one that can play all three (positions) helps manage things throughout the campaign.
“Richy gave us that last year. So in an ideal world probably that, but the best ones are very expensive.”
As this summer has so far proven, finding the right solutions can be tough, particularly with Everton having to make sure their money goes further in the market.
In some areas, answers could come from within. Everton’s extended 32-man squad for the US tour contains a host of youngsters from the academy, including 18-year-old Stanley Mills.
Impressive at right wing-back in the 2-0 defeat to Arsenal in Baltimore at the weekend as Everton kicked off their pre-season fixtures, Mills, son of former England international Danny, leads a talented group of prospects looking to force their way into Lampard’s plans.
The Everton manager admits to being “pleasantly surprised” by the quality of Everton’s young players, including Mills.
“The reason Stan’s here is that he trained really well. One day we were looking for a player for training and the staff mentioned Stan. I know Danny, so had wanted to see Stan anyway. Straight away you could see he had talent and character. He brings energy and cover.”
Others may well need to be more patient, biding their time for opportunities and looking to catch the eye in training.
“It would be great for Reece Welch and Isaac Price to train and stay with us, to understand their position because they are young and have to be patient. That’s something harder to convey to young players now. If they train well, then, like Isaac did at the end of last season, they will get some time on the pitch.
“Lewis Dobbin is one where a loan probably will be the best thing for him. He was great last year, trained well and showed energy and spark. But it’s a good time for him to go and play.
“There’s still more to go with them, and it’s not easy to get in the team. But every opportunity I get to integrate them I will, with the new rule over five subs which I think is great.”
Crucially, Lampard is backed up by a strong and experienced coaching team.
He worked with his No 2, Joe Edwards, at Chelsea. Head of performance Chris Jones has been with him since the beginning of his time in management, and in first-team coaches Paul Clement and Ashley Cole, he has two figures bringing different qualities to the table.
Living away from family means the group spend more time together now than ever before, reinforcing bonds that in most cases already existed.
Asked specifically about No 2 Edwards, Lampard is effusive in his praise.
“We’re close,” he says. “When I was playing at Chelsea, Joe was a young coach. I remember he came over to train me and Didier Drogba. I was shocked at the time because he was young and baby-faced and he was delivering to experienced pros. I found it impressive. He is talented and conscientious, so when I went back to Chelsea I promoted him and found him such a good friend and someone to lean on.”
Edwards, he says, is a “solutions man” — the kind of figure to quickly come up with a way of fixing a tactical quirk, but also key behind the scenes in liaising with players.
“He’ll always come in the next day after a game and say something like, ‘I saw this about our build and here’s what I think we should do about it’,” Lampard says. “He’s giving me solutions, which is a godsend because, at times, I’ll have 100 problems to deal with.
“Joe’s very popular with the lads. He’s very humble but I think he’ll make a great manager one day. He’s a big part of what we do here.
“It’s a nice balance with the experience of Clem (Paul Clement). Chris Jones has been with me from the beginning and is great on the physical side. Ash (Cole) coming in is a big deal in terms of what he offers, too. We all get on well and spend so many hours together. I’m lucky with the staff I’ve got here.”
https://www.facebook.com/OmazeUK/?_...Xnjb7vOy-cYKr59brNs-wnUjvJKzu5g&__tn__=<<,P-R
bluestevon
Player Valuation: £80m
Excellent in depth interview with Lampard. I've not seen it elsewhere so apologies if this is duplication.
Casually drops in "it's not my job to be scouring data of European players for a No6 " - so clearly he sees DM as a key position and that Lewis Dobbin needs a loan. It's a good read.
Frank Lampard exclusive: ‘Character is huge. Selfish players can be downfall of any team’
“Now when you look back at it five months later, it sounds daunting. At the time, I probably didn’t take it in that much. I just focused on the team, but I sensed that something wasn’t quite right.”
When Frank Lampard came through the door in January as Rafael Benitez’s successor, Everton had no director of football, no head of recruitment and no scouting manager. Key personnel had also left from other departments, including medical.
Speaking exclusively to The Athletic from the team hotel in Washington DC where Everton are on their pre-season tour, he is revisiting the challenging opening months of his tenure that saw him inherit a club languishing close to the relegation zone, stripped of key assets on and off the field.
In those circumstances, revitalising Everton’s fortunes was always going to be a “challenge”, as he puts it now — a “long-term challenge” at that. He knew, though, that talk of visions and blueprints would have to wait.
With the immediate threat of relegation hanging over their heads, the focus initially was on steadying the ship.
Much has been made of his decision to implement a fines system for players at Chelsea. At Everton, though, Lampard chose to adopt a softer approach to unify the club. After the failures of Benitez’s tenure, he sensed the squad needed something different. More carrot, less stick.
“We went out of our way — and it was a big thing for me — to make sure we didn’t miss a trick with any player or person here,” Lampard says.
“In simple terms, it was: give players confidence, enjoy training, be competitive and understand what the club means to the fans. Try to create a link. Fans and media were huge things for me to try to get right, because I wondered coming up as a London boy how that would work.”
Only occasionally did he deviate from the tone he had set. After a dismal 4-0 FA Cup defeat to Crystal Palace in March, he intimated his players lacked the “bollocks” to perform at the necessary standard — a word he regrets using, even if he felt it was necessary to be “honest” with the fans. Following that, Everton lost two matches in the league — away to West Ham and Burnley.
“I took quite a bit of stick after the Palace game because of how honest I was, but it was a good thing in a way — the Everton fanbase wants to hear that. We got beat 4-0 by Palace, let’s not sugarcoat it.
“Then it was about trying to make the staff feel included and happy. There are so many Evertonians on the staff. So many people that love this club, work hard and give everything for it that I wanted to make sure they felt involved in the process.”
The connection that developed from there proved to be the turning point in Everton’s season — the extra one per cent that carried the team over the line.
There was elation and emotion after securing safety against Palace on the penultimate day of the season, but above all, relief at a bullet dodged.
There has been little opportunity since to rest on laurels. As soon as Everton secured safety with one game to spare, the focus turned to preventing a repeat.
Lampard has been in regular dialogue with his backroom staff and other key figures this summer as he looks to drive the team forward.
This is his first pre-season as manager of Everton, and an opportunity to properly stamp his mark on the club after the misery of the last campaign. He heads a new regime with fresh ideas and objectives, representing what many hope to be a clean break from the past.
In tandem with director of football Kevin Thelwell, who joined in February, Lampard has made tweaks behind the scenes in key areas. Thelwell, meanwhile, has also set about completely revamping the academy with a host of new appointments and roles created.
“We’ve made some adjustments in the analysis, sports science and medical departments,” Lampard says. “We have to recruit from outside to make sure it’s not just the same type of people all the time. We have to bring in some expertise. That’s Kevin’s remit because my job is to get on with what happens on the pitch.”
Cultural shifts are happening away from the pitch, too. Lampard’s wife Christine and Everton chief executive Denise Barrett-Baxendale are working on a way of “better integrating” the players’ wives and families so they feel closer to what is happening at the club. “We want to make this a warm club to work at. Sometimes you lose that a little bit, but we’re a club with a big heart,” Frank Lampard says.
Lampard calls the revamp at Everton a “work in progress”, something “you can’t rush” and “have to get right”. It will be a gradual process of evolution, with him and Thelwell taking a long-term view where possible.
“If we want to make the club better in the academy, in terms of recruitment, we’re going to need to do a lot and it can’t all be done at once,” says Lampard. “When you’ve got departments that are broken, it needs fixing.
“It obviously needed Kevin’s expertise on the academy side and in recruitment because it’s not my job to be scouring the data of European players for the No 6 position. That’s for the recruitment department and us to get together.
“So those things you could see that there was a bit of a hole, but it was something the board were very keen to get right. The chairman would always be very close to me on the football side and communicate regularly before and after.”
Lampard and Thelwell are said to dovetail well together. Certainly better than any of Everton’s other recent pairings.
The latter, a former academy chief at Wolves, is leading the overhaul at lower levels. Yet Lampard is feeding in on broader issues such as style and team principles across age-group levels.
“I trust Kevin to get it right,” he says. “All I ask for is a good relationship with the under-21s and under-18s managers, making sure we have the same principles, even if we don’t play the same system. Myself and Kevin relay that (the principles) to the academy and it felt like that was broken a bit previously.
“Changing managers regularly means you can never really lay down that path, so it ends up being slightly split. Hopefully this year we will have a closer relationship (with the academy) because the priorities last year meant it just couldn’t be done.”
Transfers are now also a more collaborative process. One of the key findings in Everton’s strategic review was that they needed to take a more “collegiate” approach when it came to recruitment of players, staff and managers.
“I have a big input with transfers and that’s important for me,” Lampard explains. “I’m very understanding of recruitment teams, an owner who supplies the money, the chairman’s position and Kevin’s position. I try to be aligned with everyone. I have my strong opinions on which direction and which type of player we need and from then on it’s a close, constant dialogue.
“I’m very much in the middle of that. It felt quite clear in my interview (for the job) that decisions are going to be well thought through.”
Lampard, Thelwell and co are working hard behind the scenes to reinforce the squad ahead of the new season. To date, though, the only signing Everton have made this summer is James Tarkowski, who joined on a free transfer from Burnley.
Brought in for his leadership qualities as much as his defensive nous, Tarkowski offers an insight into the kind of players Lampard and Thelwell are looking to recruit this summer. While the age and technical profile of new signings may differ, there will be a focus on adding character and leadership to a side that was often far too soft-centred last season.
“Kevin and I are big on personality,” the Everton manager says. “We want to bring in players of a good profile and you look at age there too because you can’t be too young or too old.
“You want good people. Selfish characters can be the downfall of any team. James Tarkowski is a well-spoken leader and straight away gives off a professional tone. Character in the dressing room is huge and the main attribute for me.”
Out of necessity, Lampard played a pragmatic brand of football in the final part of the season. With Everton’s top-flight future dangling by a particularly precarious thread — at one stage, they were five points adrift of safety — the former Chelsea and Derby manager’s long-term vision was temporarily cast aside in the search for points.
The key question for every Everton supporter is what comes next. What does Lampard’s Everton ultimately look like?
“It always starts with having a team with a great work ethic and energy,” he says. “The first thing I say when I speak to players at a new club is that we have to be a team that outruns and outfights the opposition. You can’t be a successful team without it. As great as Manchester City are technically, their physical data and pressing stats are always right up there.
“I’m more about principles than whether it’s a back three or back four. It’s more about the balance of how we want to play. We want to be able to play through the lines but also, if we have to play an early ball into the front, we will be more than happy to do that. I want speed in the game, to move things quickly. Hardworking and pressing, whether it’s high or in a block.
“I like watching teams with speed in their game. We can’t always replicate the top teams at Everton but we can do it in our own way. It works with the area and what fans in Liverpool want to see when they come to the match.”
At one stage last season, no Everton player epitomised that vision, and those principles, more than Richarlison. But with financial fair play a concern, the Brazilian was sold to Tottenham this summer to balance the books.
Replacing his impact will be tough, especially for a side that narrowly avoided relegation and is no longer able to spend the sums they once did. In Richarlison, Lampard had a player capable of playing on either side and down the middle. So Lampard’s ideal signing needs to be “versatile”.
“If you play with three forwards as most do, you need five or six for the season. Having one that can play all three (positions) helps manage things throughout the campaign.
“Richy gave us that last year. So in an ideal world probably that, but the best ones are very expensive.”
As this summer has so far proven, finding the right solutions can be tough, particularly with Everton having to make sure their money goes further in the market.
In some areas, answers could come from within. Everton’s extended 32-man squad for the US tour contains a host of youngsters from the academy, including 18-year-old Stanley Mills.
Impressive at right wing-back in the 2-0 defeat to Arsenal in Baltimore at the weekend as Everton kicked off their pre-season fixtures, Mills, son of former England international Danny, leads a talented group of prospects looking to force their way into Lampard’s plans.
The Everton manager admits to being “pleasantly surprised” by the quality of Everton’s young players, including Mills.
“The reason Stan’s here is that he trained really well. One day we were looking for a player for training and the staff mentioned Stan. I know Danny, so had wanted to see Stan anyway. Straight away you could see he had talent and character. He brings energy and cover.”
Others may well need to be more patient, biding their time for opportunities and looking to catch the eye in training.
“It would be great for Reece Welch and Isaac Price to train and stay with us, to understand their position because they are young and have to be patient. That’s something harder to convey to young players now. If they train well, then, like Isaac did at the end of last season, they will get some time on the pitch.
“Lewis Dobbin is one where a loan probably will be the best thing for him. He was great last year, trained well and showed energy and spark. But it’s a good time for him to go and play.
“There’s still more to go with them, and it’s not easy to get in the team. But every opportunity I get to integrate them I will, with the new rule over five subs which I think is great.”
Crucially, Lampard is backed up by a strong and experienced coaching team.
He worked with his No 2, Joe Edwards, at Chelsea. Head of performance Chris Jones has been with him since the beginning of his time in management, and in first-team coaches Paul Clement and Ashley Cole, he has two figures bringing different qualities to the table.
Living away from family means the group spend more time together now than ever before, reinforcing bonds that in most cases already existed.
Asked specifically about No 2 Edwards, Lampard is effusive in his praise.
“We’re close,” he says. “When I was playing at Chelsea, Joe was a young coach. I remember he came over to train me and Didier Drogba. I was shocked at the time because he was young and baby-faced and he was delivering to experienced pros. I found it impressive. He is talented and conscientious, so when I went back to Chelsea I promoted him and found him such a good friend and someone to lean on.”
Edwards, he says, is a “solutions man” — the kind of figure to quickly come up with a way of fixing a tactical quirk, but also key behind the scenes in liaising with players.
“He’ll always come in the next day after a game and say something like, ‘I saw this about our build and here’s what I think we should do about it’,” Lampard says. “He’s giving me solutions, which is a godsend because, at times, I’ll have 100 problems to deal with.
“Joe’s very popular with the lads. He’s very humble but I think he’ll make a great manager one day. He’s a big part of what we do here.
“It’s a nice balance with the experience of Clem (Paul Clement). Chris Jones has been with me from the beginning and is great on the physical side. Ash (Cole) coming in is a big deal in terms of what he offers, too. We all get on well and spend so many hours together. I’m lucky with the staff I’ve got here.”
https://www.facebook.com/OmazeUK/?__cft__[0]=AZUT2PJx-E2qPJtuDvoP8hulsHe0QlDOLlX45vOci91Hpg7SJlddruWFvBLKjlU7PbWhUye9LIVCDUkI6vUbIqTJE4EA2_reGJmUvIq4khAb54lRJK2uCSLy72GMO5oupNvllvT_jCGzGmOxp1MsB7404dz9QNulela37jhgtYSaNjZK8pdYtCbnFbRW2Ha0oeKPoU9a6cSmqtL4BoM-spthOY9gIa4TulX3U5WWoV0DCAOt8xafY797lT5-6Zm5edEKnZDsqCslRcgXnjb7vOy-cYKr59brNs-wnUjvJKzu5g&__tn__=<<,P-R
Great read, now let's hope we actually back him
vintage-toffees
Player Valuation: £10m
Excellent in depth interview with Lampard. I've not seen it elsewhere so apologies if this is duplication.
Casually drops in "it's not my job to be scouring data of European players for a No6 " - so clearly he sees DM as a key position and that Lewis Dobbin needs a loan. It's a good read.
Frank Lampard exclusive: ‘Character is huge. Selfish players can be downfall of any team’
“Now when you look back at it five months later, it sounds daunting. At the time, I probably didn’t take it in that much. I just focused on the team, but I sensed that something wasn’t quite right.”
When Frank Lampard came through the door in January as Rafael Benitez’s successor, Everton had no director of football, no head of recruitment and no scouting manager. Key personnel had also left from other departments, including medical.
Speaking exclusively to The Athletic from the team hotel in Washington DC where Everton are on their pre-season tour, he is revisiting the challenging opening months of his tenure that saw him inherit a club languishing close to the relegation zone, stripped of key assets on and off the field.
In those circumstances, revitalising Everton’s fortunes was always going to be a “challenge”, as he puts it now — a “long-term challenge” at that. He knew, though, that talk of visions and blueprints would have to wait.
With the immediate threat of relegation hanging over their heads, the focus initially was on steadying the ship.
Much has been made of his decision to implement a fines system for players at Chelsea. At Everton, though, Lampard chose to adopt a softer approach to unify the club. After the failures of Benitez’s tenure, he sensed the squad needed something different. More carrot, less stick.
“We went out of our way — and it was a big thing for me — to make sure we didn’t miss a trick with any player or person here,” Lampard says.
“In simple terms, it was: give players confidence, enjoy training, be competitive and understand what the club means to the fans. Try to create a link. Fans and media were huge things for me to try to get right, because I wondered coming up as a London boy how that would work.”
Only occasionally did he deviate from the tone he had set. After a dismal 4-0 FA Cup defeat to Crystal Palace in March, he intimated his players lacked the “bollocks” to perform at the necessary standard — a word he regrets using, even if he felt it was necessary to be “honest” with the fans. Following that, Everton lost two matches in the league — away to West Ham and Burnley.
“I took quite a bit of stick after the Palace game because of how honest I was, but it was a good thing in a way — the Everton fanbase wants to hear that. We got beat 4-0 by Palace, let’s not sugarcoat it.
“Then it was about trying to make the staff feel included and happy. There are so many Evertonians on the staff. So many people that love this club, work hard and give everything for it that I wanted to make sure they felt involved in the process.”
The connection that developed from there proved to be the turning point in Everton’s season — the extra one per cent that carried the team over the line.
There was elation and emotion after securing safety against Palace on the penultimate day of the season, but above all, relief at a bullet dodged.
There has been little opportunity since to rest on laurels. As soon as Everton secured safety with one game to spare, the focus turned to preventing a repeat.
Lampard has been in regular dialogue with his backroom staff and other key figures this summer as he looks to drive the team forward.
This is his first pre-season as manager of Everton, and an opportunity to properly stamp his mark on the club after the misery of the last campaign. He heads a new regime with fresh ideas and objectives, representing what many hope to be a clean break from the past.
In tandem with director of football Kevin Thelwell, who joined in February, Lampard has made tweaks behind the scenes in key areas. Thelwell, meanwhile, has also set about completely revamping the academy with a host of new appointments and roles created.
“We’ve made some adjustments in the analysis, sports science and medical departments,” Lampard says. “We have to recruit from outside to make sure it’s not just the same type of people all the time. We have to bring in some expertise. That’s Kevin’s remit because my job is to get on with what happens on the pitch.”
Cultural shifts are happening away from the pitch, too. Lampard’s wife Christine and Everton chief executive Denise Barrett-Baxendale are working on a way of “better integrating” the players’ wives and families so they feel closer to what is happening at the club. “We want to make this a warm club to work at. Sometimes you lose that a little bit, but we’re a club with a big heart,” Frank Lampard says.
Lampard calls the revamp at Everton a “work in progress”, something “you can’t rush” and “have to get right”. It will be a gradual process of evolution, with him and Thelwell taking a long-term view where possible.
“If we want to make the club better in the academy, in terms of recruitment, we’re going to need to do a lot and it can’t all be done at once,” says Lampard. “When you’ve got departments that are broken, it needs fixing.
“It obviously needed Kevin’s expertise on the academy side and in recruitment because it’s not my job to be scouring the data of European players for the No 6 position. That’s for the recruitment department and us to get together.
“So those things you could see that there was a bit of a hole, but it was something the board were very keen to get right. The chairman would always be very close to me on the football side and communicate regularly before and after.”
Lampard and Thelwell are said to dovetail well together. Certainly better than any of Everton’s other recent pairings.
The latter, a former academy chief at Wolves, is leading the overhaul at lower levels. Yet Lampard is feeding in on broader issues such as style and team principles across age-group levels.
“I trust Kevin to get it right,” he says. “All I ask for is a good relationship with the under-21s and under-18s managers, making sure we have the same principles, even if we don’t play the same system. Myself and Kevin relay that (the principles) to the academy and it felt like that was broken a bit previously.
“Changing managers regularly means you can never really lay down that path, so it ends up being slightly split. Hopefully this year we will have a closer relationship (with the academy) because the priorities last year meant it just couldn’t be done.”
Transfers are now also a more collaborative process. One of the key findings in Everton’s strategic review was that they needed to take a more “collegiate” approach when it came to recruitment of players, staff and managers.
“I have a big input with transfers and that’s important for me,” Lampard explains. “I’m very understanding of recruitment teams, an owner who supplies the money, the chairman’s position and Kevin’s position. I try to be aligned with everyone. I have my strong opinions on which direction and which type of player we need and from then on it’s a close, constant dialogue.
“I’m very much in the middle of that. It felt quite clear in my interview (for the job) that decisions are going to be well thought through.”
Lampard, Thelwell and co are working hard behind the scenes to reinforce the squad ahead of the new season. To date, though, the only signing Everton have made this summer is James Tarkowski, who joined on a free transfer from Burnley.
Brought in for his leadership qualities as much as his defensive nous, Tarkowski offers an insight into the kind of players Lampard and Thelwell are looking to recruit this summer. While the age and technical profile of new signings may differ, there will be a focus on adding character and leadership to a side that was often far too soft-centred last season.
“Kevin and I are big on personality,” the Everton manager says. “We want to bring in players of a good profile and you look at age there too because you can’t be too young or too old.
“You want good people. Selfish characters can be the downfall of any team. James Tarkowski is a well-spoken leader and straight away gives off a professional tone. Character in the dressing room is huge and the main attribute for me.”
Out of necessity, Lampard played a pragmatic brand of football in the final part of the season. With Everton’s top-flight future dangling by a particularly precarious thread — at one stage, they were five points adrift of safety — the former Chelsea and Derby manager’s long-term vision was temporarily cast aside in the search for points.
The key question for every Everton supporter is what comes next. What does Lampard’s Everton ultimately look like?
“It always starts with having a team with a great work ethic and energy,” he says. “The first thing I say when I speak to players at a new club is that we have to be a team that outruns and outfights the opposition. You can’t be a successful team without it. As great as Manchester City are technically, their physical data and pressing stats are always right up there.
“I’m more about principles than whether it’s a back three or back four. It’s more about the balance of how we want to play. We want to be able to play through the lines but also, if we have to play an early ball into the front, we will be more than happy to do that. I want speed in the game, to move things quickly. Hardworking and pressing, whether it’s high or in a block.
“I like watching teams with speed in their game. We can’t always replicate the top teams at Everton but we can do it in our own way. It works with the area and what fans in Liverpool want to see when they come to the match.”
At one stage last season, no Everton player epitomised that vision, and those principles, more than Richarlison. But with financial fair play a concern, the Brazilian was sold to Tottenham this summer to balance the books.
Replacing his impact will be tough, especially for a side that narrowly avoided relegation and is no longer able to spend the sums they once did. In Richarlison, Lampard had a player capable of playing on either side and down the middle. So Lampard’s ideal signing needs to be “versatile”.
“If you play with three forwards as most do, you need five or six for the season. Having one that can play all three (positions) helps manage things throughout the campaign.
“Richy gave us that last year. So in an ideal world probably that, but the best ones are very expensive.”
As this summer has so far proven, finding the right solutions can be tough, particularly with Everton having to make sure their money goes further in the market.
In some areas, answers could come from within. Everton’s extended 32-man squad for the US tour contains a host of youngsters from the academy, including 18-year-old Stanley Mills.
Impressive at right wing-back in the 2-0 defeat to Arsenal in Baltimore at the weekend as Everton kicked off their pre-season fixtures, Mills, son of former England international Danny, leads a talented group of prospects looking to force their way into Lampard’s plans.
The Everton manager admits to being “pleasantly surprised” by the quality of Everton’s young players, including Mills.
“The reason Stan’s here is that he trained really well. One day we were looking for a player for training and the staff mentioned Stan. I know Danny, so had wanted to see Stan anyway. Straight away you could see he had talent and character. He brings energy and cover.”
Others may well need to be more patient, biding their time for opportunities and looking to catch the eye in training.
“It would be great for Reece Welch and Isaac Price to train and stay with us, to understand their position because they are young and have to be patient. That’s something harder to convey to young players now. If they train well, then, like Isaac did at the end of last season, they will get some time on the pitch.
“Lewis Dobbin is one where a loan probably will be the best thing for him. He was great last year, trained well and showed energy and spark. But it’s a good time for him to go and play.
“There’s still more to go with them, and it’s not easy to get in the team. But every opportunity I get to integrate them I will, with the new rule over five subs which I think is great.”
Crucially, Lampard is backed up by a strong and experienced coaching team.
He worked with his No 2, Joe Edwards, at Chelsea. Head of performance Chris Jones has been with him since the beginning of his time in management, and in first-team coaches Paul Clement and Ashley Cole, he has two figures bringing different qualities to the table.
Living away from family means the group spend more time together now than ever before, reinforcing bonds that in most cases already existed.
Asked specifically about No 2 Edwards, Lampard is effusive in his praise.
“We’re close,” he says. “When I was playing at Chelsea, Joe was a young coach. I remember he came over to train me and Didier Drogba. I was shocked at the time because he was young and baby-faced and he was delivering to experienced pros. I found it impressive. He is talented and conscientious, so when I went back to Chelsea I promoted him and found him such a good friend and someone to lean on.”
Edwards, he says, is a “solutions man” — the kind of figure to quickly come up with a way of fixing a tactical quirk, but also key behind the scenes in liaising with players.
“He’ll always come in the next day after a game and say something like, ‘I saw this about our build and here’s what I think we should do about it’,” Lampard says. “He’s giving me solutions, which is a godsend because, at times, I’ll have 100 problems to deal with.
“Joe’s very popular with the lads. He’s very humble but I think he’ll make a great manager one day. He’s a big part of what we do here.
“It’s a nice balance with the experience of Clem (Paul Clement). Chris Jones has been with me from the beginning and is great on the physical side. Ash (Cole) coming in is a big deal in terms of what he offers, too. We all get on well and spend so many hours together. I’m lucky with the staff I’ve got here.”
https://www.facebook.com/OmazeUK/?__cft__[0]=AZUT2PJx-E2qPJtuDvoP8hulsHe0QlDOLlX45vOci91Hpg7SJlddruWFvBLKjlU7PbWhUye9LIVCDUkI6vUbIqTJE4EA2_reGJmUvIq4khAb54lRJK2uCSLy72GMO5oupNvllvT_jCGzGmOxp1MsB7404dz9QNulela37jhgtYSaNjZK8pdYtCbnFbRW2Ha0oeKPoU9a6cSmqtL4BoM-spthOY9gIa4TulX3U5WWoV0DCAOt8xafY797lT5-6Zm5edEKnZDsqCslRcgXnjb7vOy-cYKr59brNs-wnUjvJKzu5g&__tn__=<<,P-R
Thought that was a brilliant read
bluejohn66
Player Valuation: £15m
That's a really good insight into what he's trying to achieve all be it with one arm tied behind his back. Strange that he doesn't mention that he acknowledges the Circus of a board will use him as a PATSY by December !!Excellent in depth interview with Lampard. I've not seen it elsewhere so apologies if this is duplication.
Casually drops in "it's not my job to be scouring data of European players for a No6 " - so clearly he sees DM as a key position and that Lewis Dobbin needs a loan. It's a good read.
Frank Lampard exclusive: ‘Character is huge. Selfish players can be downfall of any team’
“Now when you look back at it five months later, it sounds daunting. At the time, I probably didn’t take it in that much. I just focused on the team, but I sensed that something wasn’t quite right.”
When Frank Lampard came through the door in January as Rafael Benitez’s successor, Everton had no director of football, no head of recruitment and no scouting manager. Key personnel had also left from other departments, including medical.
Speaking exclusively to The Athletic from the team hotel in Washington DC where Everton are on their pre-season tour, he is revisiting the challenging opening months of his tenure that saw him inherit a club languishing close to the relegation zone, stripped of key assets on and off the field.
In those circumstances, revitalising Everton’s fortunes was always going to be a “challenge”, as he puts it now — a “long-term challenge” at that. He knew, though, that talk of visions and blueprints would have to wait.
With the immediate threat of relegation hanging over their heads, the focus initially was on steadying the ship.
Much has been made of his decision to implement a fines system for players at Chelsea. At Everton, though, Lampard chose to adopt a softer approach to unify the club. After the failures of Benitez’s tenure, he sensed the squad needed something different. More carrot, less stick.
“We went out of our way — and it was a big thing for me — to make sure we didn’t miss a trick with any player or person here,” Lampard says.
“In simple terms, it was: give players confidence, enjoy training, be competitive and understand what the club means to the fans. Try to create a link. Fans and media were huge things for me to try to get right, because I wondered coming up as a London boy how that would work.”
Only occasionally did he deviate from the tone he had set. After a dismal 4-0 FA Cup defeat to Crystal Palace in March, he intimated his players lacked the “bollocks” to perform at the necessary standard — a word he regrets using, even if he felt it was necessary to be “honest” with the fans. Following that, Everton lost two matches in the league — away to West Ham and Burnley.
“I took quite a bit of stick after the Palace game because of how honest I was, but it was a good thing in a way — the Everton fanbase wants to hear that. We got beat 4-0 by Palace, let’s not sugarcoat it.
“Then it was about trying to make the staff feel included and happy. There are so many Evertonians on the staff. So many people that love this club, work hard and give everything for it that I wanted to make sure they felt involved in the process.”
The connection that developed from there proved to be the turning point in Everton’s season — the extra one per cent that carried the team over the line.
There was elation and emotion after securing safety against Palace on the penultimate day of the season, but above all, relief at a bullet dodged.
There has been little opportunity since to rest on laurels. As soon as Everton secured safety with one game to spare, the focus turned to preventing a repeat.
Lampard has been in regular dialogue with his backroom staff and other key figures this summer as he looks to drive the team forward.
This is his first pre-season as manager of Everton, and an opportunity to properly stamp his mark on the club after the misery of the last campaign. He heads a new regime with fresh ideas and objectives, representing what many hope to be a clean break from the past.
In tandem with director of football Kevin Thelwell, who joined in February, Lampard has made tweaks behind the scenes in key areas. Thelwell, meanwhile, has also set about completely revamping the academy with a host of new appointments and roles created.
“We’ve made some adjustments in the analysis, sports science and medical departments,” Lampard says. “We have to recruit from outside to make sure it’s not just the same type of people all the time. We have to bring in some expertise. That’s Kevin’s remit because my job is to get on with what happens on the pitch.”
Cultural shifts are happening away from the pitch, too. Lampard’s wife Christine and Everton chief executive Denise Barrett-Baxendale are working on a way of “better integrating” the players’ wives and families so they feel closer to what is happening at the club. “We want to make this a warm club to work at. Sometimes you lose that a little bit, but we’re a club with a big heart,” Frank Lampard says.
Lampard calls the revamp at Everton a “work in progress”, something “you can’t rush” and “have to get right”. It will be a gradual process of evolution, with him and Thelwell taking a long-term view where possible.
“If we want to make the club better in the academy, in terms of recruitment, we’re going to need to do a lot and it can’t all be done at once,” says Lampard. “When you’ve got departments that are broken, it needs fixing.
“It obviously needed Kevin’s expertise on the academy side and in recruitment because it’s not my job to be scouring the data of European players for the No 6 position. That’s for the recruitment department and us to get together.
“So those things you could see that there was a bit of a hole, but it was something the board were very keen to get right. The chairman would always be very close to me on the football side and communicate regularly before and after.”
Lampard and Thelwell are said to dovetail well together. Certainly better than any of Everton’s other recent pairings.
The latter, a former academy chief at Wolves, is leading the overhaul at lower levels. Yet Lampard is feeding in on broader issues such as style and team principles across age-group levels.
“I trust Kevin to get it right,” he says. “All I ask for is a good relationship with the under-21s and under-18s managers, making sure we have the same principles, even if we don’t play the same system. Myself and Kevin relay that (the principles) to the academy and it felt like that was broken a bit previously.
“Changing managers regularly means you can never really lay down that path, so it ends up being slightly split. Hopefully this year we will have a closer relationship (with the academy) because the priorities last year meant it just couldn’t be done.”
Transfers are now also a more collaborative process. One of the key findings in Everton’s strategic review was that they needed to take a more “collegiate” approach when it came to recruitment of players, staff and managers.
“I have a big input with transfers and that’s important for me,” Lampard explains. “I’m very understanding of recruitment teams, an owner who supplies the money, the chairman’s position and Kevin’s position. I try to be aligned with everyone. I have my strong opinions on which direction and which type of player we need and from then on it’s a close, constant dialogue.
“I’m very much in the middle of that. It felt quite clear in my interview (for the job) that decisions are going to be well thought through.”
Lampard, Thelwell and co are working hard behind the scenes to reinforce the squad ahead of the new season. To date, though, the only signing Everton have made this summer is James Tarkowski, who joined on a free transfer from Burnley.
Brought in for his leadership qualities as much as his defensive nous, Tarkowski offers an insight into the kind of players Lampard and Thelwell are looking to recruit this summer. While the age and technical profile of new signings may differ, there will be a focus on adding character and leadership to a side that was often far too soft-centred last season.
“Kevin and I are big on personality,” the Everton manager says. “We want to bring in players of a good profile and you look at age there too because you can’t be too young or too old.
“You want good people. Selfish characters can be the downfall of any team. James Tarkowski is a well-spoken leader and straight away gives off a professional tone. Character in the dressing room is huge and the main attribute for me.”
Out of necessity, Lampard played a pragmatic brand of football in the final part of the season. With Everton’s top-flight future dangling by a particularly precarious thread — at one stage, they were five points adrift of safety — the former Chelsea and Derby manager’s long-term vision was temporarily cast aside in the search for points.
The key question for every Everton supporter is what comes next. What does Lampard’s Everton ultimately look like?
“It always starts with having a team with a great work ethic and energy,” he says. “The first thing I say when I speak to players at a new club is that we have to be a team that outruns and outfights the opposition. You can’t be a successful team without it. As great as Manchester City are technically, their physical data and pressing stats are always right up there.
“I’m more about principles than whether it’s a back three or back four. It’s more about the balance of how we want to play. We want to be able to play through the lines but also, if we have to play an early ball into the front, we will be more than happy to do that. I want speed in the game, to move things quickly. Hardworking and pressing, whether it’s high or in a block.
“I like watching teams with speed in their game. We can’t always replicate the top teams at Everton but we can do it in our own way. It works with the area and what fans in Liverpool want to see when they come to the match.”
At one stage last season, no Everton player epitomised that vision, and those principles, more than Richarlison. But with financial fair play a concern, the Brazilian was sold to Tottenham this summer to balance the books.
Replacing his impact will be tough, especially for a side that narrowly avoided relegation and is no longer able to spend the sums they once did. In Richarlison, Lampard had a player capable of playing on either side and down the middle. So Lampard’s ideal signing needs to be “versatile”.
“If you play with three forwards as most do, you need five or six for the season. Having one that can play all three (positions) helps manage things throughout the campaign.
“Richy gave us that last year. So in an ideal world probably that, but the best ones are very expensive.”
As this summer has so far proven, finding the right solutions can be tough, particularly with Everton having to make sure their money goes further in the market.
In some areas, answers could come from within. Everton’s extended 32-man squad for the US tour contains a host of youngsters from the academy, including 18-year-old Stanley Mills.
Impressive at right wing-back in the 2-0 defeat to Arsenal in Baltimore at the weekend as Everton kicked off their pre-season fixtures, Mills, son of former England international Danny, leads a talented group of prospects looking to force their way into Lampard’s plans.
The Everton manager admits to being “pleasantly surprised” by the quality of Everton’s young players, including Mills.
“The reason Stan’s here is that he trained really well. One day we were looking for a player for training and the staff mentioned Stan. I know Danny, so had wanted to see Stan anyway. Straight away you could see he had talent and character. He brings energy and cover.”
Others may well need to be more patient, biding their time for opportunities and looking to catch the eye in training.
“It would be great for Reece Welch and Isaac Price to train and stay with us, to understand their position because they are young and have to be patient. That’s something harder to convey to young players now. If they train well, then, like Isaac did at the end of last season, they will get some time on the pitch.
“Lewis Dobbin is one where a loan probably will be the best thing for him. He was great last year, trained well and showed energy and spark. But it’s a good time for him to go and play.
“There’s still more to go with them, and it’s not easy to get in the team. But every opportunity I get to integrate them I will, with the new rule over five subs which I think is great.”
Crucially, Lampard is backed up by a strong and experienced coaching team.
He worked with his No 2, Joe Edwards, at Chelsea. Head of performance Chris Jones has been with him since the beginning of his time in management, and in first-team coaches Paul Clement and Ashley Cole, he has two figures bringing different qualities to the table.
Living away from family means the group spend more time together now than ever before, reinforcing bonds that in most cases already existed.
Asked specifically about No 2 Edwards, Lampard is effusive in his praise.
“We’re close,” he says. “When I was playing at Chelsea, Joe was a young coach. I remember he came over to train me and Didier Drogba. I was shocked at the time because he was young and baby-faced and he was delivering to experienced pros. I found it impressive. He is talented and conscientious, so when I went back to Chelsea I promoted him and found him such a good friend and someone to lean on.”
Edwards, he says, is a “solutions man” — the kind of figure to quickly come up with a way of fixing a tactical quirk, but also key behind the scenes in liaising with players.
“He’ll always come in the next day after a game and say something like, ‘I saw this about our build and here’s what I think we should do about it’,” Lampard says. “He’s giving me solutions, which is a godsend because, at times, I’ll have 100 problems to deal with.
“Joe’s very popular with the lads. He’s very humble but I think he’ll make a great manager one day. He’s a big part of what we do here.
“It’s a nice balance with the experience of Clem (Paul Clement). Chris Jones has been with me from the beginning and is great on the physical side. Ash (Cole) coming in is a big deal in terms of what he offers, too. We all get on well and spend so many hours together. I’m lucky with the staff I’ve got here.”
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everton1953
Player Valuation: £40m
I like Frank and am impressed by what he said now that we have long passed by the hysteria of that Palace night. My worry is that the damage that has been wreaked on Everton is maybe beyond his capacity to rectify with such limited financial resources. If this season progresses into another desperate struggle to stay up, I hope he will not be used as another managerial scapegoat
GoldenToffee
Player Valuation: £60m
One of the things I really like about Frank is that it's obvious he hates the players every bit as much as we all do.
Cannot believe I’m saying this…
But 5 at the back works with this squad.
But 5 at the back works with this squad.
jerseytoffee
Player Valuation: £10m
I think it covers up our weaknesses a bit and could really suit the players we have.
I think the issues previously with it is that we have only tried it on the odd occasion when we've been struggling. Focus on it this preseason and get the players used to the system and hopefully it will click.
Could still do with a strong central midfielder that's comfortable on the ball though.
Don't be a knob....pre-season game. Do you understand what a run out is...hint...pre-season game.
billyblue80
Player Valuation: £70m
He's playing a back five who else does he put on? He also brought Price on.
Marius57
Player Valuation: £60m
It's pre season. He started with the 3 CBs that will start in the league for us in that formation. But he also needs to give minutes to the others to ensure they are ready if needed.
We also won. So if you are more against him now after we won, then you clearly just don't like him and will find fault whatever he does.
Where have the haters gone tonight?
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