2021/22 Frank Lampard

[Lanolin]

This squad's lacks of talent far exceeds their lack of application. Some things may appear basic but to be a good footballer you have to do everything consistently well, which covers all of the basics such as marking from corners, tracking runners etc. On a given day these players might be able to put a performance in, where they do the basics well, but they will never be able to extend that over a longer period of time because to do that you have to be good and they ain't.

I've given up with all of them, even the ones we previously thought were ok. Richarlison is a winger that can't dribble and Calvert-Lewin is a striker that can't kick a ball properly. They aren't good players.

Frank now knows our true predicament, that we are one of the worst teams in the league and against 15 teams or so in the Premier League, we will start the game immediately as rank outsiders. This season is just about finishing ahead of 3 teams who may be even worse than us, nothing more nothing less.

Yep, this is it for me. The players didn't let Palace ge to a rebounded shot first because they couldn't be bothered trying, it happened because they aren't alert to danger; they aren't reading the game, they're reacting to it. It's a talent issue.

I've said for ages, we're going to lose lots of games in this run in, there's no point losing our heads over it because it clearly is going to happen. We just have to hope that we manage to pull out enough performances to limp over the line in 17th, it's honestly that simple. Lampard was never a manager who was going to come in and turn results round overnight (if there even is one of those for this team) and you can see his inexperience and limitations in some of the things he does. There's no point getting hung up on that for now though, he's the manager who is tasked with keeping us up and we just have to pray that he manages to eke enough out of them to do that.

 

[RomanReigns]

 

[Gilbert..]

Beginning to look like he's just picking formations at random.

Gomes in a two man midfield was never going to work. And it didn't

He's going to take us down

I read this so much on here.
Whats the formation that works?
Is it just me or are Everton the only club who cant play players unless they are protected in a certain formation. Maybe we should play Allen just behind Gomes to protect him. He could even follow him around the pitch like a man marker protecting him.

Is the formation 5 in midfield. Why dont we go 10 and confuse the opposition.

Desperate to find this winning formation that so many people mention.

 

[BlueToff]

I dont agree to be honest. The players allowed their standards to drop massively off the back of an injury.

Of course they did but the manager then has to react and make the right changes which he failed to do.

I can't be a hypocrite about it. Had Benitez played Gordon LWB we'd all be fuming.

Lampard got it badly wrong with every in-game change he had to make yesterday. The players were crap.

 

[APN_EFC]

I think we can see that Lampard is an emotional manager. The reaction to the win the other night was exuberant; the reaction to a cup defeat was to lash out.

We've had calm and even-tempered managers in the last few years; managers that threw the players a lifeline post match after they had just thrown them under the bus in the preceding 90 minutes. That sort of management style got us where we are.

Let's allow for the possibility that Lampard knows that dressing room a little bit better than we do, and that the way he reacts (after wins and losses) is precisely tailored to what will motivate the players he has.

I see a manager determined to get this club safe and then build next season. I'd be more worried if we got the same tired old Everton manager reaction to wins and losses. We need emotional atm, not some manager who let's every game drift by with the same come day-go day attitude. He's going to make every one of those last 11 games a massive deal and a cup final. That suits me fine.

I agree, and the best managers do happen to have emotional intelligence, but he needs tactical nous and some better players to go with it. Hopefully we limp through to summer and then if there's a turnover of 5 senior players, and maybe 5 new young players are in the first XI squad, it'll feel like a different team.

 

[BlueToff]

Beginning to look like he's just picking formations at random.

Gomes in a two man midfield was never going to work. And it didn't

He's going to take us down

We only had two midfielders though, tbf, so whatever system we played yesterday was going to feature Gomes and Doucoure in midfield

 

[BlueInNZ]

Frank Lampard is not the problem. Good on him for calling out the absolute lightweights in the team

 

[witchdoc187]

We really need to be going full on defence mode away. We can't keep losing 4/5 nil. It's ridiculous.

 

[davek]

He's spot on. He has the example of every manager preceding him back to Martinez being forced to face the music from fans for poor player professionalism. So he's putting the players in the spotlight and the blame back on them because he knows that the fans are the only one's these players are petrified of and will get after.

I dont think this is "dont blame me guv" stuff from Lampard, I think it's a genuine attempt to be brutally honest - and in public - in order to get players to be professional and face up to their responsibilities.

He has my backing 100%.

 

[BlueToff]

Frank Lampard is not the problem. Good on him for calling out the absolute lightweights in the team

He definitely isn't the problem but he has made mistakes and I'm sorry but 4 away games with an aggregate score of 14-2 against isn't good enough.

We've scored 1 goal in 5 games now against top-flight opposition, home or away

Only he can get these jokers out of the side.

 

[BlueToff]

We really need to be going full on defence mode away. We can't keep losing 4/5 nil. It's ridiculous.

Thing is it's not like we even attack well or concede goals because we're flooding me forward. We concede goals because we're crap.

 

[Lanolin]

I read this so much on here.
Whats the formation that works?
Is it just me or are Everton the only club who cant play players unless they are protected in a certain formation. Maybe we should play Allen just behind Gomes to protect him. He could even follow him around the pitch like a man marker protecting him.

Is the formation 5 in midfield. Why dont we go 10 and confuse the opposition.

Desperate to find this winning formation that so many people mention.

I agree with your overall point but I think it's a fair comment that we're chopping and changing too much at the moment and playing some formations that just don't look like they'd ever work (Kenny as a left wing back?!). I get why he's doing it and i'm not trying to be overly critical but I think we need to settle on a formation and work on it, it can't be helpful to have players changing position on a weekly basis and being asked to do different jobs all the time.

 

[Gilbert..]

I agree with your overall point but I think it's a fair comment that we're chopping and changing too much at the moment and playing some formations that just don't look like they'd ever work (Kenny as a left wing back?!). I get why he's doing it and i'm not trying to be overly critical but I think we need to settle on a formation and work on it, it can't be helpful to have players changing position on a weekly basis and being asked to do different jobs all the time.

Id agree if there was a line up or formation that is going to get points and wins. I think this has been exhausted. And it comes down to we have to many players who no matter how many managers they play under make individual errors and switch off during games.
There isnt any winning formation. The piss poor recruitment has come to bite us on the arse now.

 

[BlueToff]

I agree with your overall point but I think it's a fair comment that we're chopping and changing too much at the moment and playing some formations that just don't look like they'd ever work (Kenny as a left wing back?!). I get why he's doing it and i'm not trying to be overly critical but I think we need to settle on a formation and work on it, it can't be helpful to have players changing position on a weekly basis and being asked to do different jobs all the time.

Yep this has to be it. Just stick with 4 at the back, Godfrey as one of the full-backs (doesn't matter which at this stage, tbh) and go with a 4231/433 shape.

Gray and Gordon can't play in the same team, so don't play them together.

As mad as it is, for Lampard's preferred style of being able to keep the ball more, Iwobi has to play right now because for all his faults he does retain possession better than the others.

Has to simplify things.

I'm not even suggesting he's making stuff overly complicated but by 'simplify' I literally mean give those wasters one job to do each.

 

[maccavennie]

Thing is it's not like we even attack well or concede goals because we're flooding me forward. We concede goals because we're crap.

Yep, he's tried the 5 at the back to try and stem the likes of yesterday's results.

This players are simply not good enough to dig in and grind it out when the going gets tough on a consistent basis.

It's the perfect storm of having full backs who don't have the energy or quality to be a modern day full back, centre halves who lack leadership and dominance, midfield issues where there's always someone out injured and up front where Richarlison looks no better than James Beattie and DCL massively out of match fitness, same with Gray.


There's not one area of the team stm where we can say "great, at least that issue has been fixed". It's a miss mash of utter crap.