Frank Lampard clearly suspected things could get worse for Everton when he dissected the first home defeat of his short reign, against Manchester City. But how much worse, and how quickly, will have alarmed a manager who has projected confidence from the moment he was tasked with avoiding the club’s first relegation in 71 years.
“Don’t look too much at the table for the next few weeks,” he said a fortnight ago. “I am not buying time with that, we have a lot of points to play for. If we play with the energy and passion we did today, my feeling is, we will be fine.” Then came Tottenham, and a performance so abject that Everton looked condemned at Premier League level. Two home games in the next five days, against Wolves on Sunday and Newcastle on Thursday, will have a major bearing on the final verdict.
“I am not going to lie and say I don’t look at the table,” says Anthony Gordon, the homegrown forward who has sparkled in the rough this season. “I am a human being and I check the scores after games. We are very aware of the position we are in. What choice do we have? It is our fault we are there. We have got to fight.
“Tottenham was the lowest I’ve felt all season. It was probably one of the lowest I’ve felt in my career. I think it was the heaviest defeat I’ve suffered. I haven’t been the easiest person to be around over the last few days but I’ve still got the same work ethic and am still doing all the right things. I’m ready to go again.”
In cold Premier League terms there has been no managerial bounce since Lampard succeeded Rafael Benítez five weeks ago. Four defeats in five top-flight games represents a deflating start, although the new manager’s record reads three wins in seven matches with FA Cup victories against Brentford and non-league Boreham Wood included.
There has, however, been a marked improvement in the intensity, organisation and overall quality of Everton’s home performances. An instant connection between Lampard and the Everton fanbase has turned Goodison Park from a toxic environment into an asset once again. With seven home league games remaining, and the “night and day” contrast with their away form, as Lampard described it on Monday, it is clear where potential salvation lies.
“Not many teams have the fanbase we have,” says Gordon. “So when you experience games at Goodison the atmosphere is incredible. It gives players a massive boost. It is like that all over the league but even more so with us because of the massive fanbase. Away from home I put it down to us having a tough season, the squad has lost confidence over time, and it can be tough to go away without confidence.
“We can’t keep making the same mistakes. The good teams don’t make the same mistakes twice. It’s got to be top performance after top performance and that takes character and togetherness within the team. It’s difficult because I don’t think you can build character – it has to be already in you. It’s about having your own individual pride as a player – 1 to 11. If you’ve got that then you’ll be fine. We just need to stick together and bring it out of each other more. It’s about taking that little bit of responsibility yourself and holding each other accountable. If we do that, then we’ll be fine.”
Some have been ludicrously quick to pin the very real threat of relegation on Lampard, as though five weeks with a team that had collected six points from the previously available 42 before he arrived is long enough to address six years of damaging mismanagement under Farhad Moshiri. The same critics shovel the falsehood that Benítez was hounded out of Everton because of his Liverpool history, when it was appalling results, performances and internal divisions that did for the most misguided of managerial appointments. That is also on Moshiri who, along with trying to finance the new £500m-plus stadium at Bramley Moore dock, has had to cut commercial sponsorship ties with his business associate the oligarch Alisher Usmanov as a result of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. A first relegation since 1951 would have dire financial consequences for a club already navigating Premier League profit and sustainability rules.
This is not to give Lampard a free pass for Monday’s drubbing at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium. He was visibly shocked by events; those who have seen Everton concede five goals or more in a game eight times over the past five seasons, less so. He attributed the 5-0 loss to individual errors and bad defending. Both are long-term failings. No Premier League team have conceded more own goals than Everton’s four this season or made more errors leading to a goal than their eight.
But a gameplan that exposed a weak Everton defence to Spurs’ well-honed counterattack and failed to yield a shot on target for the second away game in succession, also contributed to an 11th consecutive Premier League trip without a win.
“Every gameplan we’ve had has been right and that comes from the manager and his staff preparing us well. I’m not just saying that, it’s really my opinion,” Gordon says. “But as players I feel we’ve let him and the staff down by losing our heads a bit and going away from the gameplan when things get tough.”
The 21-year-old is as spirited and impressive when interviewed as he has been on the pitch during a breakthrough season at Everton. Having grown up in Kirkdale, close to Goodison, he is acutely aware of the criticism that followed the heavy defeat at Spurs. “I can totally understand why people might think we don’t care but football is our life,” he says. “We give everything to it. If you look at it from that perspective, it’s stupid to think a player doesn’t care.
“We are in here day in, day out. We eat right, we sleep right, we give our lives to it. Everyone here cares. It’s a massive deal and we’re striving together. It’s a difficult period, but tough times bring out the best in people.”
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Does he not worry that this tough period will end in relegation? “Not at all,” says Gordon. “Because I see how good we can be. And it’s really annoying. To see us not do that week in, week out is really disappointing but I know we can do it, so I don’t have any worry. If we just get certain things right then all the worry will disappear.”