2021/22 Frank Lampard

[dublinbluenose]

You're either taking my point out of context or just misunderstanding it. I haven't said people shouldn't be angry at the Wolves result? I was angry at the Wolves result myself so it would be a bit of a weird take for me to go down that route. I'm talking about the people who insist - in all seriousness - that x, y and z are League One players and then also accuse them of 'downing tools'. Now i'm not being funny but if you've got a team full of league one players and they've downed tools, they ain't only losing 1-0 in the Premier League. Either they aren't that bad, or they are that bad and they're trying, both makes no sense. If you're not one of those people then my comment isn't aimed at you.

I've said a number of times, i'm not saying we have a team full of players giving 110% and ready to die for the shirt, of course we don't. I just don't necessarily believe that they're 'not trying' in the sense that lots of people do. The Newcastle game was proof enough for me, they worked hard, got a result after adversity, and looked genuinely elated at the goal and the final whistle, and loads of people come out and say 'play like that every week and they'll be fine' but the truth is they could so easily have lost and the same people would have come on saying they didn't try hard enough, despite the performance being exactly the same. There were people round me saying it during the game who then at full time were saying what a brilliant effort you can see Lampard's got them doing this, they responded to the crowd tonight etc etc. It's just become a default setting now to blame everything on attitude regardless of what happens.

For me, we have a squad massively lacking in quality, especially in key positions. We have almost nobody in the entire squad who can pass and who you would trust on the ball in tight situations. Our centre halves are genuinely terrible, and our only real goal threat seems to be massively unfit. I think the team is in a bit of a death spiral, they have absolutely no confidence at all and there is a severe lack of leadership. I think most of them do try, but not necessarily with the conviction of players who believe that what they're doing will have a positive outcome.

This is pretty accurate I think. If we'd have scored early on Sunday we'd have probably kicked on as well. There is a massively frailty and fear in most of the team. They go into themselves and crumble once we concede. If Newcastle had scored it would've been the same but we didnt concede and kept working hard.

We just really really need to start scoring.

 

[Gilbert..]

Seems like we have two options. Park the bus, be non competitive and lose 1 nil.
Try and be competetive and lose 4 nil.

We love you Everton we do...oh...

 

[BlueToff]

This is pretty accurate I think. If we'd have scored early on Sunday we'd have probably kicked on as well. There is a massively frailty and fear in most of the team. They go into themselves and crumble once we concede. If Newcastle had scored it would've been the same but we didnt concede and kept working hard.

We just really really need to start scoring.

to do that we've got to get shots off.

Gordon is so frustrating as he has the talent to hit them so just friggin hit them.

First 10 minutes of any game you should be having a shot, at least if you're the away team. If you're at home you should be having 3 or 4

 

[Cork Evertonian]

The old "players gave their all back in the day" shout. Funny but no one was saying this back then, you can pick up any random WSAG for example, from most of the 1990s (bar 95 & 96) and the same stuff appears:

"Players are lazy tw*ts"
"No pride, no passion"
"worst team we've had for 20 years" etc etc.


Yet years later someone will say "at least we tried back then". NO ONE was saying this back then, especially a week or two before the final day of the season when we were often still in a relegation battle (with the exception of probably Dave Watson, everyone got called out for not giving enough effort).

We can be guilty of looking at the past, through rose tinted glasses i suppose. I think a big difference between now and back then, is that some of the players in that era made a positive contribution to the club. As bad as the 90's were we did win an FA Cup.

We didn't spend 600 odd million to be crap in the 90's either, and football wasn't such a closed shop back then. So mainly because of those two reasons, i think there is greater levels of frustration angst and anger now.

 

[MikeH72]

You're either taking my point out of context or just misunderstanding it. I haven't said people shouldn't be angry at the Wolves result? I was angry at the Wolves result myself so it would be a bit of a weird take for me to go down that route. I'm talking about the people who insist - in all seriousness - that x, y and z are League One players and then also accuse them of 'downing tools'. Now i'm not being funny but if you've got a team full of league one players and they've downed tools, they ain't only losing 1-0 in the Premier League. Either they aren't that bad, or they are that bad and they're trying, both makes no sense. If you're not one of those people then my comment isn't aimed at you.

I've said a number of times, i'm not saying we have a team full of players giving 110% and ready to die for the shirt, of course we don't. I just don't necessarily believe that they're 'not trying' in the sense that lots of people do. The Newcastle game was proof enough for me, they worked hard, got a result after adversity, and looked genuinely elated at the goal and the final whistle, and loads of people come out and say 'play like that every week and they'll be fine' but the truth is they could so easily have lost and the same people would have come on saying they didn't try hard enough, despite the performance being exactly the same. There were people round me saying it during the game who then at full time were saying what a brilliant effort you can see Lampard's got them doing this, they responded to the crowd tonight etc etc. It's just become a default setting now to blame everything on attitude regardless of what happens.

For me, we have a squad massively lacking in quality, especially in key positions. We have almost nobody in the entire squad who can pass and who you would trust on the ball in tight situations. Our centre halves are genuinely terrible, and our only real goal threat seems to be massively unfit. I think the team is in a bit of a death spiral, they have absolutely no confidence at all and there is a severe lack of leadership. I think most of them do try, but not necessarily with the conviction of players who believe that what they're doing will have a positive outcome.

I think we have a mixture, genuinely a few players that wouldn’t look out of place in League 1, but the majority of them are just average players that have [insert expletive] attitudes and down tools and give up at the first sign of pressure. Coleman for example is a player that will never down tools, but he has the ability of a League 1 player. Kenny likewise, you can’t fault him for effort but he’s absolutely rubbish. Someone like DCL is a player that is more than capable of holding his own as a Premier League player but his attitude is starting to absolutely stink the place out. Dele Alli is an established one of these. It is a toxic mix.

 

[gazzaa2]

The old "players gave their all back in the day" shout. Funny but no one was saying this back then, you can pick up any random WSAG for example, from most of the 1990s (bar 95 & 96) and the same stuff appears:

"Players are lazy tw*ts"
"No pride, no passion"
"worst team we've had for 20 years" etc etc.


Yet years later someone will say "at least we tried back then". NO ONE was saying this back then, especially a week or two before the final day of the season when we were often still in a relegation battle (with the exception of probably Dave Watson, everyone got called out for not giving enough effort).

Part of the problem with a lot of Evertonians is everything is judged on 'effort' which basically means getting stuck in and putting yourself about and everyone is judged against Big Dunc, Carsley, Dave Watson or Cahill who offered that but had the output to go with it.

We've always had grafters but your difference makers are players like Arteta or Kanchelskis and we haven't had enough of them. The 90s teams were littered with poor footballers and so is this squad. Nobody accuse Burnley players of not putting the effort in but it only gets you so far in this league if the quality isn't there.

 

[Toffe3m4n]

to do that we've got to get shots off.

Gordon is so frustrating as he has the talent to hit them so just friggin hit them.

First 10 minutes of any game you should be having a shot, at least if you're the away team. If you're at home you should be having 3 or 4

This is it for me. TEST. THE KEEPER.

Doesn't matter if it's an 'easy' save - first 10/15 mins of the game you should absolutely be making your intentions known that the keeper isn't going to have a quiet game, which can end up unsettling a back line. We never do this!

 

[MikeH72]

I wouldn’t bother…

Excellent contribution to the debate. Please tell us more about how we’re not in relegation danger.

 

[Stevie Nicks Bootleg]

We can be guilty of looking at the past, through rose tinted glasses i suppose. I think a big difference between now and back then, is that some of the players in that era made a positive contribution to the club. As bad as the 90's were we did win an FA Cup.

We didn't spend 600 odd million to be crap in the 90's either, and football wasn't such a closed shop back then. So mainly because of those two reasons, i think there is greater levels of frustration angst and anger now.

We spent plenty of money in the mid 90s to be crap. A shitload in fact from 94-98 and were not only one of the biggest spenders in the league but in the whole of Europe for a time around this period.

 

[UltraVires]

You're either taking my point out of context or just misunderstanding it. I haven't said people shouldn't be angry at the Wolves result? I was angry at the Wolves result myself so it would be a bit of a weird take for me to go down that route. I'm talking about the people who insist - in all seriousness - that x, y and z are League One players and then also accuse them of 'downing tools'. Now i'm not being funny but if you've got a team full of league one players and they've downed tools, they ain't only losing 1-0 in the Premier League. Either they aren't that bad, or they are that bad and they're trying, both makes no sense. If you're not one of those people then my comment isn't aimed at you.

I've said a number of times, i'm not saying we have a team full of players giving 110% and ready to die for the shirt, of course we don't. I just don't necessarily believe that they're 'not trying' in the sense that lots of people do. The Newcastle game was proof enough for me, they worked hard, got a result after adversity, and looked genuinely elated at the goal and the final whistle, and loads of people come out and say 'play like that every week and they'll be fine' but the truth is they could so easily have lost and the same people would have come on saying they didn't try hard enough, despite the performance being exactly the same. There were people round me saying it during the game who then at full time were saying what a brilliant effort you can see Lampard's got them doing this, they responded to the crowd tonight etc etc. It's just become a default setting now to blame everything on attitude regardless of what happens.

For me, we have a squad massively lacking in quality, especially in key positions. We have almost nobody in the entire squad who can pass and who you would trust on the ball in tight situations. Our centre halves are genuinely terrible, and our only real goal threat seems to be massively unfit. I think the team is in a bit of a death spiral, they have absolutely no confidence at all and there is a severe lack of leadership. I think most of them do try, but not necessarily with the conviction of players who believe that what they're doing will have a positive outcome.

Agree with this.

I think I fall somewhere in the middle in that I think we have poor PL players who are not giving the absolute effort you need to a) play Lampard’s style and b) survive in this PL.

For me, there are players who are putting effort in but only to a point where it isn’t too uncomfortable for them. We don’t have a set of players collective who will put their bodies on the line and in tight games, that makes all the difference.

In my view, we have to hope that in a number of games, we either get a lucky break with something or that we score early and that gives the team the confidence to see it out.

 

[Jeff Jones]

Brazil International v youngster yet to start

A Brazilian International who isn't a number 9 and who has had little or no success there, or a very promising English youth international who is a striker and Everton's only other option in a have to do something different situation.

 

[Cork Evertonian]

We spent plenty of money in the mid 90s to be crap. A shitload in fact from 94-98 and were not only one of the biggest spenders in the league but in the whole of Europe for a time around this period.

Well by 1998 Peter Johnson had already cut off funding, he gave Howard Kendall pittance to spend on players.

In that era, there was nowhere near the same sense or levels of hopelessness as there is now. In the 90's there was always a hope, that Everton would emerge as a major player again.

In the here and now though, the brutal harsh realities of modern football has set in. So yeah i do think the situation is different, and even worse now to be honest.

 

[Brennan]

Excellent contribution to the debate. Please tell us more about how we’re not in relegation danger.

?

I think you’ve misinterpreted my post there.

 

[NathDogg]

The only reaction we are likely to see from this shower of shithouses is to contact Everton HR and put in an official collective grievance about their line manager calling them names and swearing at them.

I'll stand by Frank and what he said - he's been protective and talking them up since he got here and they've shat on him time and again - they need some home truths and to show us all a positive reaction to his words on the pitch.

Every player who has done the post match interviews after yet another embarrassment have all been saying that it's their fault and they haven't been good enough - why can't the manager say the same?

 

[MikeH72]

?

I think you’ve misinterpreted my post there.

lol my bad. Play on.