2022/23 Frank Lampard

[marcus]

If we could only get one player, I’d want a wide forward who can also play centrally if required.

Basically Richarlison. Which is, I recognise, a massive ask.

I’ve got a good feeling about Simms. He doesn’t need to be Kevin Campbell effective to make a positive contribution, and I think he’ll chip in with a few goals.

Ismailia Sarr or Elanga fit the bill & maybe available...

Simms is one for the future along with Cannon...

Midfield needs a boost to with a playmaker type who is good & tidy on the ball...

 

[Goodisongang]

The truth is that a win against Brighton would be as unexpected as it would be welcome.

Talk about a change in the mindset of fans!

This is Brighton mate ffs, as average as a team you are ever likely to see, are they better than us? Yes, are they miles better than us that a victory at home would be unexpected? Not a chance.

Any game at home like this we don't win I'm always walking out frustrated.

 

[Terrarian]

I think Brighton aren't a better team on paper I think a huge difference is fan expectation and pressure, like it or not, despite us being poo for a long time, the Club is historically successful and the fans demand we aspire to those heights and we are finding a lot of players can't handle it.

Realistic or not, that is what our fans expect from the team but we are miles away. It doesn't help that top teams in CL have basically 2 first teams or a bench that isn't such a drop off in quality. The Premier league created this disparity and it is extremely hard to now catch up especially with financial unfair play and P&S rules.

 

[LocalNative]

Talk about a change in the mindset of fans!

This is Brighton mate ffs, as average as a team you are ever likely to see, are they better than us? Yes, are they miles better than us that a victory at home would be unexpected? Not a chance.

Any game at home like this we don't win I'm always walking out frustrated.

Unfortunately people are so fixated in justifying reasons for keeping Lampard that expectations continually get lower and lower.

We should not be losing at home to Brighton and it has to go down as a game to get 3 pts from.

 

[andy4efc]

Ismailia Sarr or Elanga fit the bill & maybe available...

Simms is one for the future along with Cannon...

Midfield needs a boost to with a playmaker type who is good & tidy on the ball...

Simms is 21 now and has had plenty of first team football in L1/Champ.

It's time to see if he can make the step up. Certainly not one for the future anymore.

Whether giving him that test now, is the right time for Everton is another question.

 

[ForeverBlue92]

Benitez wasn’t doomed from the start. He made an absolute tit of the job with the way he went about managing change, he wasn’t smart about it, didn’t have subtly in his people skills/management. His authoritarian style killed the team, they had no spirit, looked beaten before the game even started. He lost the players, several have spoken about it, Richarlison at least twice. We’d have gone down if he’d stayed 100%. If Lampard looks like he’s lost the players, he will have to go too.

In a crap team, all you have is team spirit and belief. If you kill that then there’s nothing, you have to go and Benitez did. That’s it, get over it.

If Benitez made a tit of the job what is Lampard doing who's record is worse ?

I mean there were fans on here frothing because we lost that pre season friendly to Utd and had threatening banners put up outside his house.

To say he wasn't doomed from the start is ludicrous.

 

[Lanolin]

A draw is ok as long as we follow that up with 3 points against S'ton.

We need to be realistic: Brighton are a much better team than us with better players. A win would be excellent; a good display and a draw would be acceptable.

Nah not for me. That would have been fine if we'd picked up more points in other winnable games, but we've put ourselves in a position where home draws against midtable sides just aren't going to be enough. We've already played 2 of the current bottom 3 at home (and taken 1 point), we can't keep waiting for easier games to come because the simple fact is we're going to run out of road at some point.

Talking about home games against a side 10th in the table as if they're unwinnable is a very strange turn of events. And people used to say Moyes had lowered expectations.

 

[BigDuncTributeBand]

Goals from midfield were always a problem, with the likes of Iwobi, Gomes, Davies etc contributing very little.

The only real source of goals we had outside of Richy and Dominic Calvert-Lewin was Gylfi who could pop up with a goal occasionally.

Adding Onana and Gana has done nothing to improve that situation.

So when they attacking options are as bad as they are, with players like Gordon who is as bad as Walcott in front of goal, it’s no wonder we are relegation candidates again.

The only thing which has improved is the defence, but again having such a weak attack means that they have to be on top of their game every week, which is a pretty big ask in this league.

Not a real lot has improved as we hoped it would under Lampard, so he needs to start producing some results, or he won’t be here much longer.

Agree with much of this. We’ve been heading this way for at least a couple of seasons. We were massively reliant on two or three players scoring goals in this team - we’ve lost two of them and replaced them with much poorer players who (despite what some on here advocated at the time) were obviously not going to get close to filling the void and we were going to struggle to score.

We were also massively reliant on two or three players to create/assist Siggi, James, Digne and replaced them with poorer players.

This has been coming for at least two seasons. We’ve been left with the midfielders who didn’t contribute goals/assists and forwards who rarely score/assist.

Last summer the entire team needed addressed, a huge uplift in quality required. That costs money, we were trying to do it on a showestring. We’re getting outbid by Nottingham Forest for players we wanted, a promoted team.

That’s the hand Lampard was dealt, an impossible one. To improve this team will take seasons and windows.

There was never going to be huge improvement this season, we were obviously going to be in another relegation scrap and staying up is our realistic target this season. Build again in the summer.

He’s improved the defence and made the midfield more competitive. He’ll prioritise creativity/goals come the summer and we’ll improve in that department next season. It’s going to take time. How anyone expected to see us shooting up the league given where we’ve been is beyond me.

 

[BigDuncTributeBand]

If Benitez made a tit of the job what is Lampard doing who's record is worse ?

I mean there were fans on here frothing because we lost that pre season friendly to Utd and had threatening banners put up outside his house.

To say he wasn't doomed from the start is ludicrous.

You have to manage change carefully, I know you were celebrating his wrecking ball approach and are having a hard time accepting you were wrong but it was an extremely foolish way to go about the job.

It was clear his style was going to isolate players and kill the spirit of the squad, so it proved. It would have taken us down, the human hand grenade style of change management doesn’t do well for morale - especially in struggling teams.

Lampard had to pick up the pieces of the chaos, dispirited group and fractured dressing room he had been left.

This season we’re where I expected we’d be, change is going to be long and hard. If you were expecting better results/position in then table given this squad then that’s on you and unrealistic expectations.

The thing that Lampard still has, that Benitez didn’t, is the players still playing for him and what looks like a reasonably good team spirit. We can only hope that continues and pulls us through because it sure as hell won’t be the quality on the pitch.

 

[allen]

Ismailia Sarr or Elanga fit the bill & maybe available...

Simms is one for the future along with Cannon...

Midfield needs a boost to with a playmaker type who is good & tidy on the ball...

Just realised I wowed that when I meant a straight like! Have corrected my apparent over-excitedness.

 

[ForeverBlue92]

You have to manage change carefully, I know you were celebrating his wrecking ball approach and are having a hard time accepting you were wrong but it was an extremely foolish way to go about the job.

It was clear his style was going to isolate players and kill the spirit of the squad, so it proved. It would have taken us down, the human hand grenade style of change management doesn’t do well for morale - especially in struggling teams.

Lampard had to pick up the pieces of the chaos, dispirited group and fractured dressing room he had been left.

This season we’re where I expected we’d be, change is going to be long and hard. If you were expecting better results/position in then table given this squad then that’s on you and unrealistic expectations.

The thing that Lampard still has, that Benitez didn’t, is the players still playing for him and what looks like a reasonably good team spirit. We can only hope that continues and pulls us through because it sure as hell won’t be the quality on the pitch.

You cant keep blaming Benitez for Lampards shortcomings.

Frankel is a big boy at some point he's got to answer to his 3rd worst record of any EFC manager statistic.

Benitez left 12 months ago and spent £1.7m.

To put it into perspective - Koeman sold Lukaku + Stones and wasted £150 millions yet Alladyce took over the rubble left behind and took us to 8th.

 

[Charlie Sweet]

I fear....a defeat and he's sacked.

I say fear as another managerial change more or less guarantees us basketcase status. If the board had any idea of getting rid then it should have been done before the World Cup break.

On the flip side a win tonight and a win against Southampton and we're strangley feeling more comfortable.

 

[Gilbert..]

If Benitez made a tit of the job what is Lampard doing who's record is worse ?

I mean there were fans on here frothing because we lost that pre season friendly to Utd and had threatening banners put up outside his house.

To say he wasn't doomed from the start is ludicrous.

Every day you are on here talking about benitez. He left a year ago.
Every
Single
Day
Benitez ?

 

[COYBL25]

Every day you are on here talking about benitez. He left a year ago.
Every
Single
Day
Benitez ?

Hopefully, if Benitez ever gets another club, he`ll go and support them and post nonsense about " the Rafatolah " on their forums all day.

We can only live in hope.

 

[davek]

Talk about a change in the mindset of fans!

This is Brighton mate ffs, as average as a team you are ever likely to see, are they better than us? Yes, are they miles better than us that a victory at home would be unexpected? Not a chance.

Any game at home like this we don't win I'm always walking out frustrated.

Ha ha ha.

Do you watch much football?