MATCH CENTRE

Lampard's Message After Wolves Defeat

Frank Lampard says Everton must “stay together” and avoid slipping into a negative mindset following Sunday’s single-goal Premier League defeat by Wolverhampton Wanderers.

Everton remain 17th in the Premier League standings but missed an opportunity to increase their cushion over the bottom three this weekend.

Wolves defender Conor Coady’s header four minutes after half-time “changed the feeling of the game and the feeling in the stadium”, admitted Lampard, who insisted Everton were the stronger team before the break.

Richarlison was denied by Jose Sa, the visitors’ goalkeeper, after running clean through, while other openings disappeared in the face of solid Wolves defending.

Everton, who finished the match with 10 men following a 78th-minute red card for defender Jonjoe Kenny, host Newcastle United on Thursday.

“We were the stronger team in the first half,  but Wolves don’t give you many opportunities, which is why they don’t concede a lot of goals,” said Lampard.

“If we'd scored one of our early chances, it would have looked and felt a different game.

Frank Lampard
My job is to give confidence to the players, to create a mentality where we are together and understand what we all want, which is to stay up.


“Their goal changed the feeling of the game and the feeling of the stadium, which is understandable, with the position the Club is in.

“It is disappointing because everyone feels the need for points, which is normal, but we have 12 games remaining and can’t look at this one alone.

“We lost to a good team in a tight match, with 10 men at the end of the game, when we wanted to push.

“My job is to give confidence to the players, to create a mentality where we are together and understand what we all want, which is to stay up.

“The important thing for us is to have the absolute desire and fight to get out of this.

“It has been a long time the players haven’t won games, it is impossible to change that overnight, without working and fighting for something to go in your favour.

“The more we fight and stay together, then something may go in our favour that changes the look of it [Premier League table] very quickly.

“We have to keep working to be the team [in lower reaches] that gets the right results.”

Everton began the match with three centre-halves, including fit-again Ben Godfrey, and comfortably kept Wolves a safe distance from their own goal.

The strike from Coady changed the complexion of the game, however, and prompted Lampard to send on Dele for wing-back Vitalii Mykolenko, while reverting to a back four.

Lampard revealed he asked his team to adopt a more direct approach in the closing stages, but Everton were hamstrung by the dismissal of Kenny, who collected two bookings inside three minutes.

“Wolves have five defenders and three in midfield and try to stop you playing through the lines,” said Lampard.

“I thought we did okay, and at half-time we explained to the players the game could look like that because they take everyone to the wire, at least.

“Conceding early in the second half was the problem.

“It is easy to react quickly and strongly to where we are, but we knew that anyway – there are a lot of games to go and we need to keep the mental strength.

“The players gave everything, there were some moments where we wanted our quality to be better, but that happens in this situation.

“The important thing now is to remain very positive. We lost a tight game to a good team, which can happen in football.

“It is my job to be confident and positive and realistic... we must keep our heads up and battle on.”

The remaining 12 games for Lampard’s team are divided equally between home and away fixtures.

Naturally, home matches against Wolves and Newcastle were identified as opportunities to collect points, given Everton’s Goodison form under Lampard.


But the manager, who must play a game of wait-and-see over Dominic Calvert-Lewin for Thursday after the striker missed the Wolves game with illness, rejected the idea of targeting specific fixtures for positive results.

“All we can do is work, there is never another answer in football,” began Lampard, “not think about ifs and maybes, or home or away games.

“Just work and fight. That is what these situations demand.

“We have 12 games and are waiting for that moment when something turns in our favour.

“If it goes in our favour on Thursday, it looks very different from today. There is a long road to get out of this, we can’t rely on one result to change it in a positive manner, and we can’t take one result when we really wanted to win and didn't [and feel too downcast].

“The players just have to think about Thursday.

“Myself and the staff came in with the team on a bad run… used to the feeling of losing and not getting points.

“That doesn’t turn instantly, it takes a bit of work

“There have been some really good moments here at Goodison, today was okay, then it went again us.

“But we must stay very balanced, firstly me; stay together and know there are a lot of games to get the points we need.”