When word began spreading around the blue half of Liverpool that Everton was
on the cusp of appointing Vitor Pereira as their new manager to replace Rafael
Benitez, the Toffees faithful took matters into their own hands by drowning out
social media with furious calls for the club to reverse their decision. One
supporter even went as far as graffitiing the words 'Pereira out, Lampard in'
on the walls of Goodison Park.
Indeed, the race had been between the Portuguese manager and Lampard, but
the Everton board seemed to have been more impressed by what Pereira had
presented in terms of reviving the club’s fortunes during the interview
process.
However, they were never able to appoint their chosen candidate and subsequently caved in after being harangued by the club’s fan base over their handling of the matter. Instead, Lampard was handed the reins and tasked with keeping the club out of the Championship after being given a two-and-a-half-year deal. The power of the people had won
🪧 "Pereira out. Lampard in"Some Everton fans are protesting against the clubs board and showing their feelings about the potential new manager pic.twitter.com/8kawHA21Iv— Football Daily (@footballdaily) January 26, 2022
Have the players
responded to Lampard?
.jpg "everton players")
Two months on from that appointment and Lampard has only managed to pick up six points out of a possible twenty-one since taking over. Furthermore, Everton lies only a handful of points off the relegation places and have still only won once on the road all season. In short, the new manager bounce that normally arrives when a fresh face comes in hasn’t taken place at Goodison Park and, in reality, Everton are now faced with an almighty fight for their Premier League lives.
This list of the best online betting sites,
all of which are offering various sign-up bonuses including free bets, all
price Lampard's Everton as one of the teams that could realistically fall
through the trapdoor and into the Championship in the late
spring. Currently, the price on the Toffees going down has dropped to 9/4
according to acclaimed bookmakers Bet365, who are featured on the
aforementioned list. This isn’t quite odds-on territory just yet, but
awfully worrying given that the odds are falling every week.
This sad state of affairs does inevitably make you question the
wisdom of the supporters who pined so desperately for Lampard to take
charge. What was it all for?
Benitez started the
fire
Of course, it’s important to keep in mind that Everton's problems run deep
and much of the blame can, and should, be put at the feet of Benitez,
whose poor conflict management led to a host of top-level departures from the
club only for the Spaniard to be shown the door as well.
By this time, however, Everton had already lost the services of director of
football Marcel Brands and key left-back Lucas Digne, who Benitez had
spectacularly fallen out with. In short, Benitez should never have been able to
enjoy the level of power that he was able to wheel at Goodison Park given the
key personnel the club lost on his watch.
In many respects, the 61-year-old should have known better than to alienate
a large part of the club’s backroom staff, especially as he was one
of the highest-paid managers in the Premier League at the time of his
sacking.
Crucially, Everton was a broken and divided club when the Spaniard was given his marching orders. Pitifully, this should have been the catalyst for a strong and proven managerial change in order to galvanise everyone for the upcoming Premier League fight for survival.
👀 “He looks like he’s struggling. It feels like you can’t turn it around…”🔵 “There’s a malaise around the place. He’ll do well to get through this.”Shaun Custis believes there’s a good manager in Frank Lampard but needs to pass this current test at #EFC pic.twitter.com/FMJdilc9q9— talkSPORT (@talkSPORT) March 21, 2022
Instead, as touched on, the clamour for Lampard’s services was deafening.
The vocal support for Lampard left a spineless board unable to follow the
courage of their convictions by appointing Pereira. This is where Everton fans
have to take accountability: Lampard's entirely unconvincing CV was there for
everyone to peruse over before he was made the club's new boss.
Be careful what you
wish for
Speak to Stamford Bridge going fans on match day and they will now tell you
that they qualified for the Champions League in spite of having Lampard as
their manager. In addition to that, Derby County supporters will tell you that
Lampard finished in the same position with better players in the Championship
and was even a point worse off than the tally predecessor Gary Rowett was able
to amass when he took the Rams to the playoffs after finishing in sixth during
the 2017/2018 season.
Perhaps most crucially of all, though, is not Lampard’s lack of tactical
acumen but rather his tendency to throw his players under the bus when the
going gets tough. The 43-year-old did just that following a thumping 4-0 loss
to Crystal Palace in the FA Cup at the end of March, as he accused his charges
of lacking character and desire.
It shouldn’t come as any surprise to learn that confidence is already at an
all-time low for any team fighting relegation and that public dressing-downs
will do very little in the quest to find a sense of harmony that will see a
team pull away from trouble.
Conversely, look at how American Jesse Marsch has rallied Leeds United by
putting his arm around his players instead of kicking them. Leeds was in a
similar situation to Everton when they changed manager to avoid the drop and
now look to be within touching distance of safety.
Everton meanwhile, keep sliding towards disaster and it’s increasingly clear that Lampard won’t be the man to stop the worst-case scenario from happening.