Kevin Campbell: Everton have so little consistency ‘it’s mad’
We’re delighted to welcome former Everton striker Kevin Campbell as our exclusive columnist. Each week the former Toffees captain will be giving his views on the biggest talking points at Goodison Park…
Kevin Campbell cannot believe the level on inconsistency this Everton squad is showing, and says Frank Lampard must be “pulling his hair out” over it.
A rousing victory under the lights at Goodison against Newcastle last week (17 March) was swiftly followed by another capitulation at the weekend (20 March) at Crystal Palace.
And Campbell can’t see any special reason why the team that can perform the way they did in the Magpies win so frequently fails to do so in other games, especially on the road.
Speaking exclusively to Goodison News, the ex-Toffees striker considered what changed for the only league win in weeks, saying: “I just think that the team defended better. Defended better as a team, and when Newcastle attacked them and put them under pressure they never buckled.
“They stood their ground and they ground it out, then [Alex] Iwobi came up with a magical bit of play didn’t he, and got the winner.
“So again, that tenacity, the twelfth man maybe makes a difference, but you have to be able to stay in games to win them.
“But we’ve not been seeing it, that consistent part of it from Everton it just hasn’t been there.
“Frank Lampard is probably pulling his hair out. One week they’re awful, the next week they can perform like that and keep a clean sheet against one of the form teams of the division.
“Then obviously you go onto Sunday (20 March) and you get turfed 4-0 [at Crystal Palace], it’s mad!”
Having reverted to type on the road and been dumped out of the FA Cup, there are no longer any distractions from the crucial task of avoiding Premier League relegation.
The international break gives the manager and his coaching staff plenty of time to try to come up with a plan that brings out the battling side that won with 10 men against Newcastle.
The complete inability to defend on the road is past a joke, and something has to change in that regard above all else.
In other Everton news, leaked documents and a BBC investigation link Farhad Moshiri to Alisher Usmanov’s sanctions dispute.
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