Stats suggest Everton may have actually got worse since Frank Lampard replaced Rafael Benitez
Everton may actually be a worse team under Frank Lampard than they were during the doomed Rafael Benitez reign, stats in The Independent suggest.
The Toffees have picked up two wins since the former Chelsea boss took over on January transfer-deadline day and currently sit three points above the relegation zone.
The team was 16th when the Spaniard was sacked but according to the quality of shots they created and faced should have been in 14th, and since Lampard took over they have scored fewer than they should have and conceded more, 1.7 per game, than they should have.
Karl Matchett writes in The Independent: “The big problem is that it’s getting worse, not better.
“Lampard hasn’t been able to turn the tables consistently: they are bottom three since 31 January for actual points won and bottom two for their expected tally.
“On chance quality and performance, Everton were good against Leeds and that’s about it – in every other game they’ve been outplayed and out-scored in terms of xG. The second Newcastle match with Alex Iwobi’s stoppage-time winner is the only aberration between statistical probability and real outcome.
“The big issue remains a woeful lack of organisation at the back.”
Struggle
Statistics don’t tell the whole story in plenty of situations, but everyone can see that the team is not performing.
The sudden fight in the Newcastle victory felt like an outlier in terms of attitude, but even there the odds suggest they shouldn’t have won.
It doesn’t take a genius to deduce that conceding too many and scoring too few is a recipe for relegation.
Without a major overall improvement in performances it is going to take the kind of thing Goodison saw against the Magpies.
A bit of luck in defence and being clinical at the key moment, as Dominic Calvert-Lewin and Iwobi were in combining for a fine winner, will pick up some points.
Nobody is suggesting the side would have been better off with Benitez, considering what he represented to fans, and the off-field difficulties he appeared to be creating.
But it doesn’t inspire huge confidence that his replacement hasn’t improved the play.
Fans will have to hope there is enough to scrape survival and a full pre-season will change things for Lampard next year.
In other Everton news, a cut-price move for one Toffees star was mooted and met with great approval between the talkSPORT hosts.
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