Everything will fall at Frank Lampard’s door in Everton crossroads – Andy Gray
The 2022-23 Premier League season could well be a defining one for Everton and everything will fall to Frank Lampard in Andy Gray’s eyes.
The former England international took over from Rafael Benitez at Goodison Park at the end of January and just about managed to extract some kind of form from the Toffees to keep them away from relegation.
But that is just the start to Gray who went on talkSPORT and made his views known that whatever happens throughout the season will be as a result of Lampard.
“His ability as a manager and a coach at this level is still under scrutiny,” Gray said. “He did a fine job at Derby and got Chelsea into the Champions League but it didn’t seem to work for him there and he took a bit of a whack.
“I do think the responsibility lies squarely at the coach’s door. Frank should know by now ‘I want to keep him, but I don’t need him’ and assessed what he wants.
“At the end of the day, whatever happens this season, whoever they do or don’t get in will lie squarely at Frank’s door and he might go on like Benitez and say ‘they didn’t give me the money to invest’ but I think they have and they will.
“Frank’s job is to inspire players to say ‘you know what, I fancy this’. That’s Frank’s job.”
Defining
Gray is not wrong. Lampard has enormous pressure on his shoulders to carry on the success he enjoyed towards the end of last season into the new campaign if he wants to become established at Goodison Park.
Just keeping the Toffees up in 2021-22 is not enough for him to be untouchable in the hot seat on Merseyside and a poor start to the new season could well end up in him being sacked by Farhad Moshiri.
The truth is, it could be another tough 12 months for Everton both on and off the field so the last thing they need is to be getting rid of managers willy-nilly and causing great upheaval within the playing squad.
But they could be left with no choice if he does not perform and the team are struggling again which heaps even more pressure onto his shoulders and this will be his biggest test yet.