Frank Lampard opens up on surviving relegation at Everton
Frank Lampard has opened up on his time at Everton and how difficult he found having to change his style of play and the attitudes of people at the club.
The Chelsea legend has claimed that when he arrived at Goodison Park, everyone from the players and staff to the fans had the mindset that they were definitely going to be relegated that season.
Lampard then claimed that he learnt more from keeping Everton in the Premier League than he ever had before that experience as a manager because of changes he had to make to adapt his squad and help to survive.
Speaking in an interview on the Obi One Podcast [7 November, 1:33:27], Lampard’s former Chelsea teammate John Obi-Mikel commented: “That was the big one, the Everton one. When you managed to keep them up, that was massive for me, that was really big.”
Lampard then shared: “That job was at a club where everybody, pretty much, from staff to players to fans were like ‘We are going down’. That’s about how you affect people to breed positivity.
“After that, we had to change our play, we wanted to be more defensive in a block and counter-attack and all these things.
“I learned a million miles more in four or five months of keeping Everton in the league, and the players keeping us in the league, than I did probably before that because I had to change everything and we kept them up. Those things I hold on to.”
A big job well done
The first half of Lampard’s Goodison Park tenure was a fantastic display on how to turn the mindset of a club from one which was already resigned to relegation, to one that was confident that they could stay up.
This was epitomised during that game against Crystal Palace at home, where Lampard’s men came back from a two-goal deficit to win the game 3-2, securing their Premier League survival and triggering wild celebrations, including two pitch invasions and an incident with Palace gaffer Patrick Vieira.
That was the sign of a different Everton, and one Lampard had managed to build up and inspire to keep their Premier League hopes alive at a time when many had already given up hope, according to the man himself.
His Everton spell did not end in such a positive way, and his sack was certainly the turning point for Everton to stay up in a strange twist of fate, but the good memories made during the first half of his time especially are ones that everybody can learn from.
In other Everton news, Garth Crooks has claimed one player was absolutely right to quit Everton.