Everton

2022 - 3 - 13

Everton vs Wolves

Post cover — Image courtesy of "Liverpool Echo"

Frank Lampard could face tough Everton question we all now ... (Liverpool Echo)

Fans now have genuine fears Everton could be relegated after an eighth defeat in nine Premier League matches during 2022 leaves Frank Lampard's side outside ...

Those struggles weren’t in the spring though and if it does go to the final day, unlike those aforementioned ‘Great Escapes’ of ’94 and ’98, Everton are away to Arsenal, the fixture they’ve taken the least points per game from in Premier League history. The first was a real-life ‘Roy of the Rovers’ story as a Blues team full of characters – they proved their mettle the following year by beating Alex Ferguson’s Manchester United in the FA Cup final – came back from 2-0 down to triumph 3-2. If Everton are to survive then it looks like it could well be with much fewer than the traditional 40-point safety barometer and will be more down to the ineptitude of others than any sort of remarkable survival bid from themselves. Should we be encouraged by the Blues home-grown hero’s confidence or are he and his team-mates just blind to the facts of a situation now staring the rest of us in the face? Somehow, Everton survived three separate opportunities over the past fortnight for Burnley to leapfrog them in the table and put them into the relegation zone before they even kicked-off against Wolves but following Watford’s 2-1 victory at Southampton – a ground where the Blues, without a Premier League away win since August 28, fell to a sorry defeat less than a month ago – only goal difference currently keeps them out of the bottom three. We can attempt to shield our kids from many things and there’s a lot of issues in the news right now that put the fortunes of football teams into context – in recent weeks, I (probably along with millions of parents across Europe) have been asked by my teenagers to provide definitive assurances that there won’t be a Third World War – but when they see Everton losing week after week, it becomes ever more difficult to sugar-coat any ripostes.

Second-Half Strike Condemns Everton To Defeat (Everton Football)

This contest, against Wolverhampton Wanderers, was decided by Conor Coady's header four minutes after half-time. Everton, who finished the match with 10 men ...

Dele was an increasing influence on the game, meanwhile. There was an element of spice threaded through the game, right from the Hwang episode. What of Pickford in the opening half? Everton’s task grew harder when Kenny was sent off following two cautions in three minutes. He was barely needed. And their failure to take advantage gave Everton a glimmer of optimism in the last of four minutes of stoppage time when Moutinho tripped Coleman on the 18-yard line. They are a tough nut to crack and Everton's task became even more demanding when playing a man down. Andros Townsend, on for Gray, sent the dead ball travelling the wrong side of the post and Everton’s last hope of rescuing a point disappeared. Coleman took issue with a few Wolves players for a perceived injustice around the same time and, later in the half, the sight of Podence and Jordan Pickford squabbling while waiting for a corner epitomised the teams’ fractious relations. The South Korean forward was up and down like a jack in a box, genuinely hurt after sustaining a blow but hell bent on trying to continue. When an Everton player in possession lifted his head, then, the view was repeatedly filled with a bank of old gold. Everton collected nothing from the first half of a five-day Goodison Park double header – and must now dust themselves down in time for a visit from Newcastle United on Thursday.

Lampard is too busy with alibis to change Everton's fate (Football365.com)

Frank Lampard has been distancing himself from the mess at Everton ever since his first defeat. They need coaching inspiration, not excuses.

Eddie Howe (1.56) has waved the same “magic wand” Lampard continues to protest is not available in the Premier League – and it would be foolish to put all that down to money instead of coaching and problem-solving. The Tottenham shellacking necessitated a formation switch to a three-man defence that engendered a vague improvement – although the bar set on Monday was dreadfully low. Wolves merely had to be efficient and organised to coast to victory. They understood it before I arrived because they had been on a long run without a win,” said Lampard after a crushing defeat to Tottenham in his fifth league match. There would be no shame in admitting, publicly or privately, that the challenge initially presented is both far greater than first thought and something he was never prepared for. I’ve come into the club when they were on a run of results that’s left them in the position we’re in. A club in constant search for greater meaning and identity has been psychologically self-impaired for decades. But nor were those defeats: four in a row without scoring under Lampard; more overall than every Premier League club bar Watford and Norwich. Everton have scored barely a goal a game while conceding close to two. “I have come to a situation where we have to get better in a lot of things. The Lampardian Transition will never be beaten but those 12 months out of management seem to have been spent painstakingly developing a new interview technique. No longer is Lampard indelibly tethered to the viral monster he helped create. His latest method is more fluid, free to manipulate and manoeuvre as the situation demands.

Frank Lampard: Everton crowd have every right to boo team off at ... (Sky Sports)

Wolves plunged Everton further into relegation trouble as Conor Coadys second-half header left only goal difference keeping them out of the drop zone; ...

Yes, they have three games in hand on Watford and one on Burnley but games in hand are absolutely worthless if you can't win football matches. Frank Lampard has had little impact in changing their fortunes around either. It is now just goal difference separating them from the drop zone. A run of just nine points from the last 60 available and only two league wins since September has left a squad drained of confidence in danger of dropping out of the top flight for only the third time in their history and first since 1951. And the scenes at full-time in the stands at Goodison Park mirrored that fear and anger towards their team. It is now a hinderance.

Everton lose again as boyhood Liverpool fan Conor Coady heads ... (BreakingNews.ie)

The result left Frank Lampard's team outside the Premier League drop zone on goal difference alone.

Raul Jimenez flicked a snap-shot wide and Daniel Podence, who came on for Hwang, also narrowly missed the target after a driving run as the Toffees struggled to even get a touch on the ball. A free-kick was half-cleared to Neves, who skipped past a couple of tackles to swing over a brilliant cross for Coady to glance inside the far post. The England international expertly glanced home Ruben Neves’ cross early in the second half and Jonjoe Kenny’s dismissal following two yellow cards in the space of three minutes saw the visitors coast to a 1-0 victory to move up to seventh in the Premier League table.

This Is My Gut Feeling About Everton - Former Ireland Star On ... (Inside Futbol)

Kenny Cunningham has revealed his gut feeling about Everton as they battle relegation from the Premier League.

That’s a lad who was exceptional early part of the season. “Calvert-Lewin has come back into the team. “Everton are bang in there and of course they are not too good to go down”, Cunningham said on Off The Ball.

Lampard: Everton have plenty of time to save themselves (RTE.ie)

Everton manager Frank Lampard does not believe one result will determine their Premier League future but knows this week's visit of Newcastle is crucial for ...

"We and the players have to stay brave. "I think being on edge is not a bad thing, "Maybe it will turn in our favour but all we can can do is work.

Frank Lampard accepts fans have right to vent ire after beaten ... (Independent.ie)

Everton manager Frank Lampard accepts fans are well within their rights to express their anger at another defeat after the 1-0 loss to Wolves edged the ...

We scored one goal, could have scored more, and deserved the points.” Second half was one of the best second halves we did. When a team loses 5-0 you know they will come at you in the beginning.

Lampard and the glazed expression of confused impotence at Everton (The Guardian)

After all, they'd surely pick up six points from their matches in the Goodison cauldron against Wolves and Newcastle, whereupon any notions of impending ...

Ralf Rangnick has a just-about-fully-fit Manchester United squad to choose from for their meeting with Atlético Madrid on Tuesday, but is concerned about tiny punctuation marks following one member of his squad. Time to forget about the league and concentrate on the cup? We’re all to blame, not one more than the other” – PSG defender Presnel Kimpembe on the jeers from home fans during the win against Bordeaux on Sunday, rather than the atmosphere in the dressing room after the defeat to Real Madrid. We think. What’s the record for most consecutive questions asked at one of Tommy T’s press conferences?” – Ed Taylor. Lampard, in one of those excruciating Fronting Up post-match interviews, insisted that “we have belief” and that his team will “keep fighting for it”. That’s the sort of tough talk that used to work so well at peak-Jose Chelsea – Claude Makélélé, John Terry, all that – but doesn’t land so firmly when you’re relying on Dele Alli and Jarrad Branthwaite. Everton still have matches in hand on those around them at the bottom, but should they fail to pick up all three points later this week against a Newcastle team suddenly good enough to give the European and world champions a game, that might not count for too much, because the rest of that run-in is testing, to say the very least. After all, they’d surely pick up six points from their matches in the Goodison cauldron against Wolves and Newcastle, whereupon any notions of impending relegation would become fanciful and the chance to riff, bebop and scat on Frank Lampard’s pain would be gone.

Everton fans have become more apathetic than angry, but club still ... (iNews)

There is little sign of the Goodison roar which powered Everton to the early triumphs of Lampard's reign as the Toffees are pulled into a relegation ...

But the team is nigh for doing something about them, with a tricky run of fixtures following the Newcastle game. Anger is energy that can be channelled if the team find a spark from somewhere. A horrific week that began with a feckless defeat to Tottenham has pulled the club closer to a first relegation in nearly seven decades.

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