Former England star and iconic Chelsea midfielder Frank Lampard has officially been relieved of his duties at Goodison Park after the highest-scoring midfielder in Premier League history failed to push Everton to previous league heights as they sit joint-bottom of the table with Southampton.
Lampard, who had enjoyed a fair degree of managerial success at Derby County during the beginning of his track record in the technical area, was unable to translate that to the Premier League level, first with former club Chelsea and now with a Toffees side that is in real danger of being relegated to the Championship this season while only missing out on the bottom three by four points in 2021-22.
Questions will be asked regarding how the club intends to move forward with replacing the 44-year-old Romford-born three-time Premier League winner, with a myriad of options open for consideration including Marcelo Bielsa.
🗣 “It is the right decision.” ✅@Carra23 says the Everton fans wanted a change at board level but Frank Lampard can’t be too surprised by the sacking pic.twitter.com/dA7NxYHKmn
— Football Daily (@footballdaily) January 23, 2023
According to former adversary and Liverpool defender Jamie Carragher, Lampard could hardly be surprised by his sacking, even if Everton supporters continue to target the club’s hierarchy for change. When asked by co-pundit Gary Neville to give his thoughts on the overall situation, Carragher responded appropriately given the context at hand.
“I think the supporters wanted change more at the boardroom level than the manager, but I do feel it’s the right decision. I think Frank got the job on the back of Rafa Benítez who had a similar run, so, I think if you come in and have a similar sort of run that the previous manager had, you cannot have too many complaints.”
“And with Everton bottom of the league with Southampton at the moment, I don’t think Frank can have too many complaints, but of course, there’s things going on behind the scenes and that’s why the Everton fans are very frustrated…more with off the field stuff than on the field.”
Everton’s assisters in the Premier League this season (excluding the injured Alex Iwobi):
Conor Coady – 1
Idrissa Gueye – 1
Dwight McNeil – 1
Amadou Onana – 1
Jordan Pickford – 1#EFC— EFC Statto (@EFC_Statto) January 13, 2023
“Well, he hasn’t spent a lot of money. You’ve lost Richarlison, who was the best player last season. He tried to replace him…always going to be difficult to. But when you look at the attacking players who have come in…so he’s brought in, almost on his first day, he brought in Dele Alli and Van de Beek from Manchester United, and they weren’t really a success.”
“But this season they brought Maupay in because of the injuries to Calvert-Lewin, Dwight McNeil came in from Burnley. Again, not huge fees…£20m for McNeil…£15m for Maupay, but they haven’t done anything. Nothing at all. Defensive players they’ve brought in have done okay in terms of Tarkowski and Coady, but in terms of the attacking players, they’ve not done anywhere near enough.”
