Frank Lampard’s ultimate goal might be to turn Everton into pass masters but it seems as though the Blues boss has become pragmatic enough to sacrifice such ideals for short term gains as he attempts to mastermind his side’s Premier League survival. Everton secured what might be a hugely-significant 1-0 victory over Lampard’s former club Chelsea on Sunday despite having just 22% possession against last year’s European champions.
Although Everton remain in the drop zone, a game in hand on Burnley and Leeds United ensures the Blues’ destiny remains in their own hands for now and such battling displays could prove the key to avoiding what would be the club’s first relegation for 71 years. It seems that in terms of retaining the ball, Lampard has learned that less is more in these dogfights if your players work hard enough and maintain a degree of solidity.
When Lampard was first appointed at Everton some three months ago, he told his players to “enjoy the football” and stated: “in terms of possession, I think it was a priority of mine.” While these were noble thoughts and fully understandable from someone who had been an elite player at Chelsea for the majority of his own playing career and before that, a youngster schooled at West Ham United’s ‘Academy of football’, the Blues boss has realised he must learn to work with the tools at his disposal.
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Figures collated by Comparisonator show Everton attempted a mere 222 passes against Chelsea on Sunday and completed just 255, both of which were the third lowest respective totals in the Premier League last weekend. In contrast, Thomas Tuchel’s vanquished side attempted a whopping 752 passes (92 more than next highest Leicester City and 106 more than Manchester City in their 4-0 romp at Leeds United) and completed 674 to again lead the way in the division but it earned them nothing.
While Lampard’s new team have never been close to recording those types of figures produced by his previous employers, his early attempts to spray the ball around are demonstrated by the 477 passes Everton made in their first Premier League match under his stewardship, a 3-1 defeat at Newcastle United. Indeed, the only time the Blues have attempted more passes under Lampard so far was 535 in the chastening 5-0 thrashing at Tottenham Hotspur.
Everton’s next two highest passing displays have also come in defeats: 441 in the 2-1 loss at West Ham United and 439 in the 2-0 reversal at Southampton. Other than the 194 passes the Blues made against Liverpool at Anfield in their prior fixture to Chelsea, the next fewest was 317 in the 1-0 home win over Newcastle United which hints at the trend they are following to try and arrest their slide.
Lampard’s predecessor Benitez acknowledged earlier in the season that Everton had issues on the ball when he declared after the 3-1 defeat at Crystal Palace in December: “We are not amazing in possession. It’s a fact we have to realise.” While the Spaniard’s claims seem to have been borne out, the difference has been Lampard, with seven points from his last four matches (a point more than Benitez accrued from his final 13 fixtures in charge) is at least finding a solution to such limitations.
A couple of former Everton players have already eluded to the need for Lampard to abandon such lofty principles. Writing in his ECHO column following the 4-0 FA Cup quarter-final humiliation at Crystal Palace in which the Blues boss questioned whether his players had “the b*******” for the fight, Michael Ball told Lampard he needed to forget about his football philosophy until next season and get the team safe by being able to “figure out a system for this group of players to remain tight.”
Richard Dunne then insisted Everton needed to harness the power of Goodison Park to produce the intense type of football needed to stay up this season but Lampard should be given time to turn things around as he can eventually get them to play the “Barcelona way.” Whether ‘tiki-taka’ can ever be fully implemented either at ‘The Grand Old Lady’ or the Blues’ future riverside stadium at Bramley-Moore Dock remains to be seen but Lampard’s realisation that he had to become more flexible should be applauded.
In the recent past, previous Everton managers have suffered for being totally unyielding when it came to changing their ways. Roberto Martinez’s cavalier approach initially added a new dimension to a well-disciplined side who were the culmination of David Moyes’ 11-year spell at the helm.
The result was the Blues’ highest-ever Premier League points total of 72 in 2013/14 but the longer the Catalan stayed in charge, the more his unwillingness to tighten things up became an issue. While in charge at Everton, Martinez once insisted that a 9-1 mauling his Wigan Athletic side had suffered at Tottenham Hotspur was a good thing because “you get more information about those extremes than you do in other situations.”
In another interview regarding his unwavering commitment to his football philosophy, Martinez hit out at “certain styles that guarantee you 40 points” deployed by what he called: “parasite teams.” While he now has the luxury of being able to work with a pool of world-class players for the Belgium national team, it seems clear why such an unyielding mindset, sometimes won more friends than matches for him.
Marco Silva also struggled to mix things up – infamously failing to come from behind to win a Premier League game over his 18-month tenure – but at the other end of the spectrum from him and Martinez there was Sam Allardyce. Brought in by Farhad Moshiri at the end of November 2017 as a supposed relegation fire-fighter, the blaze at Goodison – if indeed there ever was one – had been put out by the end of the new boss’ first week in charge as Everton sat in the top half of the Premier League table.
With fears of the drop having diminished towards the end of the season, ‘Big Sam’ had the opportunity to remove the shackles and try and develop a more expansive approach but he was still sacked on the back of an eighth place finish that nevertheless saw them bottom of the table when it came to shots, shots on target, chances created and chances created from open play.
Lampard still has a considerable job on his hands just keeping the Blues in the top flight this term but if he can avoid the drop then there’s scope for reshaping the team both in terms of tactics and personnel going forward. At least he’s learned quicker than some of his predecessors that a certain degree of pliability is required at times when the going gets tough and both his players and the fans have responded to his efforts.
- Comparisonator is a football data comparison tool from 271 professional leagues around the world which compares players and clubs by utilising over 100 different parameters. Click here for more details.