Frank Lampard wants to develop a brand of football that excites the Goodison Park crowd and repays the faith fans showed in him during his opening months at Everton.
The Blues boss also wants to help bring stability to the club after a tumultuous few years and is invested in the project of taking it forward as the move to a new stadium approaches.
In a message to the supporters, he called for patience as he begins the process of moulding the squad according to his plans. But, in an ECHO exclusive, he also said he and his staff understood the responsibility was now on them and the players to provide a team to be proud of after the fans pulled together so memorably to inspire Everton to Premier League survival.
EXCLUSIVE: Inside Everton pre-season training as Frank Lampard demands and star performer revealed
EXCLUSIVE: Alex Iwobi reveals private Frank Lampard talks that inspired Everton transformation
Speaking to the ECHO in the US during his first pre-season with Everton, Lampard offered an overview of his time on Merseyside and the ambitions he has for the club. They start with producing a team more competitive in the league and more pleasing on the eye - though he was clear the rebuild will take time.
Asked what he was looking for in the upcoming season, he said: “There are two things I would say. Better results, which means a higher position in the table and not flirting with relegation. We are Everton, we are a big club, we have been in the Premier League for so many years. I want to be the man that brings an element of stability which means better results and that starts with Chelsea because we don’t want that feeling [of a relegation battle] through the year.
“And then the second thing, which will go hand in hand with that, is style of play. That for me is something I think I can really focus my progression on because as a coach you work on that through the week and then it does go on your results at the end of it. I want to play the type of football that Everton fans will want to see, at Goodison particularly.”
Everton played with five at the back at the height of last season’s relegation battle. A combination of injuries to key players, from Dominic Calvert-Lewin to Fabian Delph and Yerry Mina limited Lampard’s tactical options from the time of his appointment in late January to the end of the campaign. The late defeat at Burnley in April, which highlighted the peril facing Everton, was a turning point that led to the adoption of a more pragmatic approach. It was, ultimately, a successful one that went on to underpin the wins against Manchester United, Chelsea and Leicester City that paved the way for the dramatic comeback against Crystal Palace that guaranteed Everton would still be playing in the top flight come August.
For Lampard, the successful adaptation of tactics to the situation facing him provided an important lesson for his fledgling managerial career. He now hopes to develop a squad where style does not have to be sacrificed for substance. Ideally, he would like his Everton side to play with more intensity, to win the ball back higher up the pitch and to have greater flexibility to play with four at the back. Everton again featured five in defence during the 2-0 defeat to Arsenal in the side’s first pre-season game, after which Lampard suggested his formation was partly due to necessity. He was clear efforts to bring new faces to Goodison Park were ongoing but also that work was taking place in training to identify whether solutions may emerge from the academy or players previously on the periphery of the first team.
While recruitment will be important during this transfer window, Lampard added: “I’m not talking about ripping up and starting again. We have some really talented players and I think we can change the face of it, hopefully, with the work we do on the training ground and the recruitment we do over the next couple of weeks.”
Lampard’s first months at Everton, a club that has recently lurched between managers and directors of football, provided further lessons to a man who, just like when he was a player, throws himself into his work and constantly challenges himself to get better. Chief among them was the development of his understanding of the human side of football. The rapport he established with the supporters is well-documented and he is keen for the spirit of unity developed last season to carry through to this campaign. Less well-known is the impact of his man-management skills. Privately, many speak about the psychological and emotional support Lampard and his coaching team gave them when he joined a club that had won just once in 14 Premier League games.
He explained: “I realised I wanted to get the squad really positive. I knew people would be low on confidence, I knew there may be people in the building and staff who would be low on confidence, so I prioritised those things - conversations with players, [creating] a good feeling amongst the staff. That was a good learning curve for me, to understand how a football club is maybe 70% about people and 30% about tactics. You need the talent and the quality on the football pitch because that is what will define you, but that was a big learning curve for me because we did definitely manage to garner a spirit throughout the players and staff which was a major part in getting over the line.”
After the jubilant scenes that greeted Everton’s survival, some looking on questioned the merit of celebrating the avoidance of a relegation unthinkable at the start of the season. Some argued finishing 16th, the position the club was in when Lampard was hired, was not a success. For the 44-year-old, who arrived at a club where many, behind the scenes, feared the slide to the Championship would be impossible to halt, that is nonsense.
He said: “[Morale] is a really hard thing to turn around. I think that meant coming 16th was certainly progression for us because when you are in a real downward motion, turning that around is a big deal and we managed to do that.”
As the season unravelled for Everton, Lampard started to research and evaluate the club in case the job became available, placing him in a strong position when the search for Rafa Benitez’s replacement was later launched.
The recruitment process was not just about the hunt for a manager. For Everton it was the beginning of a mission to find a new identity. Late last year a strategic review of the club’s footballing operation began. It was concluded earlier this year and has seen the appointment of Kevin Thelwell as director of football and a major overhaul of the Finch Farm operation is underway. Club chiefs say the review is an attempt to learn from issues that have plagued the six and a half years of majority shareholder Farhad Moshiri’s involvement in the club, including instability in key positions and the spending of half a billion pounds in the transfer market only for it to precede a relegation battle that almost ended in catastrophe.
Lampard has been hailed as the first significant appointment influenced by the thinking behind the strategic review. When he was interviewed, the club was essentially under scrutiny from him too. Conversations, particularly with chairman Bill Kenwright and chief executive Denise Barrett-Baxendale gave him “a really good feeling” and the impression Everton was a club that wanted to change and embark on a project he could be at the forefront of.
He said: “Everton was a club I had always admired from the outside because of the fans, the passion and the history. But then when I saw the idea the chairman and Denise were working towards with the stadium and how great that looked and the fact they were speaking from the heart about what they wanted the team and the club to look like, in those simple terms I think that was probably the thing that got me going and got me excited about taking it.” He is now at the beginning of that journey - one he stressed will take time but which he hopes to quickly start making progress on.
Asked what his message to Everton supporters going into the new season would be, he said: “It would be to say thank you for the support at the back end of last season, because they [the fans] got us over the line, they were a huge help, no doubt, and it was something I had never felt before and the players hadn’t.
“Hopefully there is an understanding we don’t expect that this year. We know we will get huge support because that is what the fans bring to this club. But the onus is on us to get them excited and play a brand of football they are proud of, and they enjoy watching. That is what I am working on. I’m not saying we will get to it overnight. We have to understand where we were, and where we want to get to… I will be doing everything to try and deliver that.”
READ NEXT:
- Everton handed glimpse of future as Frank Lampard left facing familiar problem after Arsenal loss
Morgan Gibbs-White breaks silence on Wolves future amid Everton transfer links
- Everton player 'ratings' against Arsenal as James Tarkowski and three youngsters impress
- The key qualities Maxwel Cornet can bring to Everton to help fill Richarlison void
- Everton new stadium evolution continues as latest incredible Bramley-Moore Dock footage released
