Frank Lampard has spoken with both Farhad Moshiri and Bill Kenwright during a crucial week for Everton’s hopes of Premier League survival.
Defeats against West Ham and Burnley have left the club just one point above the relegation zone and created some speculation about his future. The Blues boss accepted such pressure came with his role and described having a positive relationship with club chairman Kenwright.
Asked whether he had recently been in touch with him and Moshiri, Everton’s majority shareholder, Lampard said: “I have spoken to the owner and chairman this week, but don’t want to go into what we said. I speak to them regularly, particularly the chairman, I have a really good relationship with him. We speak good result, bad result. I don’t want to go into that stuff.
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Questioned over the pressure of his position, Lampard said: “I feel the responsibility of managing a club that has an incredible history, and an incredible fanbase, but there’s also the realism of where we’re at. The fans I speak to, I don’t think there is anyone delusional about the situation, it is what it is, we need to win football games… The pressure I understood when I came in, the pressure I understand now, I’m used to that pressure.
“I played under it for a long time, and particularly managed under it at Chelsea, it’s the same pressure and I’m hardened to that. Which is a good thing.”
Lampard said he understood the pressure of Everton’s plight also fell onto his players.
After Maxwel Cornet’s late goal gave Burnley victory at Turf Moor on Wednesday, several slumped to the ground on the final whistle while Richarlison left the pitch in tears.
Lampard said: “I wouldn’t be doing my job if I didn’t consider where we are and the pressures that come with that, and the effect it has on players. What we have to do is make that a positive effect.”
He remains confident he can pick the side up for the remaining nine games of the season, - and that the players have the desire and ability to keep Everton up.
Lampard said: “I want to defend the players, they are a good group of players. People can talk about how many leaders, how nasty they are, that sort of thing, but I know that the players have a real desire to get out of this situation, and they are really receptive to everything you say. And the last two performances, West Ham and Burnley, the way we prepared, the way we performed in the situation we are in, we deserved to get something out of those two games. And we didn’t, but we just need to go ‘ok, onto the next one and get points’, which is Manchester United.”
