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Liverpool Echo

Sport

Kyle Newbould

Frank Lampard makes 'real' admission on Everton aims this season after relegation battle

Frank Lampard Everton Alex Iwobi Andre Gomes Darwin Nunez Liverpool Goodison Park Chelsea EPL Goodison

Frank Lampard has detailed his aspirations as Everton manager and explained how he harnessed last season’s bond to galvanise his struggling side.

The Blues boss arrived at Goodison Park last January with a remit of reigniting the bond between squad and fans to ensure Premier League survival. Inspiring an honest group to work hard and give their all was enough to forge an instant bond with the Goodison Park faithful - and they repaid the favour by lining the streets in their thousands during the final few home games.

Lampard was able to harness the passion and drive from those in the stands at Goodison, and the former England international midfielder stressed the importance of getting the fans onside early - but he refused to make any rash statements when asked about his aspirations for the future.

“You have to be real, and you have to understand that we were in a relegation fight for a reason,” Lampard told BT Sport’s Between The Lines . “Whatever those reasons are, they’re not important to me, the important thing is we get things right, now and going forwards. One will be to be more stable this year in the Premier League. There’ll be no crazy statements about where we can get to until we start to show it on the pitch.

“At Everton, for me, it feels like such a unique feeling around the club when you’re in it - the desire of the fans, the history and size of the club. You have to follow that. You can’t come in and try to come away from what all those thousands of Evertonians who come here every week want. So if I can hopefully get to a style that's my style but what they can tap into, get stable and keep improving, that's as far ahead as I want to look really."

On the importance of last season’s bond between team and fans, the Everton boss added: “It's huge, particularly at this club. One of the first things I thought was that the most important part of the job is to get an instant impact. Try and get everyone together because I knew how great the Everton fans could be because I’d played here.

“So I thought ‘how can we harness that?’ And to be fair to the fans, they bought into me - for whatever reasons they were very supportive of me. That made me feel confident straight away.”

A significant factor in last season’s survival bid was the switch to a back-five, with three centre-backs hoped to provide a steeliness under the pressure of a relegation scrap. Lampard continued to use the formation in pre-season and has carried it through right up until Tuesday’s trip to Elland Road.

And the Everton manager explained his thinking behind the season-defining formation switch and why he has continued to do so this season, specifically in the narrow opening weekend defeat to Chelsea.

“This was a game (vs Chelsea) when we had Tom Davies and Andre Gomes coming off the back of injuries,” the Everton boss added. “So those (Alex Iwobi and Abdoulaye Doucoure) were the only two midfielders, and Alex is not necessarily a No.6 by trade. So you have to think if those are your two fit midfielders, how do you support them? I’ll support them by having five at the back and the two side-centre-halves that can go in and help off the ball.

“The back three has certainly given me possibilities to feel like I'm getting the right balance. It helped us defensively last year when we were under pressure, you’ve got more numbers in the box with three centre-halves and you feel much stronger.

“The other thing for me with a back three is that we’re big. I think it’s important because something we really learned from the run-in last year is that as much as this (tactical setup) is important, in the boxes it’s important. We had some decent performances last year where we played quite well but lost 2-0 because we couldn't finish and we conceded two goals.”

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