Everton's players should cut out the play-acting and stop feeling sorry for themselves if they want to escape relegation to the Championship, according to Ian Rush.
Frank Lampard's side currently find themselves 18th in the Premier League after manager-less Burnley clinched a 2-0 victory against Wolverhampton Wanderers last Sunday, while the Blues suffered the reverse scoreline at the hands of neighbours Liverpool a few hours later. The swing in fortunes gives the Clarets a two-point cushion over their rivals, but the Toffees crucially still have a game in hand.
Everton were given little a chance of beating a Liverpool side that has only lost twice in the Premier League all season, but the Blues felt aggrieved at not being awarded a penalty after Anthony Gordon went to ground in the box under pressure from Reds defender Joel Matip.
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Liverpool legend Rush, who holds the record for the most goals scored in Merseyside derbies with 20, had sympathy for the Reds' rivals when it came to dealing with the volume of quality they came up against at Anfield, but he also insists that Lampard's players most not go to ground so easily to avoid gaining a bad reputation amongst Premier League referees.
In an exclusive interview with Gambling.com, Rush said: “It would have been demoralising for Everton to have reached the hour mark at 0-0 only to see the fresh legs of (Luis) Diaz coming on along with (Divock) Origi, who has such a magnificent goal scoring record against them.
“A year or two ago, Liverpool weren’t able to impact a game like that with their substitutes. Pickford must have been trembling in his boots when he saw the sight of Origi coming on! He’s scored so many important goals for Liverpool – the Champions League semi-final against Barcelona and the final against Tottenham stand out of course, but six derby goals against Everton is really impressive.
“Much has been made of the Everton penalty claim. The problem referees have with 50-50s like that is that players go down far too easily these days, making it more difficult for the ref to make a decision. I’m not just talking about Gordon by the way – Richarlison went down too easily at least three times. It’s no coincidence Everton have more yellow cards for diving than any other side in the league this season. I understand Everton’s approach, they needed to do whatever they could to try and get a result out of a difficult game, but it wasn’t pretty, and it didn’t work because Liverpool eventually broke them down."
Everton boss Lampard reacted angrily to the failure to award his side a spot-kick after the match and the Blues have since written to the league's referring association, demanding an explanation. But Rush thinks they will be wasting their time and could end up in further trouble.
He said: “Frank Lampard may end up in a bit of hot water with the FA over his post-game comments but I don’t think he meant anything by it really, that was just his way of dealing with the frustration. Maybe that was just a little bit of inexperience as a manager from Frank and when things don’t go your way you get frustrated and say things you might regret. He’s only human. Everton supposedly want answers from the Premier League’s refereeing body about the decision not to award them a penalty, but there’s a big difference between this incident and the one against Manchester City earlier in the season… the one against City was a stone-waller and they quite rightly received an apology for not getting it…I’d be surprised if they get an apology for this one though.”
Everton have six games left to save their top flight status, starting with a huge match against FA Cup finalists and current European and World Club champions Chelsea at Goodison Park. But while the likes of Burnley and Leeds United are incrementally increasing their points tally, Rush fears that the Blues need to change their mindset and quickly.
He added: “With Norwich and Watford all but gone, it’s going to be a very interesting finish to the relegation battle with Everton, Burnley and Leeds all vying for safety. After back-to-back wins, Burnley are on a high and appear to have the momentum. Leeds are scraping through games getting a point here and there, but Everton are down on their luck.
“The one thing you can’t do in a relegation battle is feel sorry for yourselves and Everton are in danger of slipping down that path because they’re not used to being in a survival dogfight. The league table doesn’t lie, but I still think they’ll stay up. They’ve got home games against Chelsea, Brentford and Palace – all of whom have little to play for in the league – and if they can get seven points from nine at Goodison then I think that’ll get them over the line.
"Watford away is another game they’ll have ear-marked as winnable, so there’s still hope for Everton, but they’ve got to make those home games count.”
