Frank Lampard said "the noise is not important" as he attempts to manage the return of Dominic Calvert-Lewin to Everton's first team.
He was involved for the first time this season - and the first time since his dramatic winner against Crystal Palace secured Everton's survival - as he played the final 15 minutes of the Blues' defeat to Manchester United.
Calvert-Lewin was involved in the frenetic final moments but was unable to help his side find an equaliser. It was a big moment in Everton 's season, however, and Lampard said the striker's comeback was one of the positives of a difficult night at Goodison Park.
Calvert-Lewin had been absent for the first eight games of the Premier League season after suffering a knee injury on the eve of the new campaign. As excitement built around his return, Lampard opted to allow him more time to recover and build his fitness in the hope of ensuring Calvert-Lewin was not placed under too much pressure, too early.
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Asked whether the desire for his return among supporters had been difficult to resist, Lampard said the 25-year-old's health was the most important issue as he built towards first team football. He said: "The noise is not so important. The noise when he comes on and lifts the crowd is a good thing and you see what he can bring to us in the longer term but we have to have a longer view on it, and we are there now. He got on the pitch today so it's another week for him to work and go into the next game coming up. It is important we do that in the right manner and get him match fit because in the Premier League you have to be match fit. He has to get to that level where he is going to really affect games.
"We all want him to and he will want to, so the noise isn't a problem. We work behind the scenes and we see a lot of things, feel a lot of things every day and we have to deal with them in a professional manner and he was fit today and could probably play 20/30 minutes max, hopefully next week that period of time is longer and then he is our player that we can rely on and that gives me really good options with him and Neal [Maupay] upfront."
Now that Calvert-Lewin has returned to the matchday squad, Lampard said the challenge is to continue to build his match fitness. He added: "We have managed him through this return in terms of how he has trained and his workload, because we need to be a bit careful. He was not ready to start the game today but to get him on the pitch was a good thing, he clearly gives us a different kind of angle to our attacking play. He is a big player for us. That was a positive."
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