Everton manager Frank Lampard did something he shouldn’t have done after the weekend defeat to Liverpool; he spoke the truth.
Coming out and claiming teams don’t get penalties at Anfield, something which is a statistical fact given the Reds have gone 46 games without conceding a spot-kick, has not gone down well.
The knives are now out for him and Everton in the media, with focus on Anthony Gordon’s alleged diving, Lampard’s tactics and everything in between.
The Blues are very much an easy target at this point, and Lampard coming out and speaking honestly about his perception of Liverpool has only increased the number of people aiming their sights at Goodison Park.
Part of this is an effort to suggest Rafa Benitez is not the sole cause of this season’s problems, an effort the Spaniard started this week in his first interview since being sacked.
Today it’s the turn of AS journalist Aritz Gabilondo, who writes that Benitez ‘takes Everton to task’ and the problems at the club ‘go beyond those blamed on’ him.
According to Gabilondo, there’s been a ‘collapse’ since his departure as the Blues were six points outside of the relegation when he left and are now sat in the bottom three.
There’s been a ‘slump’ under Lampard, and according to him, the decision to sack Benitez was ‘striking’, and time has proven this.
He states that not only have Everton not improved, but the poor run of results is making relegation a ‘very real option’ and the signings that Benitez wasn’t allowed to make in January – Dele Alli and Van de Beek – haven’t made a difference.
This is something that he believes Benitez could have avoided with his ‘experience and Premier League pedigree’, and Everton’s belief that simply avoiding relegation wasn’t good enough was wrong.
Now the ‘spectre of the Championship’ is ‘haunting’ them, and it is no longer Rafa to save them but Lampard. The heavy implication being that the latter is not up to the job.
What Gabilondo seems ignorant to, though, are all the reasons Benitez was sacked in the first place.
Everton have not drastically improved under Lampard, but the situation is no longer as toxic as it was under Benitez, in which fans were at each other’s throats and the players miserable.
He also conveniently ignores the awful run of form under the Spaniard from September and happily jumps over that defeat to Norwich, which led to his sacking and was arguably the most miserable result of an extremely depressing season.
Those of us without short memories do remember these things, though, and thus can see Gabilondo’s piece for what it is; a thinly veiled shot at Lampard and an attempt to absolve Benitez, whose media campaign to rewrite history appears to be in full swing.
