Lampard explains altercation between Everton players and supporters

Everton fans, especially the traveling supporters who are such a vocal fixture at the Blues away games, have seemingly had enough of the recent spineless performances.

Two humiliating defeats away at newly-promoted AFC Bournemouth is apparently what it took to break the proverbial camel's back, with fans reacting quite aggressively at full time when the manager and players came over to the away end yesterday.

A number of the players were given an earful about their poor showings, not least England's #1 Jordan Pickford whose egregious error opened the floodgates on Saturday afternoon. Apparently the goalie said to the supporters that he took full responsibility for the defeat, but still appeared ready to wade into the crowd to respond to something said to him, with the stewards and his teammates having to restrain him.

Speaking after the game manager Frank Lampard talked about the supporters' justified anger.

"The fans have a right to be disappointed. They have come down here twice this week and seen poor performances. And before that we had been going OK and then they see performances they don't like. So when we are pleased they are happy after [Crystal] Palace, when we are pleased that they give us a welcome, we have to understand that they can voice their opinions and their opinions are right today."

It got worse though, with Alex Iwobi going over to give some fans his shirt and then having it thrown right back at him as the team milled around by the sideline.

"I think there was a bit of a misunderstanding, Alex [Iwobi] had some friends that he was concerned about that were sort of at the front of the fans, there was nothing in that, and the players just have to accept the fans have a right to voice their opinions and again they were right today.”

Everton’s slumping form going into the winter break means fans will certainly have a lot to moan about for the next few weeks, but it does provide the coaching staff and the players a real opportunity to hit reset and rethink their strategy for this season which has so far gone very awry with the Blues sitting just above the relegation zone.