Lampard provides encouraging Everton squad news

There is a pall of gloom settling thickly over the blue half of Merseyside as the reality that Everton are going to be deeply embroiled in a full scale relegation battle is starting to become more apparent to all.

Manager Frank Lampard is trying hard to keep spirits up in the squad, and insists that players are staying positive under the circumstances.

“That’s a good question because I think sometimes people can make judgements from the outside about attitude and application whatever and that goes hand in hand with the results. It doesn’t.

“The result on Wednesday was because of our individual mistakes that lost us that game. The players are not running less than the opposition, they’re not fighting less than the opposition, we have the stats, we have everything to back that up.

“That’s how we train and that’s what we demand. If somebody didn’t do it then they wouldn’t play. At the same time we have to demand there are things within our game, at times critical things in both boxes, that are affecting us and affecting the result.

“If we score, 3-1, we win the game on Wednesday or we don’t. The table looks different. But you have to keep working the same way, you have to keep working in training with what we want the players to do daily for every game and keep working and keep believing in that.

“I saw a positive group of players this morning, I don’t want to say we’re all happy, running around and it’s all great, because they’ve got an understanding of the situation but they’re positive because they know what needs to be done. I say that, we’ve got a great captain who says that, so we have to keep working for those results.”

He provided some positive squad news as well, with defensive lynchpin Yerry Mina expected back in the squad for the game against Leicester City in twelve days.

“We’ve got Seamus Coleman – who on Wednesday night was feeling the effects of not being well and wasn’t fit to play – in consideration, so that’s a nice boost for the game tomorrow. Fabian Delph is in the squad and is fit and available. Yerry Mina we hope will be fit for Leicester.”

Dominic Calvert-Lewin endured another barren game in the loss at Burnley, but Lampard insisted he still had his backing.

“I just give him complete support. He’s a top player and professional from my time being here. The difficult thing as a professional, when they’ve been suffering from injuries, which he has, they can’t answer the questions well enough because they’re not playing or they’re just coming back from injury.

“Dominic is now reaching that fitness and the next step is can he contribute as well as he can and can he get the goals that we want from him. But he has my absolute support, Dominic, from inside.

“I know how much he wants to deliver, I’ve spoken to him this morning, I speak to him all the time. I have absolute confidence that will come good in terms of goals for him.”