Frank Lampard admits he has ‘no magic wand’ to fix Everton

Everton manager Frank Lampard has stressed that he is under no illusion as to just how tough his job at Goodison Park is.

The Toffees turned to Lampard after falling into a relegation battle under his predecessor, Rafa Benitez, but put on their worst performance of the season on Monday as they were mauled 5-0 by Tottenham Hotspur.

The defeat leaves Everton just one point clear of the relegation zone with 13 games left to play, and Lampard admitted that he has a real battle on his hands.

“I have no problems with the challenge,” he said after the game.

“The players understand the gravity of the situation. They understood it before I arrived because they had been on a long run without a win. You’d have to be a fool not to understand it. I am confident, that doesn’t mean anything.

“I didn’t walk into the building with a magic wand. I am absolutely confident, that is why I am here. The feeling at this club when I came here was we could be going down, it was clear around the city, it was up to me to change that and I thought we had changed that. But this is a test of that. The only positive thing is that this could be a jolt and shock.”

Lampard did, however, refuse to blame his setup and instead put the result down to errors and poor performances.

“The main issues were mistakes and bad defending for the goals,” the boss claimed. “It wasn’t just the defensive situations – at the top end of the pitch we didn’t show enough.

“Even when we were in relative control we didn’t threaten their backline. There’s a clear discrepancy in home and away form, issues that were there before me and don’t take care of themselves overnight. But rather than being about home and away, if you make those mistakes you’re going to struggle. It’s important to remain positive but we can’t shy away from the mistakes we made tonight.”