Lampard: Everton loss at Crystal Palace due to a lack of b******s

Frank Lampard has put Everton’s 4-0 defeat at Crystal Palace down to a lack of confidence, as well as something more candid, throughout the squad.

The Toffees went into Sunday’s match on the back of a crucial 1-0 win over Newcastle in the Premier League.

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After a positive start, Marc Guehi’s first-half header appeared to knock Everton back before Jean-Philippe Mateta doubled Palace’s advantage.

After the heavy defeat, Lampard said that his players didn’t have enough “b******s” to make it through to the FA Cup semi-final at Wembley.

He said (via Liverpool Echo): “It’s done damage that we won’t go to Wembley, our fans won’t go to Wembley and we won’t have the opportunity to go to a final. But after the break it’s up to us.

“There’s a balance of confidence stroke playing at the cut-throat end of football. This is a quarter-final today to get to Wembley, and if you haven’t got the confidence to play, then you can quickly flip to say have you got the b******s to play? Excuse me, but that’s the football reality.

“If you fall somewhere in the middle then don’t worry about it. We didn’t play that badly today and Palace didn’t play that well today, and we lost 4-0. Because of a lack of confidence, and a lack of what I just said.

“If you can’t be clinical in front of goal, you can’t score goals. If you allow people to stroll into your box to finish with ease, they’ll finish with ease. It was real basics.”

Lampard is adamant, however, that Sunday’s defeat at Selhurst Park will not affect their bid to avoid relegation from the Premier League.

“It should be nothing,” he said. “Every time we win people talk about momentum, every time we lose people talk about damage done. In reality, we need to be bigger and stronger than that.”

Andros Townsend had to be replaced in the 17th minute after suffering a knee injury. Lampard has said the injury “looks bad”, saying that his departure had a negative effect on his team’s performance.

“It looks bad, we think it’s a knee injury. He got his studs stuck in the grass,” the manager added.

“We’ll scan him over the next day or two, but the early signs are that it will be a bad knee injury.

“We were playing well, we started well, Andros was contributing. We stopped the game, the change of personnel – even after that I thought we remained in relative control until the goal goes in obviously.

“It (the injury) was a blow in those terms, yeah. Two things hindered us, one was the scheduling – which is difficult to rely on when you’ve just lost 4-0. But we could have played at 3pm or 6pm, but the broadcasters want to show other teams.

“And then Allan’s suspension not being turned over, because it was a wrong decision and it was easier to save face and leave him with a three-game suspension. We missed a big player today and we will now for two league games.”