“Have you got the b***s to play?” – Frank Lampard questions Everton players’ courage after the FA CUP exit

“Have you got the b***s to play?” – Frank Lampard questions Everton players’ courage after the FA CUP exit

Frank Lampard questioned his players’ bravery following Everton’s embarrassing loss in the FA Cup, a 4-0 hammering at the hands of Crystal Palace at Selhurst Park on Sunday. The former English international said that he doesn’t have a “magic wand” to cure their lack of resilience.

The Toffees, who are still fighting for their Premier League survival, were defeated 4-0 by Crystal Palace at Selhurst Park, with goals from Marc Guehi, Jean-Philippe Mateta, Wilfried Zaha, and Will Hughes ensuring they lost out on a trip to Wembley Stadium.

The visitors started strongly but fell apart after Andros Townsend was forced off in the 17th minute with a “serious” knee injury, prompting Lampard to lament a lack of toughness among his players in his post-match news conference.

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Frank Lampard during press confrence

Talking to the press, Frank Lampard said it will require time to get Everton players on the right track and that he is working on it.

“I don’t have a magic wand to get inside people’s heads and change resilience across the whole squad. That’s a work in progress,” he said.

“The hard thing for us is that we don’t have a lot of time in the league to do that.

“The subject of my work is really big as a manager, but going in and changing that with a switch is not possible.

“Even if it’s frustrating for me, as frustrating for the 4,000 fans who are down and the people watching [at home], that’s what we have to fight for.”

Frank Lampard complains about the players’ lack of consistency

Frank Lampard with Everton player

Everton came into the game after a shocking 1-0 win over Newcastle in the Premier League on Thursday night but Frank Lampard complained about his players’ inability to show the same battle consistently.

He added: “There is so much you can do to keep trying to give someone the confidence you need.

“There is a balance of confidence and play at the end of football here.

“This is the quarter-final today at Wembley and if you don’t have the confidence to play, you can quickly investigate and say, you don’t have b***s to play?

“That’s the truth of football. If you cross over somewhere, don’t worry about it.

“We did not play so badly today and Palace did not play so well today, but we lost 4-0 due to lack of confidence and the shortcomings I just mentioned.”

Frank Lampard continued: “It’s not a trick. The tricks appeared in the first 20 minutes. Palace could not get out of their part.

“So, if you do things well in that building, you will be fine.

“But if you can’t be clinical in front of goal, you can’t score goals, you can’t feel like you’re going to score goals.

“And if you let people get in your box and finish easily, they’ll finish easily.”

Everton are currently 17th in the Premier League table, barely above the relegation battle. Frank Lampard led side need to make sure that they do not afford to make any errors in the coming games.

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