has issued a rallying cry to his players with now one point above the relegation zone with nine games to play.
Everton suffered a disappointing 3-2 defeat to Burnley at Turf Moor as Sean Dyche’s men secured a vital three points in their bid to close the gap to the Toffees.
Lampard’s side can’t afford to dwell on the result though with next up on Saturday and he’s warned his players they’re well and truly in a relegation scrap now.
‘We have to not get too caught up in the words. We have to keep working and preparing and give everything,’ he said. ‘Because if we do make mistakes like we did tonight we better be ready to fight. That’s what it is.
‘Players don’t need to listen, or read, or get involved in anything other than turning up tomorrow and getting right for Saturday and trying to get the right results to keep us in this league.
‘The only thing we can do is control what we can. Which is to work and fight and get the results.
‘Our players have to keep going, they’re not silly. They know that they have to keep going, we have nine games to go. We’re just above the zone so if we didn’t know we were in a fight before then we certainly know now.
‘There are nine games where we have to give absolutely everything, every ounce that we have. I will certainly do that and everybody has to do the same.
‘It doesn’t feel nice tonight, but we have to understand we have a game in three days time and more games after that to get enough points to stay in this league. That’s what’s there to fight for.’
Everton fell behind after just 12 minutes following some sloppy defending as Nathan Collins opened the scoring.
Two converted penalties from Richarlison ensured the visitors led at the break before Jay Rodriguez and Maxwel Cornet took advantage of Everton’s poorly organised defence to pull off the comeback in the second half.
Lampard was once again left frustrated at ‘individual mistakes’ costing his team.
‘It’s the points isn’t it? We’re now a point ahead of Burnley. We knew the rules before the game if you win it you have a nice little gap. That’s the situation,’ the former Chelsea midfielder added.
‘It’s football, in three days we have to recover for our next game. We had mistakes for their goals and mistakes in not being clinical enough to take the numerous chances that should have had us clear at that point.
‘But 2-1, the way we were playing in the second half was for us to go and score and make it 3-1. We don’t do that. Then we just concede from individual mistakes.’
, .
, and .
