Former Everton player Richard Dunne believes that new manager Frank Lampard has made a “smart move” in giving Blues fans their team back.
After winning just one of their previous 15 Premier League matches, Everton produced an up-tempo display to defeat Leeds United 3-0 in Lampard’s first home game in charge in the competition.
It’s been claimed that Lampard has one of the biggest brains in football.
Back in 2009 – the year in which he netted the winning goal for Chelsea against Everton in the FA Cup final – the west London outfit’s club doctor Bryan English dished out IQ tests to all of the first-team players and the midfielder scored well over 150.
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Doc English remarked: “Frank Lampard scored one of the highest sets of marks ever recorded by the company doing the tests. And higher than me.”
The average British person scores 100 and Lampard’s result would mean that he is among the most intelligent 0.1 percent of the world’s population and could get into Mensa.
With over a thousand Premier League games between them, Lampard (609) and Dunne (474) were on-the-field rivals in the competition for many years but the Dubliner reckons the new Blues boss has pulled off a canny move in the way he’s got Everton playing.
Speaking courtesy of freebets.com, Dunne told the ECHO: “You’ve seen with the past couple of managers there’s not been that excitement or connection between what the players were being asked to produce and what the fans really wanted to see.
“The fans really wanted to get behind the team and every club has a connection with their fans and the style that they’re expected to see.
“That’s probably stronger at Everton than at most other clubs. If the players can tap into that and get the fans going, really cheering them on and pushing them forward then it’s a really difficult place to for any opponent.
“I think that was one smart move from Lampard, giving them back their team to support.”
Lampard has two distinct tasks at Everton; correcting the short-term problem of moving clear of relegation danger and then getting back to challenging for Europe.
But Dunne believes the 43-year-old is capable of fulfilling both demands.
He said: “When Frank was appointed, you asked: ‘What is he going to bring? How is he going to move Everton forward?’
“Somewhere along the way it has to be more than just getting them to play with high intensity.
“The intelligence he’s shown so far has been telling. He’s asked himself: ‘What’s Everton all about and how can we get the connection between the players and the fans back?’
“He’s done that straight away. Whether that’s through talking to fans, Duncan Ferguson or other people around the club, what it means to play for Everton is very important.
“You’ve seen from his time at Chelsea the calibre of players he can attract to the club is huge, people seem to want to play for him.
“He’s a young manager with big ambitions and he’ll want to be a success at Everton.
“I think the two of them, the manager and the club, the timing is perfect for them both, and hopefully they can both push each other forward.”
Dunne was back at Goodison Park on Saturday to witness his former club’s 3-0 win over Leeds and he was delighted to see them returning to what he sees as the Blues core values after the controversial and potentially costly dalliance with former Liverpool manager Rafa Benitez.
He said: “It’s been disappointing to watch because you keep expecting Everton to take that next step, to push on and really challenge at the top end of the table for European places.
“Almost from the start with Benitez, it never looked like it was going to be a match made in heaven. His history wasn’t right and the team just didn’t perform.
“Some of the comments coming out at the weekend suggests that the training wasn’t as enjoyable as the players wanted it to be.
“It was a disappointing start to the season but hopefully now with Lampard coming in, things will turn around.
“I was working on the game on Saturday and the performance was so good. It was old school Everton. It was brilliant and definitely merited a 3-0 win.
“We were talking about the fans wanting to see a bit of themselves in the players through their performance and you could definitely get that so full credit to Frank for ensuring the players know what’s expected of them.”
Everton have won both of their home matches to date under Lampard comfortably having also defeated Brentford 4-1 in the FA Cup but in between that was a sorry display in a 3-1 defeat at Newcastle United and Dunne believes the key to climbing the table will be performing when not at Goodison Park.
He said: “I think the challenge will be reproducing those kind of displays away from home.
“Once you can Goodison Park rocking and the fans on your side, there’s no harder place for an opposition team to go to.
“I think the quality of the players within the squad is definitely good enough.
“He’s brought in Donny van de Beek and Dele Alli and if you can get those two playing well then you’d expect the performances to continue to grow.
“For both the Everton fans and the players, they must be excited having seen what they’re capable of producing.
“If they can produce that on the road then there are still plenty of games to recover and finish the season strongly.
“That would hopefully give them the ability to attract better players again in the summer and really take that next step rather than it being another false dawn.”
With Ben Godfrey and then Yerry Mina both getting injured in Lampard’s first two games in charge, Everton are relying on Mason Holgate and Michael Keane – who netted against Leeds United – to build up a solid partnership in Dunne’s old position in the heart of defence in the coming weeks but he was encouraged by what he saw against Marcelo Bielsa’s side.
He said: “I thought Michael Keane and Mason Holgate played well. Obviously they were coming up against the pace of Daniel James to start with, they played a bit deeper, not leaving so much space so that was a good plan.
“Everton have struggled throughout the season with individual errors but there was no sign of that against Leeds and instead there was full confidence.
“They’re both good players, they just need a run together.
“I think when you have injuries in that position, you don’t get the consistency of having a stable partnership.
“If they can get a run of games and continue to produce form, that’s what you want – a stable baseline you can go from – and they showed signs that they’re more than capable of doing it.
“Mason Holgate made one great tackle in the first half when James was breaking through. The recovery and the timing of it was perfect so that will be great for his confidence.”
Everton set the ball rolling against Leeds with a first goal in almost three years from their veteran captain Seamus Coleman and Dunne believes the full-back's display proves that his fellow Irishman is still far from finished.
He said: “Seamus’ commitment is second to none. Every time he opens his mouth, he speaks almost on behalf of the fans.
“He wants Everton to be successful. Whether he’s on the pitch or in and around the squad, wherever he is at the club, you know he’s trying to pull everyone in the right direction.
“To get a goal was brilliant, you could see the emotion in his face. It meant a lot to him and was a great moment.
“He wants success for Everton more than anyone I would imagine.”
Dunne added: “He’s extremely fit. I thought he played really well against Leeds and as long as his performances continue, he can keep going for a few more years at least.
“He’s one of those players that you want around the club.
“When players come in you want them to realise what it means to play for Everton and he can give that out to everyone.
“He’ll want to be judged by his performances on the pitch and if Saturday is anything to go by, he’s still got plenty of miles left on the clock.”
- Look out for the second part of our Richard Dunne interview next week as he recalls his own playing days at Everton.
