Everton manager Frank Lampard has called for his players to develop better resilience to improve the worst away record in England’s top four divisions.
Just six points from a possible 39 on the road is the poorest return from the 92 clubs comprising the Premier League and EFL.
In fact, dropping all the way down to National League North and South, only one side – National League Dover – have performed worse away from home.
Lampard blames a poor reaction to adversity for such an appalling statistic, but with his side sitting just one place above the relegation zone he knows they cannot just rely on results at Goodison Park to make them safe.
“Mentality is a word which gets thrown around a lot but there is so much which goes into it,” said the Toffees boss ahead of the trip to West Ham.
“Our job as coaches is to find little nuggets within that, whether it is individual or collective, to make sure the players believe in themselves and have confidence because in the Premier League you will take hits.
“When we’ve had them away from home we haven’t recovered from them and that is something we just have to improve.”
Everton’s solitary win away from home came at Brighton in August, five months prior to Lampard’s arrival in late January to replace the sacked Rafael Benitez.
However, there has been no upturn since taking over, with his four away matches resulting in four defeats with one goal scored and 14 conceded.
“I want to improve it. It has been something which has been a negative in the season and we have to find the solutions and the reasons why,” Lampard added.
“There are contrasting performances at home. In all the games I’ve been here we’ve started the game well away and in-game things happening have changed the game very quickly and that is something we have to put right.
“Myself and the staff have to deal with the footballing reasons, prepare as well as we can and keep working.
“There are angles we can look at but for me the first angle is how you prepare and how you execute during in the game.
“I know we have the ability in the squad: we showed it against Newcastle (a 1-0 win) and Manchester City (1-0 defeat) so we need to replicate a performance away from home.
“I know it sounds very simple when I say it but that’s just the reality of what it is.”
