Frank Lampard accused his Everton flops of lacking cojones after their FA Cup rout at the hands of Crystal Palace.
Just 72 hours after the fillip of a dramatic win against Newcastle in their fight to avoid relegation, the Toffees melted at Selhurst Park. And manager Lampard was unimpressed by Everton's heads dropping after falling behind, growling: “It's been an issue for quite a long time before I got here.
“To get inside people's heads and change that at the flick of a switch is not possible - as frustrating as it is for me, and the 4,000 fans who followed us here.
“There is only so much time you can keep buttering someone up to give them confidence. You’re playing at the cut-throat end of football here. This is a quarter-final to get to Wembley and if you haven’t got the confidence to play, you can quickly flip it and say ‘Have you got the b******* to play?’ Excuse me, but that’s the football reality.
“We didn't play that badly and Palace didn't play that well, but we lost 4-0 because of the lack of confidence and the lack of what I've just said. It wasn't tactics – because for the first 30 minutes Palace couldn't get out of their own half. Maybe it's not my time as an Everton manager to think about going to Wembley.
“Palace invested in important areas of their team last summer and it's their time, not ours. If you offered any Evertonian before today, 'Do you want a trip to Wembley or do you want to stay up?', we all know the answer. But the players performed at 70 per cent today and it's not good enough.”
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Asked if such a dispiriting defeat would have any knock-on effect in Everton's relegation battle, Lampard insisted: “Nothing, or it should be nothing – the reality is that we have to be bigger and stronger than that. It's a different competition where the damage has been done - our fans won't get to Wembley this season, or get the opportunity to reach a final.”
Once going ahead with their first sortie into Everton's half, Palace never looked liked being denied a place in the last four. Winger Wilf Zaha, who could get an early 'sighter' at Wembley for Ivory Coast against England next week, warned: “There's more to come from this side. It shows the club is heading in a good direction. It's a fantastic feeling that we're going to Wembley - we've achieved a lot this season and we can't wait."
Lampard's horror show not helped by the early loss of former England winger Andros Townsend with a serious knee injury but Palace boss Patrick Vieira was thrilled with the win. Vieira said: “The objective was to reach the semi-final and we did it well. Anything is possible, but we don't want to get too excited. We need to enjoy this moment but I want to challenge my players to keep working. We have been speaking about the projects we want to put in place, but there's a long way to go to achieve what we want as a club.”
