Frank Lampard says Everton's youngsters have impressed when given opportunities to train with the first team.
The Blues boss has repeatedly named players from the U23s in his matchday squads since he took over in January. Reece Welsh, Isaac Price and Lewis Dobbin were also given minutes in the FA Cup fifth round win over Boreham Wood.
Opportunities to follow in the footsteps of Anthony Gordon and Jarrad Branthwaite have been limited in the Premier League as the club battles against relegation. But Lampard said several youth players had played an important role in the senior squad's work at Finch Farm.
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Everton launched a search for a new academy director and an U23s head coach this week as the club sought to replace David Unsworth following his departure earlier this month. Unsworth effectively held both roles but the decision to split them into two separate jobs has been influenced by a strategic review of the footballing operation.
Club bosses are keen to improve the connection between the academy and first team with the hope of providing a pathway for more players to make the step up. The U23s role in particular will look at coaching "with a focus on producing players capable of making the transition to first team football " according to director of football Kevin Thelwell, who is leading the recruitment process.
The academy director is expected to work closely with Thelwell and Lampard, who this week spoke of his role in the development of Chelsea and England star Mason Mount. Lampard took the Champions League winner on loan at Derby County then helped him break into the first team while manager of Chelsea.
He said: "I took Mason to Derby, he was a young man, he had a really good season for us and learnt a lot. He started brilliantly, went a bit quiet and came back brilliantly and was integral to us. It was a development year for him because of his age and body and living away from home in the Midlands and Championship football is a real grind so to see that and come back and I had confidence to put him in the team at Chelsea straight away because he deserved to be in the team straight away."
Lampard likened Gordon to Mount as the 21-year-old continues to impress, adding: "Anthony is a great kid, one of the greatest attitudes I have seen in the game, he is very similar to Mason Mount."
Lampard highlighted the club’s current plight as a reason for not being able to give current U23s players experience on the pitch. But he said he has been impressed with a number of the youngsters and hopes to be able to offer more opportunity for progression in the future.
He said: "The players that sometimes we need, or who are training well, and who we hear are training well, come in and train with us. Players have come over and offered a lot in terms of training. The harder part for me is [them] coming in. We've got, sometimes, opportunities in the squad, it's not easy to give a young player a chance even when you want to. Under pressure situations it might not be the perfect time to do it so my opinion is we have to wait a little bit, keep working with them on the training pitch, if and when we get through to more stable times - because since I have been in it's been a battle of a certain type - we can start to introduce players more into the team that deserve to be."
