Everton manager Frank Lampard insists goalkeeper Ben Foster’s comments about his Watford team-mates are an “in-house situation” ahead of his side’s trip to Vicarage Road on Wednesday night. Watford’s relegation from the Premier League was confirmed with a 1-0 defeat at Crystal Palace on Saturday and Foster accused some of his colleagues of slacking off.
The 39-year-old said: “You just don’t really know what you’re going to get from us, to be perfectly honest. We’ve got too many players who are happy to put it in for an hour, 70 minutes, but then probably fall off and happily let it go in the last 20 minutes.
“You can’t have that. When you’re a team like us, the minimum is giving it everything you’ve got. The ability you can forego a little bit and you can accept that you might not have the quality of some players, but you’ve got to put the effort in.”
READ MORE: Frank Lampard explains what must come together for Fabian Delph to stay at Everton
READ MORE: Everton manager Frank Lampard outlines Yerry Mina and Ben Godfrey injury timescales
Responding to the remarks, Lampard said: “I saw the quotes and Ben will say it as he sees it about a few things and fair play to him. If he’s speaking like that it’s their in-house situation.
“I don’t think it really matters to us too much. Things like that can get good or bad reactions, we have to just focus on what we can do, to go there, give our best and play the way we’ve been playing in recent games and hopefully that will be enough. It’s not really for me to comment too much at where they’re exactly at, at the moment.”
Everton are hoping to secure back-to-back away wins after the 2-1 victory at Leicester City on Sunday gave them their first three points on the road since last August, a result that lifted them out of the relegation zone. As well as vociferous support on the day at the King Power Stadium, the Blues’ players were given a rousing send off from their fans when they set off on their journey to the East Midlands from their Finch Farm training complex on Saturday.
Despite Watford being a midweek fixture, some Evertonians are planning a similar turnout this afternoon as the Blues squad embark for Hertfordshire and Lampard hailed their efforts in helping their team and said: “The support that we’ve had since I’ve been here has been incredible, it’s ramped up in the last few weeks and we needed that. The fans have shown their support and passion and willingness to take part because now they’re taking part.
“Not on the pitch, that’s another thing, but I think the idea that it’s been a real joined up effort from the top of the club, from the owner, the chairman, Denise (Barrett-Baxendale, the chief executive), from staff, from players, from fans all together in a very unified way has been a big plus so we’re very thankful.
“At the same time, we have to win football matches on the pitch and that’s what the players have been doing in the last few weeks for a while now. There have been some really good performances and they’ve given ourselves a good chance.”
