Frank Lampard put it so succinctly himself, even in the immediate aftermath of a defeat at Spurs so devastating, the fans couldn’t even vocalise dissent.
“I looked hard at the situation before I came in, and the base stats don’t lie…the things not good enough were there to see,” was his grim assessment of the situation.
And that is the point. One of England's most talented and recognisable footballers knew what he was getting into when he accepted the Everton job, knew his ambitions as a manager were on the line.
He accepted Farhad Moshiri’s offer to rescue an ailing team, an ailing club, because of belief in himself, but it is not a blind belief. “It is important the positivity remains - but not stupid positivity,” he said bluntly.
Lampard spent many long hours looking at his team’s numbers, going over the analytics, reviewing games with a keen technical assessment when he first arrived at the club. And the stats told him one thing.
Everton were in trouble. They were a club which genuinely feared relegation because their front foot stats weren’t good enough. In virtually every department they were too passive, too lethargic.
Those base stats he spoke of were obvious too, especially away from home. They have taken just six points away from home all season: SIX. It is the worst away record in the Premier League, with even the likes of fellow relegation strugglers Watford and Brentford taking double that number.
And the bare stats also suggest there will be few more points taken on their travels this season. Not with visits to top six sides like Liverpool, West Ham and Arsenal still to come, and tricky trips to relegation scrappers Burnley and Watford. As the manager said: ‘Things don’t change overnight.”
So Lampard’s fate will most likely be decided by Everton’s home games. Realistically to be safe, they may need to win as many of five…and that is no given, with Chelsea, Manchester United, Leicester and Wolves still to come.
There are seven games left at Goodison, but the Blues have won just two matches in the Premier League since September.
Get it wrong in those seven games, and Lampard’s reputation could be shredded even before he’s really got going on Merseyside. His response to such suggestions though, is impatient, if not intolerant.
“It’s not a bigger job than I thought - we absolutely understand our position. I felt when I came in there was a fear of relegation around the place; it’s there - and rightly so,” he said.
“So the situation hasn’t really changed, we are in a similar position to when we arrived. And it’s very clear, especially after (Spurs) that. But it has gone, and we have to look at how we can put it right.
Have Your Say! Will Everton beat the drop this season? Join the debate here.
“That has happened from the start, but you don’t get uplift by simply waving a magic wand. We have to keep looking for small, small uplift all the time.
“And while it’s easy to admit we haven’t quite got there yet, we’ve had moments when we’ve been really, really good since we came back. So it’s about putting the work in now, getting the heads up, and finding more of that.”
Lampard believes the 13 games remaining are more than enough to find the points to keep Everton from relegation. He said after the Spurs game he had “no fear about the challenge.”
The question remains though, does this rag-tag, dispirited bunch of players he has inherited share that courage?
If not, then Everton’s 68 year top flight tenure - the second longest in the competition’s history - will be over, and Lampard may be rebuilding both the club’s fortunes, and his reputation, from the Championship.
