Does Lampard Deserve to Go?

Now closing in on the halfway stage of the season, the managerial merry-go-round continues to spin as fervently as ever in the Premier League. Scott Parker, Thomas Tuchel, Graham Potter, Bruno Lage, Stephen Gerrard, and Ralph Hasenhuttl have all already left their original posts, with the question now being who will be next?

Antonio Conte is attracting a degree of pressure at underwhelming Spurs, although it should be noted that the North London club do still sit fifth and within striking distance of the Champions League positions. David Moyes meanwhile has credit in the bank at West Ham, but with the Hammers only outside of the drop zone on goal difference, he likely needs results to turn around sooner rather than later.

Easily the hottest seat of all resides at Goodison Park, with Frank Lampard continuing to struggle to extricate the Toffees from an increasingly sticky situation. Handed an unenviable task following the near-disastrous reign of Rafa Benitez, those in charge on Merseyside will likely have been willing to hand the ex-Chelsea man a little time. However, they will at least want to see some progress. The question on the lips of the Goodison faithful is, “has there been any?”. In an effort to answer that query, we look at Everton’s performances under Lampard, compared to how they fared under Benitez, using data presented by newbettingsites.uk.

Benitez vs Lampard: Key Stats

Purely on a stats basis, the above table suggests that, far from improving under Lampard, Everton have actually regressed since the departure of Rafa Benitez – and perhaps critically so. Benitez’s average of exactly one point per game is admittedly nothing to write home about but does equate to a tally of 38 points over the course of a full season – a total which would have been enough to see the Toffees avoid relegation in each of the previous five seasons.

Extrapolating Lampard’s average of 0.95 points per game over a full season, results in a total of 36 points. That again would have been enough to beat the dreaded drop in each of the past five years, but only barely on a few occasions. If the Toffees are trending downwards as the data suggests, it won’t take much of a drop off to see them playing Championship football in 2023/24.

2021/22 vs 2022/23

In fairness to Lampard, taking over a club midway through a season is always a difficult task. With that in mind, perhaps it would be fairer to compare Everton’s performances under Lampard last season, with their displays during the current campaign. With a full pre-season under his belt, has Frank managed to squeeze any improvement from this struggling squad? This question is again best answered by taking a look at the numbers.

Not a particularly rosy picture once again, with Everton’s goals per game hitting rock bottom and carrying over into the average points tally. If continuing at their current rate of 0.83 points per game, Everton will find themselves on a seasonal tally of 31-32 points, and almost certainly going down.

If there are any green shoots of recovery they lie in the side’s defensive stats, which are at least trending upwards, with the acquisitions of Conor Coady and James Tarkowski so far proving shrewd investments. However, given that attacking ineptitude, it hasn’t been enough. The Everton board face a choice; either back Lampard with similar reinforcements at the top end of the pitch and hope for the best, or start anew with a new man in charge whilst there is still time.

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