Lampard urges Iwobi’s Everton to Put Up Massive Fight against Palace

Frank Lampard has urged Alex Iwobi and his teammates at Everton to put up a massive effort when they square up against Crystal Palace at Goodison Park on Thursday in a must win Premier League fixture.

Everton who lost to Brentford on Sunday would hope to win when they host Palace to keep their hope of playing in the top-flight of English competition next season.

Lampard’s team remains in a position to author their own fate, however, with two more points required to all but guarantee survival, thanks to a far superior goal difference to Leeds United, one position back in 17th.

“We were brilliant for the period of 11v11 and it felt like more goals would come, we should have scored more against a really good side,” said Lampard.

“It is really hard to say anything [critical] to the players after that – playing 70 minutes in the Premier League with one man down is a really big ask.

Crystal Palace will come to L4 following four unbeaten games and aiming for the three points that would lift them into the Premier League’s top half.

“You respect a team of great quality in Palace,” added Lampard. They don’t have much to play for, certainly not like us, and they can perform even better [given freedom of pressure], but you have to analyse them as they are.

“If we focus and approach the game as we did today, we will give ourselves a very good chance,” Lampard said.

Also, Iwobi’s teammate Dominic Calvert-Lewin said Everton must work with cool heads and “reset and recover” against Crystal Palace.

“It is absolutely still in our hands,” said the striker afterwards. “You know what, I thought [against Brentford] we dug deep and showed a lot of spirit… We stuck together and we worked and we grafted.

“After going down to 10 men [after 18 minutes], it was a long time to keep defending.

“Brentford have good quality players and they put balls in the box, so it’s difficult at times.

“We just have to pick ourselves up – we’re disappointed, but we know that we have another opportunity on Thursday to go again.