Everton are feckless and leaderless - Lampard must learn "rotten game" quickly

Everton are starting to really worry me now — they are feckless, they lack bottle and, in Frank Lampard, they have a manager who hasn't been involved in a battle down near the bottom of the table for 20-odd years now.

Even then, the West Ham team Lampard debuted in weren't exactly relegation fodder and when I look at him on telly, I see a man who isn't down so much as someone who simply doesn't have the answers.

He and Ashley Cole only know how to be part of a winning team and, remember, when they played, if Lampard didn't do it, Didier Drogba did, if Drogba didn't do it, Petr Cech did, if Cech didn't do it, Ricardo Carvalho or John Terry did, and so on.

They played in teams brimming with leaders and I just don't see anywhere near enough of them at Everton.

Is Seamus Coleman a leader? Definitely. Jordan Pickford? Maybe.

But beyond those two I'm struggling and, let's be honest, one of the two I've identified is past his peak and the other has a rick in him at any given moment.

Unlike at Everton, clubs such as Norwich, Watford and Burnley, and to a degree even a team like Crystal Palace, have players who half-expect to be in a relegation battle at the start of the season.

They're good players, don't get me wrong, but in the backs of their minds there's a mentality that tells them, 'With 10 games to go, we may end up having to fight tooth and nail for survival'.

None of those Everton players will have even entertained that idea in August and that's why plenty of them look like rabbits in headlights now.

I know Watford and Norwich are struggling for wins but they're still getting one here or there, and that tells me they have sluggers in their ranks.

But who are the sluggers at Everton? Who are the motivators? Who are the players who will show the heart, bottle and desire you need when you're battling at either end of the table in the run-in?

Despite Lampard's lack of experience, any board member who wants him out and Sam Allardyce in is barking up the wrong tree.

Whatever you say about Big Sam or Tony Pulis, they always have the traits you need — bottle, graft and determination — at the top of their list.

But I'm not sure all that works with modern players and I'm still convinced Lampard will be a good, solid Premier League manager for years to come.

What he must learn quickly, though, is the rotten part of the game and he can because he's a learner.

And I'm sure that if he is given the chance to see it through and he keeps Everton up, he will have learned more in four or five months than at anytime in his career, which will stand both Lampard and his club in much better stead for next season.

Having been given the job just a few weeks ago, he deserves the right to to see it through, because getting rid of a promising young manager for Allardyce now would be nothing more than panic stations.