Leon Osman admits he’s ‘worried’ by Everton’s slide towards the relegation zone and lack of form

Everton legend Leon Osman says he his ‘worried’ about the form of his former side as they slipped further into the relegation dogfight following a 3-1 defeat to Newcastle on Tuesday night.

Frank Lampard’s side put in one of their worst performances of the season and were overwhelmed by the dynamic Magpies.

Despite taking the lead through a Jamaal Lascelles own-goal the Toffees conceded instantly with an own-goal of their own from Mason Holgate, before crumbling under the pressure and conceding two second-half goals - courtesy of Ryan Fraser and Kieran Trippier.

Demarai Gray and Yerry Mina both went off injured in the first-half to compound the misery, with debutants Dele Alli and Donny van de Beek failing to impress.

Relegation worries

Speaking on the BBC’s Football Daily podcast, Osman was asked by host Kelly Cates whether he was concerned about relegation.

He said: “To be honest Kelly, I’d rather not even talk about it.

“You have to be worried when your team is playing as poorly as Everton are, when your team are showing that it doesn’t take an awful lot to outfight you, to out-battle you, to score goals against you - these aren’t hallmarks of a traditional Everton team.

“Everton are difficult to play against we all know that – or we all thought it - but that’s something that Frank Lampard’s inherited, now he’s got to find a way of making Everton tougher to beat, making the opposition have to work harder to score against you.

“ Everton conceded an own-goal less than two minutes after going ahead in a crucial game, you can’t keep affording to do that. You can’t keep giving goals away in games and expecting to get something out of it.

“I don’t know if I’d say the players defensively aren’t up to the challenge that they need, aren’t up to Premier League standard because at the moment, as I said, it’s far too easy to score goals against Everton.”

How can the problems be fixed?

Asked about the defensive issues that have seen Everton concede 10 goals in their last five Premier League games - keeping just three clean sheets all season - the former Toffees captain cited injury problems and stressed the importance of Lampard’s influence on the training pitch.

He said: “There’s not many options with regards to personnel you know.

“We’re talking injuries – the injury to Godfrey at the weekend, to Mina this evening - you bring in Branthwaite who may or may not be ready, the transfer window is gone so Everton have got what they’ve got.

“Frank Lampard needs to now spend a lot of time on the training pitch trying to get the team to galvanise, to work together, to stop conceding the goals.

“Everton’s run is new to Frank, that’s his first game but Everton are now, I think that’s one draw in the last six games, five defeats and only one win in the last 15 or 16 games.

“It’s dreadful form. It’s the type of form that really knocks your confidence as a player, the type of form that is difficult to get out of so you hope the new manager bounce comes, you hope the new players that come in can give you a new spring in your step as we spoke about before because Everton need to get out of this rut quickly.”

Leeds fixture is crucial

It’s only a few days until Everton host another under-performing side in Leeds United on Saturday.

Marcelo Bielsa’s side have been poor defensively and the squad have been ravaged by injuries to key players - sound familiar?

Osman could not overstate the importance of picking up a win.

He added: “The longer Everton go in this run of not getting points obviously the more important the next fixture becomes and especially if you’re playing a team that is there or there about with you, it becomes vital, so Everton really have to win that game.

“When you look at Everton’s run after that, the next 12 games or something they play maybe eight teams that are in the top-10 So you know the games don’t get any easier from this point and if you’re going to be beaten by the teams around you, then you’re going to have to figure out a way of trying to get points elsewhere.”

Everton and Leeds drew 2-2 at Elland Road back in August with Dominic Calvert-Lewin and Demarai Gray scoring for the Toffees.