Frank Lampard called on Demarai Gray to score more tap-ins after his stunning strike earned Everton a point at Manchester City. The 26-year-old curled in from the edge of the box after breaking into the hosts’ half and setting himself to shoot. It was a finish reminiscent of his incredible goal at home to Arsenal last year and one described by his boss as “unstoppable”. Lampard added there was no doubt Gray had the talent to produce such brilliance and called upon his winger to add simple goals to his collection as Everton attempt to climb the Premier League table. Everton were trailing to Erling Haaland’s 24th minute goal when Gray picked up a pass from Idrissa Gueye and carried it from the halfway line to the edge of City’s box on the hour. He had time to stop, turn and even fall before unleashing a curling effort past Ederson. Speaking after the game,
Frank Lampard said: “I think it’s hard to explain the reaction. We had it recently at Goodison when Tielemans [Youri Tielemans of Leicester City] scored a goal out of nowhere – that volley. The stadium went dead and quiet and it was like that today. It was unstoppable. My reaction was happiness because sometimes it takes something like that in the performance we put in today. There were a few other moments when we could have been more clinical with our last pass and cross, which was disappointing and it’s something we need to improve on for sure.”
The strike was Gray’s second league goal of the season and comes with the club looking to the transfer window for solutions to improving its goal threat. Lampard is aware there are answers within the squad – including in the return of Dominic Calvert-Lewin, who played the first hour at the Etihad Stadium on his return from injury.
Another lies in the threat from his wingers, including Gray,
Frank Lampard added: “But with Demarai he has that. It’s getting him in those positions more often and sometimes it’s easier in a counter attacking game to do that. I wasn’t here at the time but I remember in the first part of last season he scored a lot of counter attack-feeling goals like that – running through against Arsenal. But the next thing for Demarai is: can he get goals when we’re in a high attacking structure where he arrives in the box for tap-ins? But that’s not a question for today to be fair, because when he scores a goal like that it just shows you the talent he’s got and it wins us the point.”
