Lampard questions Everton players | ‘I haven’t got a magic wand

Frank Lampard sensationally questioned his Everton players’ courage in the wake of their FA Cup quarter-final thrashing by Crystal Palace and insisted he does not have a “magic wand” to fix their lack of resilience.

The Toffees, who remain embroiled in a relegation dogfight in the Premier League, slumped to a 4-0 loss at Selhurst Park as goals from Marc Guehi, Jean-Philippe Mateta, Wilfried Zaha and Will Hughes ensured they missed out on a trip to Wembley.

The visitors started brightly but collapsed after Andros Townsend was withdrawn with what Lampard described as a “bad” knee injury in the 17th minute, leaving the Everton manager to bemoan a lack of steel among his players in his post-match press conference.

“I don’t have a magic wand to get inside people’s heads and change resilience across the whole squad. That’s a work in progress,” he said.

“The difficult thing for us is that we don’t have lots of time in terms of the league to do that.

My job title is quite vast as a manager, but to get inside heads and change that with the flick of a switch is not possible.

“As frustrating as it is for me, as frustrating as it is for the 4,000 fans who travelled down and the people watching [at home], that’s one we have to fight against.”