Have we got the nuts? We need to be called out

ALEX IWOBI reckons Frank Lampard was right to question his Everton players “bollocks” after their FA Cup defeat at Crystal Palace – and so do the majority of his team-mates.

In fact, Lampard was only saying what his squad were thinking.

The Everton boss called out his players, demanding more character and fight to avoid a calamitous end to the season.

Iwobi said: “It’s not just the manager saying it – the players agree with him.

“It starts in training. If we’re all trying to fight and be the best that we can in training then it transforms into matches.

“That’s what we’re hoping to do. Even before Frank came we were saying we had to show more character. We know that sometimes we don’t give the fight that we’re capable of giving. If we fight, we are capable of competing with anyone in the league.”

Lampard’s post-palace outburst saw him join a long list of critics who have taken aim at Everton over the course of this season.

But Iwobi (left) insists he has grown used to being targeted by such external negativity and, as such, is capable of turning it into a positive. He continued: “For me personally it gives me that sense of hunger to prove people wrong.

“I have heard negativity all my life, growing up, when I was at Arsenal, not being able to get a contract and this and that.

“So every time I have heard negativity it gives me that hunger and desire to try and prove people wrong.

“I am sure that’s what many people in the team feel like.

“Seamus [Coleman] was saying this should give us the hunger and the will to go and fight for our club and show people that Everton’s not soft, Everton’s not going down, and prove people wrong.

“I feel it is not just me, everyone feels the same way, we need to fight and show people what we are capable of.”