Frank Lampard has highlighted the importance of making Everton "robust" in the future as he opened up on the crucial next steps to improve his side.
The Blues secured their Premier League survival in dramatic fashion last week when they came from 2-0 down to beat Crystal Palace 3-2, before losing 5-1 to Arsenal in the final match of the campaign. Having suffered a dismal season with numerous poor performances, supporters were certainly glad to see the back of 2021/22.
The squad is not set for a few weeks off before returning to training on July 1st ahead of the new term, with Lampard himself set for some time away from Finch Farm too to spend time with family. However, he's focused on one particular aspect when he gets his squad back for pre-season.
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When asked about his next aim, the manager revealed: "To get the players fit and robust. Our injury record when I came in and what we've had is one that affects you. Two big centre halves out for a big period of time, Dominic - so each individual case when you look at it is not easy to analyse.
"I came in in January, and there's not things you can always do when you're playing every few days. But it has to be more planned.
"We have to be strong and robust. It's Everton, we're not a tika-taka team, we have to be strong."
The work won't stop there for Lampard, however. The Blues managed to make themselves defensively organised and solid in crucial stages towards the end of the season, making sure they picked up the necessary points to stay in the division.
However, in doing so, they sacrificed a lot of possession and played in a much more direct manner. The manager wants to improve his team's work on the ball - and that could be achieved through a number of transfers across the coming summer.
He added: "To improve, in a lot of ways. We want to play, the way we've played in the last month was fantastic but it's been a certain type of football. We've played a lot of big teams who have had more possession.
"We want to look at how we can be a little bit better in possession. Some of that will be the squad and recruitment, others will be how we work in pre-season.
"You're always starting to think about those things, you can never stand still or relax in this game. There's reasons we are where we are and there's reasons we just about stayed up.
"It's very important that after that break we get to work."
