Everton's Frank Lampard has called for vPremier League managers to be given more time.

Lampard was reacting after his former England midfield teammate Steven Gerrard became the fourth top flight manager to be sacked this season at Aston Villa.

Lampard said: “This is the thing, we all understand the jeopardy of the job we work in and there a lot of plusses to it, huge plusses and we're proud to represent the clubs we work for but as a coach in the modern day, you need time to work, circumstances to work, and we've all got our responsibilities to try and get results but sometimes time isn't afforded in the modern day. I think when you're working at that level, you see really good examples in the modern day of when you give coaches time to go through the patches to try and get growth and try and get to where you want to, there's always something in the road that catches you in moments and periods and you have to give people time to do that.

“We've got great examples in the Premier League, the coach who is at the top of the Premier League (Arsenal's former Everton midfielder Mikel Arteta), rightly lauded as an amazing coach. There have been many a time that people have questioned whether he should be in his job and could lose his job.

“There are other coaches that have been promoted, or not promoted, stay in the league and struggling and then people start to appreciate the work they do over time. So, as a general thing, I think that would be what I'd look at and that's unfortunately become part of the modern game."