England International Dominic Calvert-Lewin has just about made his return from injury to join the first team, and it might be just the right time for Lampard and his squad.
After what seemed like a rather underwhelming campaign for Dominic last year, netting just 5 times because of an ongoing injury sustained early on in the season. In the season prior to last, he had the best season of his career under manager, Carlo Ancelotti, bagging 16 league goals, 3 more than any other season in his career.
This form under Ancelotti even earned him a call-up to Gareth Southgate’s England squad, playing and scoring on his debut in a 3-0 win against Wales. The EFC attacker would go on to play 11 times for England, most of which saw him coming off the bench. However, he did manage 4 goals across these appearances for Southgate.
Since the start of the 2020/21 season, however, Calvert-Lewin has never found the scoring form he had under Ancelotti.
Although the season would start superbly for the Englishman, scoring 3 goals in his opening 3 games. However, during a training session early on in the season, Calvert-Lewin would suffer a long-term injury setback, which was originally thought to set him back a couple of months, but due to the eagerness of then manager Rafa Benitez to get the Englishman back and scoring for the blues, he was rushed back too quickly and suffered another setback in his recovery which would see him not return to the squad until early January, too late for Benitez who would go on to lose his job later that month, going 12 games and only winning once.
He was replaced by current manager, Frank Lampard soon after but even with the new manager in charge, Calvert-Lewin’s goals did not seem to be returning any time soon. It took him until May to score his next goal, bagging 1 in the blue’s 3-2 loss to Brentford at Goodison Park.
However, the game after this would turn out to be one of the most important in the striker’s Everton career to date. Calvert-Lewin would manage to get his head onto a Demarai Gray cross in the 85th minute to put Everton 3-2 up against Crystal Palace, securing his side’s safety from relegation.
Many believed that this would signal a return to the normality of a freely scoring DCL, like the one we saw under Ancelotti, but this was not the case.
Whilst he was active during Everton’s pre-season, scoring in his side’s final pre-season game at Goodison Park against Dynamo Kiev, the striker picked up yet another injury during training, meaning he would miss the beginning of the season.
This injury led to Frank Lampard taking the liberty of signing a new backup striker, Brighton’s Neal Maupey.
Whilst Maupey did get off to a good start for the toffees, scoring in his 2nd game against West Ham, it does seem obvious that he does not have the aerial presence of DCL, meaning Lampard has to alter his setup in order to suit the Frenchman.
After being sidelined for the whole of the season up to now, Calvert-Lewin made his first appearance of the season being subbed on for 15 minutes at the end of the blue’s 2-1 loss to Manchester United. It is clear that DCL has been a big miss for Lampard up to now, with his team only scoring 8 goals in their first 9 games. He will be a welcomed addition to the squad for the tough fixtures next up for the toffees. A trip to the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium and St James’ Park being the next stops for Everton in what has already been a rollercoaster of a season.
How important will DCL be for the blues going forward?
let us know in the comments…
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