Sky Sports pundit Darren Bent has questioned what exactly Dominic Calvert-Lewin has offered Everton, as the former England international suggested his form has been part of the reason behind Marco Silva recalling Cenk Tosun.
Silva began his tenure at Goodison Park last season with Tosun as his first-choice centre-forward, but the Turkey international failing to score in the opening five games of the term saw that the boss turned to Calvert-Lewin before drafting Richarlison into the centre.
Tosun would have to wait until facing Newcastle United in December for his next start, and saw out the remainder of the term as either an impact player or unused substitute outside of a string of appearances at the end of January and into February.
Silva rarely turned to Tosun for the final stretch of the campaign as he had firmly begun to put his faith in Calvert-Lewin, with the Sheffield United product starting all bar two of our games between a 2-0 defeat at Manchester City and the final day of the season.
The £18million-rated 22-year-old remained Silva’s preferred option in the opening weeks of this term, too, but lost his starting spot on matchday four and is now back behind Tosun in the boss’ pecking order.
Tosun had made just two substitute appearances in the Premier League before starting at Southampton in our last game before the international break, and Bent is adamant that his chance would not have come if Calvert-Lewin or summer signing Moise Kean had made the spot theirs.
“Do you know what that [Tosun’s recall] is? That’s because no one has stepped up and took that spot for their own,” Bent told Football Insider. “If Calvert-Lewin had stepped up and scored goals, or Richarlison had played down the middle or even Moise Kean had been scoring goals, I think they would have let him go.
“Because Calvert-Lewin’s not pulling up any strings, he hasn’t really done anything, Moise Kean’s yet to score his first Premier League goal, Richarlison’s better when he plays out wide – Bernard’s injured so they need him out there – I think that’s why they’ve kept him around.
“He’s [Silva’s] kind of running out of options.”
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Calvert-Lewin has certainly given the boss plenty of reasons not to start him this season, as the 6 ft 1 attacker is averaging the least shots per ninety minutes of the four players Silva has used at centre-forward this term.
According to data collected by WhoScored from our Premier League fixtures, Calvert-Lewin is averaging just 1.5 shots per 90, compared to Tosun and Kean at 3.8 and Richarlison at 2.7.
Calvert-Lewin also ranks last for key balls with 0.2 to Tosun’s 2.4, Kean’s 1.1 and Richarlison’s 1.0 when played centrally, plus fewer dribbles with 0.4 to 1.2, 1.1 and 1.3 respectively.