David Moyes has issued a challenge to Dominic Calvert-Lewin that he should now give up to save Everton from relegation.
Ellie McCoist managed to hide her joy and gave a diplomatic answer: talk about sports When an Arsenal fan suggested Calvert-Lewin as a left-field option to ease the Gunners’ goal woes. “I’m not sure his goalscoring record suggests he’s Arsenal’s first choice,” he said. “I still think his goalscoring rate should be better.” Less than half.
Since scoring 16 goals in the 2020/2021 season, Calvert-Lewin has scored 17 Premier League goals in 85 games, with 17 more goals than Mohamed Salah has scored so far this season. The number of balls is even less. Once every 360 minutes. He has scored twice in 1,479 minutes this season but has not scored in his last 16 games, 14 of which he has started.
However, this astonishing goalscoring record may seem unimportant to those suitors who are solely focused on Calvert-Lewin as a) a striker and b) a winning combination available.
Chelsea and Arsenal were thought to be interested in the summerBournemouth and West Ham are now both keeping tabs on the 27-year-old, who, incredibly, will move to a senior club, either now for a nominal fee or in the summer when his contract It’s expiring soon, at which point he’ll receive a massive signing bonus that’s completely undeserved.
His new manager challenged him ahead of the game against Aston Villa. “I think we all feel he can be the guy who makes a huge difference,” Moyes said. “But I told him I needed him to score immediately and he had to start delivering. “
He didn’t. He had two shots on goal in the first half – his 38th and 39th in the Premier League this season – both of which were scuffed after good movement and a decent first touch, Both times prompted the TNT Sports pundits covering the game to claim misfortune, but they refused to tell the truth, the worst finisher in the Premier League. Worst finisher in the Premier League; They will surely finally understand this reality in the 93rd minute.
Ollie Watkins showed Calvert-Lewin how to do it shortly after half-time when he latched on to Morgan Rodgers’ perfect through ball before sliding his shot past Jordan Peele. Kerford. The goal brought his relatively poor goal tally for the season to eight, but as the review noted “his value to the team goes far beyond goals” – this is Calvert-Lewin An oft-used, previously valid excuse for failing to hit a barn door. banjo.
He has created just 19 shot attempts this season. That number is less than nine of his Everton team-mates, including James Tarkowski (25) and Jesper Lindstrom (29) ), the latter played only 660 minutes. No Everton player has a worse pass completion rate than him, with his pass completion rate equal to launch player Jordan Pickford at 62.8%. His aerial duel win rate is not in the top 100 in the Premier League and he loses more than half of his aerial duels.
It has now reached the point where his only value to the team is his work rate, which certainly falls into the “can’t criticize” category as he pursues his failures and often makes runs that go unnoticed by his teammates. But this is clearly not enough.
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That will be Moyes’ assessment of the team’s performance on Wednesday, with his side lacking enough forward momentum against a Villa side who are ready to go after five consecutive away defeats. It feels like Emery’s side will collapse if they come under any pressure. But it never really came, with Calvert-Lewin’s stoppage-time chance surprising when it did.
What a great opportunity. Lindstrom made an impact off the bench, getting in behind the Villa defense and passing the ball to Calvert-Lewin, who sailed over the crossbar from the edge of the six-yard box. The opportunity was wrong for him, but any Premier League striker worthy of the title should take that chance, if not that one then certainly the next one.
Calvert-Lewin won’t be because – both in terms of confidence and quality – he has missed three-and-a-half seasons since being linked with a move first emerged; links that somehow still exist, Everton This should be encouraged enthusiastically as any money they get from Arsenal, West Ham or anyone else can be used immediately to sign someone more capable who can score goals to save them from relegation.
