Matthew Chadder

Thu 10 August 2023 9:40, UK

Everton must avoid any reliance on Dominic Calvert-Lewin if they are to steer clear of another relegation battle next season.

It is no secret what the issue was at Goodison Park last season, the fact that finding the back of the net proved to be an impossible task. At times it seemed as if Sean Dyche’s men could play for days without creating any meaningful openings.

In the end, they managed to score just 34 times in the league with only Wolves netting on fewer occasions, and it was the sole reason that the Toffees almost saw themselves relegated.

Part of their struggles were down to the availability of key man Calvert-Lewin, or more so the lack of it. The 26-year-old striker made just 18 appearances in all competitions as he consistently struggled to stay fit.

And in pre-season, it appears as if the trend of struggling without their talisman has continued. Plan A relies on having a player with a real presence up front, spearheading the attack, and when Plan A fails it currently seems as if there is no Plan B.

Calvert-Lewin is on the road to recovery and has appeared sporadically throughout pre-season preparations but with games set to be longer next season, thanks to the new directive on added time, Dyche can’t sacrifice a match by bringing Calvert-Lewin off and failing to change his approach.

As a result, more work needs to be done in terms of bringing in attacking reinforcements, so the club can find a different way to play, and to the delight of supporters, reports suggest that work is in fact being done.

According to Fabrizio Romano, who provided an update via Twitter (8 August), negotiations are ongoing between the Toffees and PSG over a loan deal for striker Hugo Ekitike.

In addition to this, the Daily Mail have reported in their print edition (8 August, page 63) that contact has been made with Leicester City regarding a deal to bring Zambian striker Patson Daka to Goodison Park.

The profile of players that the club are looking to bring in to help ease the burden on Calvert-Lewin are the exact type of players they should be looking at, as they all offer something different. This would allow Everton to finally play with a plan B when their number nine is unavailable.

As per fbref, Ekitike was in the top five per cent of forwards in Europe’s top five leagues over the past calendar year in regard to his total carrying distance (169.68 yards per 90), and this is something Calvert-Lewin does not offer as a target man, with the Sheffield-born striker ranking all the way down in the 27th percentile for this particular statistic (75.09 yards per 90).

Meanwhile, Daka is far more creative than Calvert-Lewin as he ranked in the top three per cent of European forwards for the number of assists he made (0.31 per 90) in comparison to his positional peer at Everton, who sits in the 34th percentile (0.08 per 90).

Bringing these forwards to Goodison Park could therefore prove crucial for Dyche if Calvert-Lewin is to get injured, which at this point seems unfortunately inevitable.

In other Everton news, Sean Dyche has explained one player’s absence amid exit rumours.