I agree that the formation change has helped his game but I still think he has turned his career around. Had he struggled under Carlo he would have been gone by next season. Whether or not he could have shown his true quality at a lower level and bounce back is another question for a different day. The knock of the setback can affect players mentally, we see that all the time.
It is a confidence thing with DCL you can see it watching the goals back, Newcastle away he almost missed but somehow his messy contact went in. Now he looks like a finisher, that to me is turning his career around. Before Christmas no one is talking about DCL being in the euro squad, now there is - obviously helps with the injuries to others but still.
There was nothing to say he would become a 15+ goals a season guy because he needed so many chances per goal. Now he has shown he can hopefully he can go on to even bigger targets.
I don't agree mate. When you read most of the posts on here you would think that the last 3 months has seen a dramatic improvement in Doms play, and there simply hasn't. He has scored a lot of goals I grant you, and that has naturally affected people's judgement of him. But those goals were not a result of Dom's remarkable improvement in ability, they were down to a change in tactics that allowed Dom to be more selfish in his play, plus a welcome change in his luck. You mentioned the one against Newcastle, there was also the one at the weekend against United, and even his excellent finish against Arsenal could very easily have been deflected wide of the goal rather than into it. Dom has exactly the same faults to his game that he had 3 months ago. Yes the goals have brought confidence and an extra spring in his step and that's great to see, but that's about the only change really.
That's not a criticism of Dom by the way. I've always defended him against some awful undeserved comments on here. The steady improvement seen in his all round game over the last 2 years has been very good. There is a reason why successive managers have stuck by him and many opposing managers often compliment him. He's probably been singled out for comment by the likes of MOTD more than any other Everton player over the last 2 years apart from maybe Richarlison. The one thing missing from his game was goals, and the reasons for that were that he was isolated up front and didn't spend enough time in the right area's of the pitch, and when he did get the odd opportunity he invariably missed it. He still does miss too many, the difference is now he's probably getting 3 times the chances. If you gave a fully fit Harry Kane the same opportunities Dom has had this season, then he'd probably be on around 25 goals by now. Again, that isn't a criticism of Dom, it's just a realistic assessment of where he is in his development.
I guarantee that if Carlo changed to a 1 up front system again, we would see Dom's goals dry up massively. He would spend too much time running the channels, and if he didn't, he'd be dragged off for not working hard enough. People on here would be asking why we have given a new contract to the lad. When the reality is he has not become a bad player overnight, in much the same way he has not become a fantastic player overnight now.
But let's not go there. The good news is we have 2, possibly 3 young and potentially world class strikers on our books. Keep playing the same system and we know that Dom will continue to get the goals. If he improves in the areas mentioned in my previous post, then we can look forward to having a 25/30 goal a season striker within the next few years. They are rare these days.
unless he has repented?
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