Dominic Calvert-Lewin watch

[PhilM]

You would hold him directly accountable for our lack of goals. Coincidentally both Barry and Beto have held top spot in the league for underperforming xG this season too

He's gone now - half way through the season and only Wolves, currently the Premier Leagues worst ever team, have scored less than Everton.

His replacement, Barry has scored 1 goal. Maybe replacing Calvert-lewin isn't so easy. Lukaku aside, name a better striker for Everton the past decade?

You can't. And hes just turned 28.

Maybe, just maybe the crux of Evertons problems - as many like you would claim - wasn't Calvert-lewin. He's gone now - we still aren't scoring goals, but he is.

The lesson here is things in football often aren't so black and white.

We set him up, like many others up, to fail.

I think this is the important part.

Maybe he is going through a bit of a purple patch, like he did for us, as some will say; however, right now you have to take his goals at face value.

Quite often, we didn't support him. Likewise, you can't ignore our lack of goals and the potential reasoning behind that with regard to our style of play.

That's not to say Barry shouldn't be scoring more goals that he is, because he should, yet I do think he (like Dom was) is put in a difficult position.

Would Dom be scoring this number of goals if he was here? I doubt it, a) because of how we play, and b) I don't think he really wanted to be here in the end.

 

[Efcjake]

The question is the cost of the alternative.

How much did Beto cost for fee and wage?

And Barry?

There's still a chance the decision will prove the correct one. But our PSR issues didn't come from contracts, it come from letting players leave for buttons/nothing.

An English player who can score 10+ league goals, and will for the 3rd season, who just turned 28 - shouldn't be leaving for nothing.

I agree with you that we should have signed him.

It's especially obvious with the benefit of hindsight of having Barry as the alternative, who we can all now admit is Stracqualursi levels of bad.

We still don't know what difference there may have been between his demands to us at the end of the season, when his agent had told him he was getting Champions League interest, to the end of the window when the best offer was Leeds. That's a couple months of time.

I highly doubt there was that much between the offers or we were given an opportunity to match. At the beginning of the summer wanted out of Everton, any the end of the summer his best option was Leeds.

 

[Walken]

Another humbling week for our knowledgeable fanbase

 

[Efcjake]

I think the series of horrific misses and long lean spells eroded trust and support in him.

It was a peculiar dyad between DCL and the FANS in the end. He looked shorn of belief/almost trying too hard and was missing left right and centre. The fans in turn, rightly, turn it into a joke he's more likely to miss than score. He just didnt look like ever getting back to the Carlo/Covid season form.

Its frustrating to see in some respects as he didn't do it for us, but again I just don't think he was ever going to.

The other question is if this is another temporary purple patch, or a sustained upturn. Would guess the former.

I expected him to maintain double digit form at us for four years and the best he got was 7 and half of those were penalties.

He had the Palace goal but he was a massive disappointment because of fitness and form for four years. He needed a fresh start and he chose that for himself when he turned us down. It's worked out really well.

 

[Daveysgingerlovechild]

The question is the cost of the alternative.

How much did Beto cost for fee and wage?

And Barry?

There's still a chance the decision will prove the correct one. But our PSR issues didn't come from contracts, it come from letting players leave for buttons/nothing.

An English player who can score 10+ league goals, and will for the 3rd season, who just turned 28 - shouldn't be leaving for nothing.

I think the brutal truth is that not one of them were/are the answer.

 

[Efcjake]

I think the brutal truth is that not one of them were/are the answer.

But it's not like we should never have tried to sign any other striker is it?

What alternative is there? It's the scouting that's to blame.

 

[Efcjake]

If Beto or Barry score 16 goals here in four years you won't be saying to extend their deals.

 

[Daveysgingerlovechild]

But it's not like we should never have tried to sign any other striker is it?

What alternative is there? It's the scouting that's to blame.

Indeed. And hindsight is a wonderful thing. But it does feel like we're taking expensive punts which aren't really paying off. And we have been doing so for some time.

The irony is that DCL was the cheapest of the lot post Lukaku era strikers.

 

[Tigger]

Im not one bit happy to see him doing this, not even a little bit, there I said it

 

[JimmyJeffers]

He was going through the motions running his contract down.

He was happy to do so while he still believed he was off to bigger and better things.

He only considered re-signing with us when injury prevented him from putting himself in the shop window.


He was a crap player in crap teams for 4 years. 16 league goals in 4 years is horrific and a lot of it was down to him skying his chances.

Nah he was never going through the motions. Getting balls booted up to him all day long, if he was being lazy or not arsed, the crowd would have quickly turned
on him.

As for considering re-signing, that’s largely supposition as is most things I’ve seen written about him during his time here.

Good player in a terrible team, missed some big chances but a million times better than our current strikers.

 

[The binman chronicles]

All too much gloating in this thread with the haters when he isn't scoring and the ones who liked him when he does.

It doesn't matter what he does elsewhere, here he wouldn't get the crosses he needs and Moyes would make him run all over, so he'd be injured anyway.

In a team that plays to his strengths, where the pressure is not the same level as here, he was always going to do okay. It's whether his body can keep up with those demands now. I'd imagine when you aren't expected to hunt all across the pitch that takes away a fair amount of wear and tear.

 

[Walken]

Nah he was never going through the motions. Getting balls booted up to him all day long, if he was being lazy or not arsed, the crowd would have quickly turned
on him.

As for considering re-signing, that’s largely supposition as is most things I’ve seen written about him during his time here.

Good player in a terrible team, missed some big chances but a million times better than our current strikers.

Let's not forget he got called lazy for breaking his cheekbone, whatever his faults lack of effort and bravery were not among them. However hubris may be lacking amongst some posters who might well have suffered the unimaginable crime of being wrong on a football forum

 

[Efcjake]

Nah he was never going through the motions. Getting balls booted up to him all day long, if he was being lazy or not arsed, the crowd would have quickly turned
on him.

As for considering re-signing, that’s largely supposition as is most things I’ve seen written about him during his time here.

Good player in a terrible team, missed some big chances but a million times better than our current strikers.

The lowest bar possible at the moment.

 

[TheBigIguana]

Another humbling week for our knowledgeable fanbase

Some people have been saying we have a management problem for a long time

 

[TheBigIguana]

Nah he was never going through the motions. Getting balls booted up to him all day long, if he was being lazy or not arsed, the crowd would have quickly turned
on him.

As for considering re-signing, that’s largely supposition as is most things I’ve seen written about him during his time here.

Good player in a terrible team, missed some big chances but a million times better than our current strikers.

He would not be scoring in our team. I am extremely confident in that.