Everton verdict: Calvert-Lewin makes up for Everton’s shortcomings to deliver Marcel Brands vision

You can get away with performances like that in the second half when you have a forward in the way Dominic Calvert-Lewin is.

Alone. But you can.

He wasn’t bound to pull Everton out of any hole at Craven Cottage today, but his two goals helped his team avoid falling into one, but they teetered on the brink for a while.

In the second half, he remained largely a concerned, and probably confused, spectator on the periphery of the game, wondering what had happened to the control that his double, and the first for Abdoulaye Doucoure’s club, had given to the Blues.

3-1 up at halftime and apparently cruising, this game ended 3-2 but could easily have been tied.

Calvert-Lewin would have had every right to ask questions of many of his teammates if that had happened.

But, in the end, despite inviting pressure, despite increasingly bad times and defending in a more uncertain way, the Blues maintained their lead to win a first league game in five.

The analysis can be divided into two parts here. The good and the bad. The first part of Everton and the second. The dangerous attack of the Blues and their equally dangerous weaknesses in defense.

The way they took control of the game and then how they struggled to manage it.

But a big part of this game was Everton’s top scorer.

His poacher’s goals – the first included after Richarlison’s center returning after just 42 seconds and the second a clinical finish from Lucas Digne’s center – take him to 10 in the league after just nine games.

Since Duncan Ferguson, and then Carlo Ancelotti took over, Calvert-Lewin has scored 20 Premier League goals in 32 games.

The 23-year-old must be laughing to himself right now. You’re being asked to do less of the difficult yards, you don’t have to run the gutters, selflessly and tirelessly like you used to, and yet you’re getting a lot more glory.

If he gets the ball into the box, he’ll be supporting Calvert-Lewin to score.

He’s in the shape of his life and will undoubtedly top last season’s league tally of 13. Everton’s No. 9 is at the top of the scoring charts and should feel confident staying there.

The last player to be in the mix for such an honor was Romelu Lukaku. The forward we have, understandably, regretted not being replaced.

Well, what if it has?

They are not the same players. Calvert-Lewin at least still doesn’t have the ability to quickly pass players with power and pace, and finish with precision, but the current Everton leader is better in the air, for sure.

And what they both know, and the currency with which they trade, are the objectives.

Calvert-Lewin has plenty of boots to fill if he is to surpass the 68 Premier League goals the Belgian scored for the club, but why not? Seriously?

After today, it’s halfway there. But why shouldn’t he believe that he could become Everton’s Premier League’s all-time top scorer?

With hand on heart, how many of us were convinced that he would go this far? It’s fair to say that most, if not all, of us had doubts about Calvert-Lewin.

Not David Unsworth, of course, the man who used just £ 300,000 of club money to buy a teenage striker from Sheffield United, on the day of the summer 2016 deadline.

The deal is believed to have been worth £ 1.5 million, but either way, Calvert-Lewin is, pound for pound, the best transfer the club has made in the last 10 years.

In terms of transfer fee, salaries paid, potential but also, right now, what he is delivering for the first team.

It is in the deepest of purple patches.

One of the criticisms of Lukaku during his time at Everton (and there were many) was that he scored his goals in bursts. That he was so prone to not scoring for four or five games, but then he had a scoring glut.

All forwards have dry runs, Calvert-Lewin didn’t score during the Premier League restart, but so far this season the Blues’ top scorer has been at it, and steadily.

He has only failed to score in two of Everton’s nine league games so far, in severe losses to Southampton and Manchester United, where he barely forgot. They were both games that Richarlison wasn’t playing.

And it was not a surprise to see the two linked for the first match. (It’s good to have the Brazilian back, right?)

Today, I was in the right place at the right time. Not one, but two. And it is not the first time this season. And no, we suspect, by the end.

And on that streak of 20 goals in 32 Premier League games, he scored against Liverpool, Man City, Chelsea, Spurs and Arsenal.

Lukaku couldn’t always be trusted to deliver in those games. Sometimes it would do it spectacularly, sometimes it would be frustrating. I would not do it.

On the other hand, you would enjoy the service your replacement received today, that’s for sure.

Marcel Brands, the club’s director of football, inherited a number of problems when he arrived at the club in 2018, but he quickly saw that Calvert-Lewin was the opposite, making it clear that there was no need to spend the budget on a ‘big-name striker because It would hamper the progress of the young man who wears Everton’s number 9 jersey.

It wasn’t what people wanted to hear, but how often are unpopular decisions the right ones?

Marco Silva pushed for an experienced backup for Calvert-Lewin, he wanted Mario Mandzukic, but he didn’t get what he asked for.

Brands’ decision, while the idea of ​​an additional striker still makes a lot of sense, given the limited opportunities available to Ancelotti in the event the top scorer is injured, has allowed Calvert-Lewin to prosper.

How many times did Lukaku’s goals make up for some of Everton’s shortcomings in matches? How many times did you save points or make a difference in wins?

A lot.

And how many times will Calvert-Lewin do the same? Much more.