Sean Dyche has confirmed Dominic Calvert-Lewin could make a much-needed return at Crystal Palace on Saturday and challenged Everton to improve their mentality away from Goodison Park.
Calvert-Lewin has been sorely missed since sustaining a hamstring injury in Dyche’s first game as Everton manager 11 weeks ago, with the team’s lack of quality in attack telling as they drift towards the relegation zone. The 26-year-old played about 70 minutes of a behind-closed-doors defeat by Chester on Tuesday and will be considered this weekend after a carefully managed rehabilitation.
Dyche said: “He’ll certainly be in the thinking, without a doubt. The game the other day was all about him. We were pleased he came through that and he felt good. My main concern has been safeguarding his return, his proper return as I call it, when he is as fit as we can get him without playing. It was my decision to take him off, there was no fatigue or anything. I just thought it made sense to bring him off after 70-odd minutes.”
Everton are in desperate need of victory after a dreadful display at home to Fulham last weekend in a 3-1 defeat that left them out of the drop zone only on goal difference. Their away form over the past two seasons has been dire, with only one Premier League win on the road this term and two in the previous campaign, and Dyche admits Everton’s mentality is a concern.
“For sure it’s tactical but it’s also a mentality thing,” he said. “You have players who have to be ready as if it is a home game and deliver like it is a home game. Some players find that more tricky. The noise has been long enough now that people say: ‘They can’t do this away, they can’t do that away,’ so let’s change that story. It’s only us that can change it. Let’s change the rhetoric.
“There are many things we have attempted. The list is endless: training plans, travel plans, eating plans, beds, all sorts of different things. But when the whistle blows the mentality has to be right from everyone to be pushing hard to win.”
