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Liverpool Echo
Liverpool Echo
Sport
Michael Ball

Frank Lampard makes clever Dominic Calvert-Lewin decision as Donny van de Beek answers Everton question

One of the big positives for me at the weekend was to see Dominic Calvert-Lewin get 72 minutes of action under his belt.

The way the game went was perfect for him to put a good shift in and then be able to come off with plenty of time remaining with the game done and dusted.

Hopefully his sharpness will continue to improve and we can use Dominic a lot more between now and the end of the season.

There is no doubt he has been one of the biggest misses this season, with him spending a lot of time on the sidelines due to injury.

We’ve had so many wingers players for us but they have had no focal point to aim for when putting the ball into the box from out wide.

But fingers crossed Dom has recovered well from Saturday and he hasn’t felt the effects of the game too much.

Frank Lampard was really cute and clever the way he used Dom on Saturday, and hopefully him only playing 72 minutes means he will be fresh for this weekend.

READ MORE: What Frank Lampard did on touchline shows crucial trait Everton have missed

READ MORE: 'I think' - Gary Neville makes Everton prediction after Leeds United win

Perfect midfield display from Donny

After plenty of questions being raised about his signing, I must admit I was very impressed with Donny van de Beek on Saturday.

Donny is a top, top player, who has played at the very highest level, but I don’t think we have seen enough of his ability in the Premier League.

There were question marks over whether he perhaps lacks the physicality and the pace to be able to play in the Premier League.

As, at the end of day, there must have been a reason as to why he hasn’t been getting game time at Manchester United since he arrived at Old Trafford.

My only concern with his signing was the same as many others. We are in a relegation dogfight and was he the type of person who could roll his sleeves up and get stuck in?

There is no doubting his footballing ability, but my only concern was whether he had the fight in him to help us move away from danger.

But what we witnessed from him on Saturday was a perfect midfield performance. Everything about his game was great.

He worked hard, put his foot in when required and showed plenty of composure on the ball and looked to get us moving up the pitch as fast and as often as he could.

He made things look simple on Saturday because he was always making the right decisions, in and out of possession.

The other big question around his signing was where on the pitch Frank Lampard was going to get the best out of him.

But I just thought when he sat a bit deeper, especially in possession, he came into his own, and the whole team kind of played off him.

It was a real top professional performance from Donny and hopefully there is many more to come.

*RATE THE EVERTON PLAYERS FOR THE WIN OVER LEEDS:

Same mentality needed against Southampton

Our away form so far this season has been far from ideal, with the Newcastle United defeat last week the latest in a string of poor results and performances on the road.

But we proved on Saturday against Leeds we can fight and we can out battle teams when we need to.

And now we have got to use Saturday's performance as a base for not just our upcoming home games, but also our away fixtures.

We still have a lot of hard-work to do as we are far from being mathematically safe and Frank will know that himself.

Southampton are on a decent run of form at the minute and they are causing teams a lot of problems with the way they play.

So we will have to be switched on again and take the same mentality we had for the Leeds game into this one.

But I have no doubt that if we play with the same confidence, desire, energy and pride that we did on Saturday, then we can claim a positive result at St Mary's.

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