Sean Dyche believes Everton are finally seeing the best of Dominic Calvert-Lewin again after the striker netted his first goal since October 22 in the 2-2 draw at Leicester City.
Calvert-Lewin went off with a hamstring injury an hour into the 1-0 win over Arsenal on February 1 in Dyche’s first game in charge but now three months on – after starting the last three matches – he returned to the scoresheet from the penalty spot at the King Power Stadium and should probably have grabbed a second from open play.
Everton boss Dyche said: “He missed one that just took a nick but he’s in the right areas. I spoke about it when I first got here but unfortunately he’s had injuries, about constantly getting him in the right areas.
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“In his all-round game he’s looking fitter and stronger. It’s not an easy situation as you can imagine because of his record in the past, his fitness levels.
“I had this goal of getting him truly fit but the last bit, and you know I’ve said this before, is Premier League fitness and it’s hard to get that moment. You could clearly see tonight he’s getting fitter and stronger and he’s running with a more powerful edge to him as we all know he’s quick and a strong player and I’m pleased with that.”
Dyche was pleased that his side battled back from 2-1 down to earn a share of the spoils but thought many aspects of their play might have brought them victory on another day. He said: “Other than a couple of softer moments, I thought it was a very good performance. The will, the demand but also the quality to create things.
“There was a very high chance count but we’ve always spoken about quality of chances, not just long shots, and they were very high quality chances, a very high entrance into the box, high in the final third – all the markers that usually bring a win. They didn’t but we’ve got to keep doing that because there’s a clear sign there’s a shift from the last game when I thought it was a good performance until Newcastle went in front but then we just literally lost our way.
“That didn’t happen tonight. We stayed solid to what we thought was right.
“I spoke to them at half-time and was really pleased and said, ‘look, it’s a head-scratcher that you’re not in front but that’s football and it’s about staying calm and keeping with what we were doing in the first half’. They had a good spell in the middle without creating too much and had a bit more of the ball but the feel of the performance is really pleasing and we’ve got to keep doing that.”
The result ensured Leicester didn’t move four points clear of Everton but the visitors remain second bottom of the table, a point adrift of their opponents plus Leeds United and Nottingham Forest. But Dyche was encouraged by the spirit from his players. He said: “In the Chelsea game everyone was saying how good the mentality was, in the Tottenham game everyone was saying how good the mentality was 10 v 11 for a spell and then we score and then it got away from us for a couple of games and that can sometimes happen. We’ve got to re-gather it quickly and we did tonight. But it’s got to be a continuous thing, it can’t just be a one-off, we’ve got to make sure that mentality stays and keep building it and keep growing on it.
“It’s not an easy task, we keep hearing this thing about goalscoring. Chelsea have spent about £400million and they’ve scored 30 goals.
“That’s how tough goalscoring is in the Premier League. It’s not like you just go like (clicks his fingers) there you go, we’ll score loads of goals but we’ve come on the road, scored another two and arguably could have had more than that.”
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