Dominic Calvert-Lewin, the new Luca Toni?

September’s player of the month, Dominic Calvert-Lewin has been one of the Premier League’s standout players in the beginning of the 2019/20 season. With 7 goals in 5 Premier League games, and 3 goals in 2 for the Carabao Cup, and a goal in his first start for England; it’s fair to say that he’s one of the most lethal strikers in the league at the moment.

Calvert-Lewin’s skill set allows him to either play in tandem with another centre-forward or even play as a lone 9. Last season, with Carlo Ancelotti’s arrival at Everton, they spent the majority of 19/20 running with the 4-4-2. Calvert-Lewin would lead the line with Richarlison. Playing in a front two requires a slightly different to the modern lone 9 that most teams apply. There’s many different attributes Calvert-Lewin showed when playing in a front two.

Everton’s line up in the 1-1 draw vs United at Goodison Park (01/03/20)

Dominic Calvert-Lewin is comfortable in taking part in link-up play and when playing with Richarlison up top he has many different methods in splitting backlines and creating space for quick interchanges with Richarlison. He tends to drift wide to pull CB’s out of position to isolate them and create space for runners to attack.

Calvert-Lewin pulling the CB wide to create space for Richarlison to exploit

Calvert-Lewin is also able to drop in between the lines and use his physical strength to hold off defenders to create time and space. He can buy time for his team mates to run into the space he creates.

Calvert-Lewin exploits the space between the defensive and midfield lines, it leads to a CB stepping out and leaving space for Kean to attack

Dominic Calvert-Lewin is known to be a presence in the air, in fact one of the best in the league.  In 19/20, Calvert-Lewin won 170 aerial duels putting him 4th in the league for centre-forwards, only behind Sebastien Haller, Oliver McBurnie and Troy Deeney. This aerial presence adds yet another fold in Calvert-Lewin’s game since he can drop in between the lines and head the ball in behind for his strike partner to chase.

After the signing of James Rodriguez in the summer, along with the signings of Abdoulaye Doucoure and Allan, Everton have been more comfortable in holding the ball between the lines and have been a better side in regard to chance creation. Last season, they created 2 big chances per game making them 8th in the league. This season, they’ve created 2.6 big chances per game which got them at the 3rd best total in the league.

Everton’s line up in the 1-0 win vs Spurs at the start of the season

This has allowed Calvert-Lewin to become much more of a poacher and reduces the burden of him having to drop between the lines. It becomes much more obvious when you look at the heat maps of last season and this season.

Calvert-Lewin’s heat map over the past few seasons [photo: skysports.com]

As you can see, he’s been much more present in the box and as a result, it’s allowed him to explode in terms of production.

Now this is also where the comparison to Luca Toni starts. Three-time top scorer in the Bundesliga (2007-08) and Serie A (2005-06, 2014-15), and European Golden Shoe winner (2005-06). Luca Toni was known to be an unorthodox CF, a blend of a poacher and a target man with unrefined ball skills, aerially dominant and a willing presser. He mainly operated in the box but as he was such an aerial threat he was a viable target for long balls that he would head in behind the lines. His catalogue of goals nearly only consisted of either first time volley’s, using his his 6’4″ frame to muscle off defenders, take a touch and rifle it into the roof of the net. Luca Toni was also comfortable pulling wide, knocking it past defenders, then placing a shot into the far corner.

Luca Toni’s goals for Fiorentina

Dominic Calvert-Lewin’s goals for Everton

Luca Toni was the embodiment of an old-school 9, and was dubbed as “the last of the great target-men”. However with Dominic Calvert-Lewin transforming his game and hitting levels that were not at all expected, we may have to add another name to that long list of forgotten artists.

Written by RMD (@Raumdeuter_EN)