Everton’s number 9 shirt has proved to be very prestigious over the years, with many legends throughout the Toffees’ history fitting the mould. The likes of Alex Young, Joe Royle, Andy Gray and Graeme Sharpe are just some of the names to have donned the historic number, with the elder Goodison Park generations looking back at them with fond memories.
Now, under the reign of Marco Silva, a new number 9 has emerged in the form of England Under-21 international Dominic Calvert-Lewin. The striker, who played a predominant role during Everton’s 18/19 campaign, boasted a return of six goals from 35 Premier League games last season.
Taking the number 9 shirt from previous occupant Sandro Ramirez, DCL’s figures show that he isn’t exactly deserving of the shirt just yet based on statistics alone, with the forward’s finishing and end product still some way off the desired level.
A key part of Everton’s attack last season, Calvert-Lewin’s hold-up play proved to be a fantastic attribute for Everton, but it can be argued that he needs to do more, and that he just simply is not good enough.
In the whole of last season, DCL took 52 shots at goal, with only 16 of them registering as on target. That creates a shooting accuracy of just 31%. He only created two big chances for his team mates last season, missing seven of his own.
However, despite these rather lousy statistics for a striker in the Premier League, Marco Silva remains adamant that he will prove to be an influential figure for Everton as he pumped praise into the youngster throughout the season, most notably after the West Ham game in April.
Understandably, DCL is only 22-years-old and is still finding his feet against hard-hitting Premier League opposition. However, it seems to be clear that DCL will not likely develop into a world class talent capable of bagging Golden Boots. That role seems more suited to the newly recruited Moise Kean, who is just 19-years-old and arguably better than Dominic Calvert-Lewin already.
