Frank Lampard has hailed the return to fitness of Dominic Calvert-Lewin by admitting that Everton are not in a position to replace him with “another £50million striker.” The 25-year-old started for the first time this season in the Blues’ 1-0 defeat to Newcastle United at St James’ Park on Wednesday after recovering from a knee injury suffered in training on the eve of the campaign.
Lampard said: “Dominic is a high level striker, an England striker, a Premier League regular goalscorer with all his natural attributes that we see in terms of the types of goals that he can score, his strengths, his speed, his aerial ability. You have to try and play to the best strengths of that without a doubt and I think also, Dominic is a forward that can connect the game and hold the ball and drop in between lines at times as well.
“So there’s a lot to his game and that’s what we can’t take lightly in terms of how much we’ve missed him because we’re not in a position to replace that with another £50million striker, we’re trying to work in a different way and you want Dominic as a focal point in your team whether it’s the competition between him and Neal (Maupay) or one striker playing off the other, there are options you can work on in training and all these things. We haven’t had that so it’s been a big hole for us and the sooner we can work on all those things a bit more regularly, and that Dominic can stay fit, the better for Dominic and much better for the team as well.”
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Asked whether he had considered adjusting his formation to include a ‘number 10’ style player to increase the supply line to Calvert-Lewin like Carlo Ancelotti had done with James Rodriguez, Lampard added: “Yes, for sure, but whether it’s an adjustment in formation or not. James was a very particular type of player, the type of player in all honesty we don’t have now and that’s just that. It’s either finding other ways to connect the team so Dominic is not isolated in how he plays and that’s important for us with our midfield play and making sure we play between lines well enough and I think there have been instances this season where we’ve done that very well once the team is settled and we’ve managed to get the players in.
“There is and there will be more instances where we’re getting it even better because we’re putting it together a little bit. For sure, we need players in and around Dominic, no matter what, whether you’re hitting him direct or you’re in and around him, because it’s no use him being a reference point on his own, we have to get players in and around him, that’s part of the team structure and the players’ decisions on the pitch.”
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