Former Everton midfielder Leon Osman has backed Dominic Calvert-Lewin to get amongst the goals and called on Frank Lampard’s side to trust themselves more.
Calvert-Lewin scored his first goal of an injury-plagued campaign and was involved in the second for Anthony Gordon as Everton halted a three-match losing run against Crystal Palace on Saturday afternoon. However, the last 15 months has been a testing period for the 25-year-old.
The forward's return to action has come at the perfect time for the Blues, who, prior to Saturday's win, had gone two games without registering a shot on target. And Osman, speaking exclusively to the ECHO, believes the return of the England international will bring goals, and has also called on Everton’s midfielders and wingers to start pitching in as well.
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He said: “It has been difficult at the start of this season. We had no striker at all for the first couple of games. Rondon was suspended, Dominic was injured and Neal Maupay hadn’t come in yet. So that was a huge concern.
“When you are a team that has No.10s trying to play upfront, you just hope they have actual goal scoring instincts.
“We have got creators who will chip in with goals rather than goalscoerers. Back in the day, we played, 2008/09, we played without a striker for about three months I think, when Yakubu and Louis Saha got injured in the same game away at Spurs.
“But, because we had Tim Cahill within our squad there, I think we played Felli and Tim Cahill up front, but Tim was a goalscorer first. We had that instinct in our squad and I think that is what the midfielders in our squad lack. I think they need to bring more goals.
“It is easy to say strikers need to bring goals, but we need more instinct from midfield to score goals and create chances.
“If Dominic is fit he will score goals. We need to get further up the pitch and we need to make sure we get crosses in and trust ourselves on the ball. We need to trust ourselves to create more chances.”
Saturday’s win over Palace lifted the Blues to 11th in the Premier League table. Despite a tough few weeks, Lampard's side have been solid for the most part of this season, and Osman believes that even though Everton remain a team in development, there have been signs of possibilities in the last few weeks.
“Well as always my hopes are for a strong season and a bit of silverware, and maybe European qualification,” he told the ECHO. "I think we have started okay. A couple of games into the season I was concerned.
"We were still lacking any solidity. We were also lacking a striker with Dominic still being injured and we hadn’t quite got Onana in yet…and Idrissa Gueye.
“But I think Frank Lampard had a very positive transfer window. We have gone from a team that was very soft and had a soft centre through the middle to having quite a strong spine.
“We have two centre-halves who can organise and defend and get people in and around them. We also have a middle three who can cover the ground, certainly a lot more than in the past few years, and we have got more bodies in who can play in the number nine role.
“I still think we are a team in development and I still think we are a team that has got ways to go, certainly in ways of creating chances and scoring goals, but I think there are possibilities for us this season.”
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