Everton played a behind-closed-doors practice match against Manchester United today where Dominic Calvert-Lewin completed his first 90 minutes since playing almost the full game at Brighton in May.
The striker was scheduled to play 70 minutes but ended up finishing the match at Carrington that United won 2-0 thanks to an own goal and a strike from Scott McTominay
Calvert-Lewin is hoping to put his infamous soft-tissue injury struggles behind him following a summer of patient rehab work and today's workout is likely to be regarded as the final step before he can resume Premier League action, hopefully against Aston Villa on Sunday.
Arnaut Danjuma, Vitalii Mykolenko, Ben Godfrey and Jarrad Branthwaite also boosted their fitness with run-outs.
Everton travel to Villa Park this weekend hoping not only that Calvert-Lewin can play a part but that they can also pick up their first points of the new season after Saturday's disappointing 1-0 home defeat to Fulham.
Reader Comments (32)
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2 Posted 15/08/2023 at 17:45:08
Own goal and Scott McTominay for the goals.
3 Posted 15/08/2023 at 18:53:08
Calvert-Lewin played the 70 minutes they had agreed to give him. Man Utd led 1-0 at half-time, own goal, didn't say who scored it, and McTominay scored a 2nd. Didnt, give any more details than that.
I have seen another report that isn't substantiated that said Man Utd won 4-0 there is only 1 report saying that. I know Maguire and Martial played for them.
4 Posted 15/08/2023 at 20:05:59
5 Posted 15/08/2023 at 20:14:22
6 Posted 15/08/2023 at 20:22:05
7 Posted 15/08/2023 at 20:23:52
8 Posted 15/08/2023 at 20:37:04
9 Posted 15/08/2023 at 20:48:59
Because we're obviously in dire need of another centre-back….
10 Posted 15/08/2023 at 20:54:57
11 Posted 15/08/2023 at 21:14:37
12 Posted 15/08/2023 at 21:22:36
What difference does it make?
We were unbeaten in pre-season but lost our opening fixture.
I'd rather win when it matters.
13 Posted 15/08/2023 at 22:01:00
14 Posted 15/08/2023 at 22:08:43
15 Posted 15/08/2023 at 22:20:51
16 Posted 15/08/2023 at 22:48:34
17 Posted 15/08/2023 at 22:54:51
DCL was just coming off arguably his best season 2 seasons ago when this happened.
Dwight McNeill also was starting to show his worth when he got crocked. There are others like Gbamin and Gibson who where conspicuous by their time absent and of course many others.
Sure all clubs have players getting injured but a club like Everton without the resources of the big clubs just don't have the replacement players to come in and keep the team competitive.
We all hope Dom. is finally over the hump and can make a big contribution this season alongside the likes of Chemiti and Harrison.
18 Posted 15/08/2023 at 23:45:59
19 Posted 16/08/2023 at 00:55:00
20 Posted 16/08/2023 at 01:24:11
I hope that theres no posts suggesting that Amadou, ot Gareth are being sold for a combined £50M, to United over the next few days.
That would be a bad kick in the nuts, to take, hopefully nothing will happen.
UTFTs!
21 Posted 16/08/2023 at 01:27:46
22 Posted 16/08/2023 at 09:01:51
23 Posted 16/08/2023 at 09:25:26
24 Posted 16/08/2023 at 10:32:46
Going back to the original topic it's good to see Calvert-Lewin played the full 90 minutes in this training game, hopefully he plays at least 45-60 minutes against Aston Villa to give the team a focal point in attack.
25 Posted 16/08/2023 at 11:27:14
Whether this is a promising youngster, a seasoned pro, or a regular player who can cover the position is irrelevant. At the moment we lack any of those. The new signings or Tom Cannon may prove to be cover, but for a like-for-like, we may be awaiting this season's Joshua King on transfer deadline day. (I still would not be averse to Antonio or Ileanacho in the absence of a name signing.)
Playing the waiting game has been a financial necessity. But the signings we have made all improve on what we have. I trust that the behind the scenes action is the legs of the Swan swishing around while we see the ugly duckling float around apparently effortlessly.
I think that, by the end of the month, we will have seen some significant change, if not to the starting eleven, which bar a fit and competent man up front is very capable, but to the off the bench options, which at the moment would not worry a Sunday morning pub team.
29 Posted 16/08/2023 at 13:01:03
Bear with me while I create some additional threads and move the off-topic posts out of your line of sight.
31 Posted 16/08/2023 at 13:20:41
32 Posted 16/08/2023 at 13:22:46
Editorial Team
35 Posted 16/08/2023 at 14:15:02
Please post on topic, on thread. Otherwise, your post may be moved or deleted.
If you think you've got something new to say, please submit it as a mailbag item and we'll do the rest.
Thank you for your continuing support and enthusiasm.
36 Posted 16/08/2023 at 16:39:06
When Mitrovic came on, he looked like he had been eating out on takeaways, but he soldiered through the game, but Fulham gambled and it paid off, with the lead up to their winning goal.
I know it is to get his fitness up, but surely to god we could have had him on the bench, it wasn't like we were saving him for the Villa game, with playing a full 90 mins a couple of Days later.
Is it not better to give Dom some minutes here and there, for the first team, rather than a 90 min work out in a nothing game.
37 Posted 17/08/2023 at 09:30:50
Totally agree with you. If Calvert-Lewin was on the pitch for even 10 minuutes for the Fulham game, and all the chances we were creating, he could have slotted one home.
The strange thing about Sean Dyche is he's afraid to take a small gamble, which could have netted us 3 points or even one! Now we have zero points from a home game, due to his innate stupidity.
He certainly takes risks — by using Neal Maupay, we are effectively playing with 10 men!
38 Posted 17/08/2023 at 10:49:49
If Calvert-Lewin had played and broke down again, we'd all be having kittens.
90 minutes injury free on Tuesday is a massive step forward but I still don't expect him to start. They will be running all sorts of tests this week to see how his body has reacted. I'd expect him to be on the bench.
The biggest issue for me is that we haven't made signing a replacement, who can immediately come in and stick the ball in the net, a priority. Harrison may prove to be a good signing but I can't fathom us not buying someone to play up front as a priority.
Maybe Danjuma is showing enough in training to play up front on his own instead of Maupay? I guess we will see on Saturday but, given Villa's high line, I'd have Maupay practising one-on-ones all week.
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1 Posted 15/08/2023 at 17:25:32
Calvert-Lewin played the whole game.