Greg O’Keeffe has admitted on the All Together Now podcast that he was surprised to not see Dominic Calvert-Lewin in the Everton matchday squad on Sunday.
It has been a disastrous start to the season for Calvert-Lewin with the striker yet to even kick a ball in any competition, which is much like last season when he only managed to start 15 league games throughout the entire campaign.
Many may well have expected to see Calvert-Lewin at least named on the bench for Everton’s match against West Ham given he’d trained all week with the first team out on the grass, although Lampard opted against the temptation.
This decision certainly left O’Keeffe surprised on Sunday afternoon.
(14:47) “The decision not to include Dominic Calvert-Lewin was left out as a precaution, what worries me about this, and I use the term carefully because I get it in a way, but he trained virtually all week there, you seen the pictures on him at Finch Farm firing in volleys on the training ground, walking fit.
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“To not even put it on the bench and I think I’d speculated, would he start and I don’t think any of us ever really thought he’d start, but for him not to even be on the bench, I must admit that surprised me a bit.”
TIF Thoughts on Calvert-Lewin’s absence…
The fact that Everton won the game on Sunday without Calvert-Lewin and the goal was scored by another striker in the form of Neal Maupay, makes this discussion about the England international a little less important.
However, it is still a bizarre one from Lampard to let Calvert-Lewin train all week and be pictured by the clubs’ media as looking fit and ready, only to leave him out completely, especially given Everton hadn’t won all season prior to their clash against the Hammers.
Although, if Calvert-Lewin can now remain it for the rest of the season and these two weeks without club football benefit him massively, it will prove to have been a stroke of genius from Lampard, but based on Calvert-Lewin’s recent injury record, that won’t likely be the case.