Everton predicted lineup vs Leeds: £35 million man starts, James, DCL and Richarlison upfront

The return of Richarlison has given a big boost to Everton.

This movement will be vital against Leeds since it’s so hard to keep the ball against them, then Richarlison will need to use his brain to beat the Leeds players and not his trickery with the ball at his feet, Richarlison will be closed down quickly as soon as he gets the ball, so the ability to switch it to James or play that one-two with Calvert-Lewin will be very important when it comes to breaking that Leeds press.

I could see Richarlison taking home the Man of the Match in this game, he doesn’t need the ball to be extremely dangerous and that’s perfect for teams like Leeds, where he can take advantage of the pressure on players like Dom and James and he can use it to create his own opportunities.

Striker: Dominic Calvert-Lewin

He seems to only get better…

Dom had another fantastic game for Everton, bagging 2 goals and the Man of the Match award as he lead Everton out of their 3 game winless run, he was the focal point of Everton’s attack and it seemed like the only way Fulham could stop him is by fouling him, which they had to do 3 times.

His 2 goals showed his ability as a goal poacher, waiting in the penalty area to strike and that’s exactly what he did, punishing the Fulham defenders as soon as he noticed a slight lapse in concentration.

Calvert-Lewin just seems to be adding more and more to his game after each performance and it’s making him one of the deadliest strikers in England, or even Europe since he’s the only player to score 10 non-penalty goals in Europe’s top 5 leagues.

I previously claimed that Ancelotti was moulding Calvert-Lewin into his new-era Inzaghi, and that prediction seems to be spot on as Dom just can’t stop scoring for the Blues. His xG is at around 7 goals, which he currently beats by 3 with 10, this shows that Dom is finishing chances he arguably shouldn’t be finishing.

Ancelotti and Duncan Ferguson have worked on this aspect of Dom’s game since last year he had an xG of around 16, which meant he was actually missing opportunities that should’ve lead to goals, but now he’s one of the deadliest finishers in Europe.

He’s currently averaging 1.14 goals per 90 for Everton, which means that if he continues at this pace he will score another 32 goals in the Premier League. This would give him 42 goals in 38 appearances, smashing Salah’s record by 10, and even if Dom missed the last 10 games of the season he’d still finish on 30 goals.

Don’t get me wrong I don’t expect Dom to finish with that many goals, but it just goes to show how much he has developed in such a short amount of time.

Against Leeds, Dom will need to use his speed to his advantage more than he usually would. Calvert-Lewin likes to come deep and bring his wingers into the game sometimes but against Leeds, he needs to be looking to constantly beat those man-marking centre-backs.

If he can do that it will create much bigger pockets of space for players like Richarlison and James while also making him available for that over the top ball or a low and hard through ball. To put it simply, Calvert-Lewin needs to use his physical gifts to beat a very physical Leeds side.