Everton player ratings vs Burnley: Ben Godfrey shines! Gylfi Sigurdsson needs to go!

Dominic Calvert-Lewin now has 11 goals in 11 PL games.

Richarlison – 7.5

Richarlison’s importance was highlighted yet again for Everton, he had to be the main force upfront after Burnley made sure to limit Dominic Calvert-Lewin as much as they possibly could, and the 23-year old succeeded in this role. Even though Richarlison had a few moments where he could’ve picked out a pass instead of continuing to dribble, it’s clear Richarlison is confident in his own ability with the ball and that lead to him getting the assist that brought Everton back to the dance.

Richarlison’s dribbling ability was clear as he completed 5 out of his 8 attempted dribbles, which was one stat out of an impressive creative catalogue for the Brazilian during this game. Richy completed 87% of his passes, with 3 key passes and 2 big chances created which helped Everton pour the pressure onto the Clarets which almost helped the Toffees secure 3 points.

Dominic Calvert-Lewin – 6.5

This may confuse a lot of people since Dom continued scoring as he grabbed the equaliser just before half-time, but he also missed multiple opportunities, with 2 big chances missed, and Burnley were able to neutralise Calvert-Lewin’s deadly aerial ability and goal poaching which made the game much easier for Dyche’s men.

Calvert-Lewin’s lack of involvement in the game was shown by his measly 26 touches which is almost a quarter of the number of touches that full-back Alex Iwobi received. This shows that teams are starting to find a way to keep the frontrunner for the golden boot out of the game, but this game also highlights how dangerous the Englishman is, he was still able to get on the scoresheet with much fewer touches than he usually receives.

James Rodriguez – 8

James looked destined to take home the Man of the Match award today but was stopped by some excellent goalkeeping from Nick Pope and some terrible shooting from Gylfi Sigurdsson, the Colombian maestro continued to show the Premier League that he’s still world-class and is the lynchpin in linking midfield to attack and creating opportunities for the Toffees.

Rodriguez’s passes were sublime as always, completing 86% of his passes, along with 2 key passes and 1 big chance created, but one problem became apparent with his dribbling. James seems to avoid dribbling the ball, or he did against Burnley, only attempting 1 dribble which is confusing for a player with the technical ability of Rodriguez.

The problem is this may not be James’ fault as he’s always closed down so quickly that he doesn’t get many chances to dribble, but he also doesn’t seem to take them when he gets the chance which is something we’d all like to see James drive the ball up the field on his own.