Calvert-Lewin could finally be back for Everton v Spurs next Monday

As the international break comes to an end, Everton mananger Sean Dyche is thinking about the team he will select for Monday night’s match against Tottenham.

The majority of the Toffees’ squad haven’t been away on international duty and continued training over the last week or so.

Those like Jordan Pickford and Abdoulaye Doucoure who were away, are hopefully all returning without any injuries.

This break in Premier League action has given the Everton manager more time to further hone his training sessions and tactics and ensure his players know exactly what is needed of them for the remainder of the campaign. 

There are now ten games left for the Blues’ to salvage their Premier League status for another year and avoid the catastrophe of relegation to the Championship.

Dyche has a very clear, relatively simple and straight forward strategy, which has so far proved to be pretty effective with the Toffees’ picking up eleven precious points since his arrival.

It seems very unlikely that he will significantly deviate from this approach and will continue to base his selection around the 4-5-1 playing formation he has used so far.

So, that means he will probably carry on using a three-man central midfield and play just one striker up front.

Since taking over as manager Dyche has used Neal Maupay, Ellis Simms and then lately Demarai Gray as that lone forward.

Maupay failed and Simms only had one match in the role, the derby defeat at Anfield. Gray has been doing the job recently and has been reasonably effective in it.

But of course, the one player he would have wanted and like to have fit and healthy to fill that position then and now, is Dominic Calvert-Lewin.

Dyche has only seen his number nine feature for just over an hour in his first game in charge, the 1-0 win over Arsenal.

Since then Calvert-Lewin has been sitting on the sidelines as he has for most of the last few seasons.

The apparently endless saga of his injury problems have become a hugely distracting and frustrating sideshow to the Blues’ wider troubles.

It has reached the point where you wonder whether he will ever be able to return and contribute to keeping Everton in the League.

Is it possible that Calvert-Lewin will be fit enough to start against Spurs? That possibility still seems remote given his recurrent injury issues.

But, if he is able to come back into the team, should and will, Dyche put him straight back into the team?

The answer seems to be a straight forward yes with Calvert-Lewin being the only natural centre-forward in the team and a proven Premier League goalscorer.

That means though that Dyche will have to adjust his formation to accomodate the former England man.

So who might be the player to lose his place in the team?

For me the logical answer is Alex Iwobi. The former Arsenal player has struggled to make much of an impact in recent matches under Dyche after having been integral to Frank Lampard’s side playing in central midfield.

Dyche has moved him back to the flank and his effectiveness has been reduced as a result. Therefore I would drop him.

If that is the decision Dyche makes then presumably Gray would recert to a wide position in place of Iwobi.

One other possibility is to bring Nathan Patterson back into the side and play him wide on the right of midfield instead of either Iwobi or Gray.

Patterson came on for Scotland in their stunning win over Spain this week. It marked his return to competitive action after the latest injury to blight his career.

The young Scot would offer more creativity than those two and quality balls into the box, which Calvert-Lewin would thrive on, and additional defensive cover in front of Seamus Coleman. I doubt though Dyche will go with this option.

Anyway, the Everton manager has some decisions to make as he ponders his team for another big game next Monday night at Goodison Park.