Will Armando Broja be a better striker than Calvert-Lewin?

I wouldn't worry about him being able to deal with Pickford's kicks as he'll probably get plenty of practice but it would probably mean either Beto or Chermiti next season as I can't see even the new owners coming up with the readies and staying within PSR parameters, and assuming we are still in the Premier League.

However, having said that, the introduction of Ndiaye seems to have seen us get more players forward in support, or Ndiaye has allowed others more time and space which might allow for more goals from midfield or the luxury of a second striker.

I think Broja has more natural talent than DCL but he's got a long way to go.

A very speculative signing due to lousy form since injury and really terrible injury record.

That said, quite an exciting signing too if we can get him fit.

On Dominic, I feel for him. Like many Everton strikers of late, he's been isolated without much back up.

Probably the only thing I would say, through observation, is that when he's on a one-on-one, he should lift the ball. He often kicks it low at the keeper. I appreciate you are always taught to keep it on target, but like I say, an observation.

But his effort and commitment can't be questioned.

Here's hoping both of them score on Saturday.

The great weakness of Calvert-Lewin is his lack of guile, wrong-footing players is beyond him in open play or in front of goal.

Very athletic but the ball goes the way he's facing – chipping, lobbing, dropping the shoulder or passing the ball into the net are just not in his armoury. Goalies know what he's going to do before he does.

He's not got a great shot, and I think he lacks guile when through. He aims at the goal and usually hits the keeper. There's never any attempt to round the keeper, or shift the ball to improve the angle.

I don't know what they do at Finch Farm, but this area of his game hasn't developed at all. And that includes being up against the England Number 1. Yes, he's been injured, but you can't tell me somebody couldn't have worked on that over the last 5 years.

In the olden days, he would have benefited from playing with a small goal-scoring forward. But with one up top, the pressure is on him.

I would like sometimes as well to see him just put his damn laces through it and give the goalie no chance, aka Keane at the weekend, it just seems to me that the goalie always has a chance to react.

Having said this, though, I do also think that, when that first one goes in, he will be away.

So you think "when that first one goes in, he will be away"?

You mean like in the Bournemouth game? That was the first one to go in for him this season… but no more in that game, which we went on to lose.

Or the next game 2 weeks later, when he also scored against Aston Villa... but then we went on to lose as he missed a whole load more chances. Which is all he's done since.

I'll believe it when I see it.

Of course he can still improve his skillset but I can't see him hitting 15-20 goals a season.

He is brilliant at holding the ball up, and equally so in his heading ability, but to be a successful and prolific striker, he should have all the elements. As Danny says, we haven't seen much of Broja, so will have to reserve judgement. It may hopefully be a case of horses for courses.

He didn't pull up too many trees at either Fulham or Southampton while on loan. Maybe, just maybe, Everton will be his comfort zone and start producing regularly and avoiding too many injuries.

The same is true of other clubs like us with mostly bottom-half standard players.

With Calvert-Lewin, the important thing is to play to his strengths, not his weaknesses. That means quality crosses into the box. Unfortunately, our flanks are so weak that this isn't happening. Ancelotti did a good job with Calvert-Lewin; his main trick was to play him in a much better side than we currently have.

Nevertheless, for a really good side, Calvert-Lewin would be an option but not the main striker. And that's the position we need to get to. How do you find yourself a goalscorer? there are essentially 3 routes:

1. Pay a lot of money. The idea that £20M might be enough is fanciful. The £28M we paid for Lukaku not so long ago would be more like £70M (+) now. Even then ,it is hit and miss, with £85M Nunez and £70M Hojlund getting 11 and 10 league goals each last season (Calvert-Lewin got 7 in a much, much worse side).

2. Get lucky with a hidden gem. I mean yes, possibly, but who? Amongst the people who scored more than 10 goals last season, only Hwang, Mateta and Wissa fall into this category. And they may not necessarily repeat their exploits again.

3. Develop someone over a period of seasons. You could include the likes of Mateta, Wissa again here and also Solanke. There's an element of teams playing to their strengths too, which optimises their output. See also Chris Wood.

There is also a 4th category that scores goals being "the flash in the pan". These must be avoided at all costs. All those posters saying we should replace Calvert-Lewin with the "obviously much better" Adebayo should note that he's got 1 goal in 11 games for struggling Luton this season in the Championship.

Hopefully the likes of Broja and Chermiti can fall into the category of players we can develop. But it's unlikely either would grab more than 10 goals over a full season at the moment. Broja hasn't managed that many since he was about 18 or 19, playing for Vitesse on loan in the Eredivisie.

The fact he never got a move in the summer says it all. He's a 6-to-8-goals-a-season striker. You can buy them from the Championship.

"But it's unlikely either would grab more than 10 goals over a full season at the moment."

Either one of them would be our top scorer with only 10 goals in a season.

We could only dream of having two that score 10 each! That's more than our top two goalscorers last season.

You can't coach the type of skill that wrong foots opponents it is a street, playground and park development and if not there by 11 years old it isn't coming.

Look at the USA, nobody does coaching like the Yanks and they can produce goalies and decent athletes by the dozen… but ball players? Hardly any.

What could be improved with practice is the effectiveness of his straight-line striking. Get Ian Rush in to practice with. He had virtually nothing as a footballer bar 2 things – speed and how he struck the ball – cleanly, on target and most importantly low.

He was an Evertonian before being snaffled by the dark side; he might be delighted.

Broja is possibly a 8 + goal a season striker if fit.

Chermiti no one knows. He probably needs a loan to find out.

I'm not suggesting we'd get 20 goals out of them by any stretch.

I also think people are massively underestimating the impact on the striker of playing in such a poor side. I suspect Haaland would struggle to get more than about 18 or so for us over a full league season.

You can coach all you want but, if the player is lacking sufficient athletic ability and intelligence, you are wasting your time.

On the other hand maybe the above is too black and white because in fact a footballer can shine through sheer hard work and stamina – even though he isn't the most skilful.

I take no chances on here my tin hat has been gorilla glued to my skull for a while. Just awaiting the nuclear shelter construction to begin then my new article "Was Bill Kenwright Mistreated?" might get an airing.

But I might chicken out and go for something a little less risky like buying a timeshare in Beirut

For me, losing him would not be good but I will trust the Everton staff to get it right.

I really really really hope Calvert-Lewin starts scoring soon, for his sake as well as ours. He wants £130k a week apparently. Well he won't get that off us, or anyone else for that matter, if he doesn't.

Looking forward to my weekend back home, especially the Saturday evening but! I hope the Saturday night and Sunday morning find me in a celebratory mood!

That's the problem... nobody knows what he really has.

He built a quick reputation as a teenage superstar in Holland four years ago, showed a little bit of something for Saints, and then... pfft. Couldn't stay in anybody's 11, couldn't stay healthy.

He may be back on the pitch by December, but we likely won't have any idea for several months after that whether he is a contributor or just a distant wish.

The good news is that by the time his loan is up, we'll have the money to buy him if we want him.

It's okay, Mark I won't get sucked in. Bill Kenwright is a separate subject and not one I'll get involved in other than in general terms.

Despite Albania playing good stuff and winning lots of fans, Broja was disappointing. Although it would appear that he wasn't fully fit. Let's just hope he gets his Southampton mojo back.

Michael Keane is no longer a pariah but is in fact the answer to our prayers, especially when Dyche realised what all of us on TW have always known, that he is in fact a striker.

Similarly Ashley Young is now a popular favourite on here having not been sent off for several games and is now revered almost as much as his dad, Alex.

James Tarkowski is now the boo boy and the living anti christ because he hasn’t dropped himself and the crowd booed the previous two rather than him.

Kenwright died while you were away so nobody talks about him anymore. Much.

Danny O, his last remaining acolyte, still goes the game and is, in fact, meeting Derek Foxy Knox on Saturday for a good natured chuckle about their shared memories with luvvy Bill in the Boys pen.

Dwight McNeil is, at the moment, a fans favourite as Dyche finally listened to us and plays him at number 10.

Calvert Lewin is either brilliant or shite, but everyone agrees he needs to put those one on ones away sharpish or Chermiti, who is apparantly a prospect based on, I dunno really, but he is, will take his place if he is ever fit.

Sean Dyche is a dinosaur/genius/stubborn fool/boiled egg - mainly depending on the latest results but everyone seems to agree he’s not the one to take us on in BMD.

BMD is nearly finished.

Don’t mention Graeme Sharp. Just don’t!

Ian Rush is being widely tipped by at least one on here as Everton’s next striking coach.

There’s some new bloke with letters after his name who writes some weird stuff that no-one quite understands but still get extremely agitated about.

Oh, that reminds me.

Paul Ferry has mellowed beyond all recognition hardly posting at all during the day.

Anyway, just do what I do, mate, and agree with everyone.

Except Dave Cashen. He’s mental!

UTFT

Nearly as funny as 'pets getting murdered with giant fly swatters'

Funny, funny, funny... loved it.

Liam #29

Or "pets being eaten by Haitians" but at least John W. isn't running for President...yet.

Ease yourself back in and get back to work properly!!

I'm so sorry to see the personal conflicts but realise that I have done it too. Just remember that we're great fans, a great community based around a great Club.

I believe that we are going to be rewarded by this mongrel squad and mongrel manager against all odds.

You should become a regular feature: every month distilling the Machiavellian byways and highways of the current TW paradigm.

Andy Cole is an example, on instinct he stuck a half-chance in the net. With time to think, it was in the back row of the stand.

Calvert-Lewin misses chances when he has options. On reflection, I think that coaching might actually make him think even more.

I never thought that goal-scoring was a gift. I'm thinking I might be wrong.

Richarlison was playing at the time and either helped Dom to step up his game or took the pressure off him to be scoring goals. Maybe Ndiaye will be a poor man's Richarlison!

Calvert-Lewin's Achilles Heel seems to be when he is running in on goal from outside the box and fails to beat the keeper. Is this a case of him being an instinctive finisher rather than being able to convert chances when given time?

So, no matter how many goals he scores at Finch Farm, he doesn't have the confidence to do it in a game.

He's not going to be here next season, he may not even be here at the end of January, although I'll say it again, I don't see a massive line of clubs waiting in the wings.

I think we need to accept it and move on, remove the option of the contract now and let it play out as it should; for both parties now, a move is probably for the best.

He's been a fairly decent player since he joined us but at the same time I don't think I've ever seen a centre-forward look so awkward with the ball at his feet, you can see he was actually coached as a kid to be a central midfielder.

He's never ever struck me as a cold-blooded finisher even when we had Carlo here, it was his greatest purple patch but most of his goals were fox in the box, which both he and us have never been able to replicate a style to rediscover.

In hindsight, during that summer of 2021, it was a shame that someone didn't come in with a really big offer for him; I believe crazy fees were being touted at one time.

But it is what it is, we'll probably lose him for nothing now.

As for Broja, who knows? Again, it's all about how fit can he stay, or even will he ever even get fit?

I do think at some stage I would like to see Everton move away from the old school Big Number 9 way of playing now. We are in 2024 and very few clubs are still stuck so rigid in this way.

I do rate him though. Not many around can do what he does. Even fewer would put up with it – and I don't blame him at all for wanting away given the crap role he's been played in.

I've seen him with confidence and he's not a terrible finisher, plus he's always a handful for defenders. Without confidence, he's just a handful.

I don't think the role of the club and the management can be understated. He's a striker in a team that doesn't provide support to that role. It's a bit much to expect him to be running hot in front of goal in that environment.