From zero to hero? Dominic Calvert-Lewin’s revival gives Leeds a cutting edge
He’s relaunched his career and is in the form of his life. The England calls are getting louder for Dominic Calvert-Lewin. If he can help Leeds beat Manchester United on Sunday, he’ll be a hero no matter what.
It was too good to be true. Instinctive, improvised and inside the six-yard box. Typical Dominic Calvert-Lewin. Last night, for the best part of three seconds, he’d done it. An eighth goal in seven games as Leeds United stunned Liverpool, late on at Anfield.
An assistant referee’s flag and the 28-year-old’s right foot being beyond the play may have ruled out the finish, but Leeds will be facing Manchester United on Sunday with the hottest English striker in the country.
Underwhelming signing
Back to August, I was sat in the luxury leather cinema chairs of the media room at Leeds United’s Thorpe Arch training ground. Daniel Farke was about to do something that rarely happens in modern football. As I asked him about the rumours around a new striker, he revealed that Dominic Calvert-Lewin would indeed be signing that day.
In the era of curated club media reveals, this felt very old school. It perfectly matched the player. An old-fashioned poacher coming in, under the radar. Leeds fans, however, were underwhelmed.
Having won the Championship title on the final day, Farke had spent the summer recruiting a host of big men to complement his technical players. Joel Piroe may have taken the golden boot with 19 goals but lacked the physique to lead the line against bruising top-flight backlines. A striker would be a priority.
However, with their PSR commitments at full whack, Farke had a problem. The solution was to roll the dice on ‘reviving’ a career with a chance at Elland Road. This was an issue.
Calvert-Lewin has a chequered injury record to say the least. He’s missed 31 games through hamstring injuries alone in the last five years, 14 of which were just last season.
Added to this was some galling goalscoring data. In the last five years, he should have managed just shy of 50 goals based on his xG, rather than the 38 that he did score. An injury-prone striker, who could miss those crucial opportunities that keeps them in the division? It didn’t get the fans onside, especially as he was effectively replacing the similarly performing Patrick Bamford, deemed surplus to requirements.
Dire debut and the revival
I’ve watched back every Calvert-Lewin Premier League goal (the first 50 are here!) and there’s a common theme. All but two are from inside the area. A cool one-on-one against Cardiff and a comedic ricochet to take the lead at home to Manchester United aside, he has been a fox in the box.
His movement keeps him between the frame of the goal and whether it’s a prod, a big header, or being trusted from 12 yards, when Calvert-Lewin is on form, he can be clinical.
Everton even offered him a new deal to stay in the summer but he was ready for a new challenge. He spent the summer with his daughter and enjoying ‘dad life’ and has since reflected how that mental break has helped him rebuild and given him a new perspective on life.
Added to all this has been a different approach to his fitness. Ahead of facing Crystal Palace, Farke told me that there had not been a focus on managing his minutes, as you might expect with a player with a long injury-history, but instead on building up his physical resilience. This all sounds very Rocky Balboa, doesn’t it?
Calvert-Lewin says he’s the fittest he’s been ‘in a long time’. He’s certainly got that healthy glow that’s previously seen him turn his hand to modelling. These days it’s striking a pose with the Player of the Match award, rather than on the catwalk or magazine front covers.
This is all still hard to believe though. He endured a torrid first game at a beleaguered Sheffield Wednesday in the EFL Cup. Coming on as a sub, he missed a hat-trick of opportunities before really ramping it up by blazing his shoot-out spot kick over the bar.
His looping header against Wolves after two anonymous league outings broke the duck but he then went seven games without a goal, coinciding with reports that Farke was battling to keep his job.
And then it all clicked. Stealing in to equalise against Manchester City kicked things off. A one-yard tap-in at a raucous Elland Road saw off Chelsea, before a crucial penalty equaliser against Liverpool and a towering header at Brentford.
By the time I got to Leeds’s final home game of 2025 against Crystal Palace, the England-talk was in full swing.
England’s (back-up) Number 9?
It’s been four and a half years since Calvert-Lewin’s eleventh and last cap for the Three Lions. Four goals isn’t a bad return and he was in Gareth Southgate’s squad that lost the final of Euro 2020 to Italy on penalties, making two appearances off the bench during the tournament. That coincided with his best goalscoring season, when he scored 21 goals in all competitions for Carlo Ancelotti’s Everton.
His traits map is one of the most intriguing you’ll find on FotMob. This season he’s been incredibly efficient. Placing in the 92% percentile for aerial duels compared to strikers in all of Europe’s top five leagues is ridiculous and then you see how few touches he has relative to his goals. Isn’t that exactly what England might need as a Plan B, or if Harry Kane is ever out of action?
Thomas Tuchel has already shown he’s focussed solely on the here and now. There’s nothing to stop him picking an unfancied yet in-form Englishman. Ollie Watkins has been hot and cold, but remains the most obvious rival to Calvert-Lewin when Ivan Toney is unfavoured, and Callum Wilson isn’t even starting for struggling West Ham.
Ghost in the machine
The funny thing about Calvert-Lewin is you can forget he’s even there. He will take a hit but he’s not sprinting around pressing opponents and whipping up the crowd. He’s been a huge beneficiary of Farke changing his system and mixing it up in games. He has been given a strike partner rather than left to lead the line alone and when Leeds switch to a back three, Calvert-Lewin can be one of as many as six attacking players, freeing him up to make his moves in the box.
Both his goals against Crystal Palace came from long throws, as the atmosphere at Elland Road eventually became frenzied in a 4-1 demolition. In a crowded penalty box, he can take up positions where you’ll lose him in the melee. He may even start offside. And yet when ball is between the posts, he will be there. He can react faster than anyone, as we saw with his quick rebound goal, which he followed up by moving quickest for a stooping header.
He capped off a superb team goal against Sunderland where all eleven players touched the ball before then starting on the bench against Liverpool and still nearly grabbing the headlines. That seven in seven run isn’t bad!
And this all sets us up perfectly for Sunday. This is the game of the season for Leeds United. It’s a fixture which feeds off the old War of the Roses rivalry. Add to it with the on-pitch history of the family feud between Jack and Bobby Charlton, Roy Keane’s horrendous ‘revenge’ foul on Alfie Haaland, and Jermaine Beckford’s much celebrated 2010 FA Cup Old Trafford winner.
Exactly sixteen years and one day later, Dominic Calvert-Lewin will have the chance to add his name to that history and continue his push for a plane ticket to cross the Atlantic for the World Cup come the summer.
(Cover image from IMAGO)
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