For a good hour of Monday’s clash with Leeds United, Dominic Calvert-Lewin showed Everton what they are missing.
Yes, he missed a gilt-edged chance to make it 2-0 to Leeds midway through the first half, as Everton — who were shocking in that opening period — very nearly wilted under a constant barrage of pressure.
A deflected cross came to Calvert-Lewin at pace, and he could only turn his effort against the woodwork from six yards out.
Everton got away with one, and they took advantage. In the second half, Thierno Barry — from a not altogether too dissimilar chance, though hardly a carbon copy — beat his marker to Idrissa Gueye’s cross at the same end, at the same point on the edge of the six-yard box, and stabbed home, high into the net.
On the face of it, Everton’s current striker scored, and their old one didn’t, and missed a big chance in the process.
Yet I fear this misses the wider point and context.
Calvert-Lewin, especially in the first half, was fantastic. He ran Everton’s defence ragged, stretching it, running the channels and getting into a real tussle with Jake O’Brien and James Tarkowski.
The 28-year-old was also dropping expertly into midfield, creating the space for Leeds’ marauding wing-backs to charge forward down the flanks, while Brenden Aaronson was causing havoc down the Whites’ left flank.
Calvert-Lewin had 17 touches in the first half, though Leeds’ issue was only two of those came in Everton’s area.
And there could be an argument to say it was the “classic” Calvert-Lewin display, the type that Evertonians — or a certain section of the fanbase — had grown tired of.
The issue is, as Leeds dominated every facet of the game in the first half, it was evident just how much Everton, playing the way they do under David Moyes, miss a centre-forward with Calvert-Lewin’s skillset and attributes.
Bringing others into the game, getting their team up the pitch.
And this is not a criticism of Barry. He has shown he is much better at doing that than Beto, for example. He needs time, and patience. The confidence he now has in front of goal is brilliant to see, and shows a tantalising glimpse at a bright future.
However, he still has some way to go in his all-round play. The first half showed the difference.
Barry toiled up front against a back three, and that was on Moyes. His striker was isolated and his team selection was exposed. Harrison Armstrong has been fantastic since he returned on loan from Preston North End, but he lacked the physicality to get up and offer any support to the front man. Dwight McNeil playing out on the right wing was a pointless exercise.
Everton, unsurprisingly — albeit, it could hardly get much worse — improved in the second half after Moyes introduced the fit-again Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall and Jarrad Branthwaite. The change in shape helped, not only to get the Toffees up the pitch, but also give Calvert-Lewin a taste of the medicine that Barry had to swallow during the opening 45 minutes.
Barry took his chance brilliantly when it came, having previously drawn a fine save out of Karl Darlow with a cute, outside-of-the-boot effort. It is now four goals in the space of five league games for the 23-year-old.
But with a week left in the transfer window, Everton need to be smart, and they must be opportunistic. Leeds had 10 shots in the first half, and a better team than them would have put them away.
Calvert-Lewin might have missed that great chance to put the game to bed, but he had also played a huge role in Leeds’ dominance up to that point.
While Everton can look to the future in Barry, they must also look to their past in Calvert-Lewin, and realise they still need their centre-forward to offer those traits, too.
