Dominic Calvert-Lewin isn’t doing either job he was brought in for at Leeds, it’s that simple

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Dominic Calvert-Lewin arrived at Leeds United in the summer as their marquee striker signing, having left Everton on a free transfer in the summer. However, his move hasn’t quite gone as planned.

Dominic Calvert-Lewin was seen as somewhat of a coup for Leeds, having scored 57 Premier League goals for Everton in 239 top-flight outings.

29, over half of that tally, came under Marco Silva and Carlo Ancelotti split across the 2019-20 and 2020-21 – but he largely struggled for goals since then.

And, despite still being one of the Premier League’s best aerial threats, he simply hasn’t shown that or an ability to score at Elland Road under Daniel Farke so far.

Calvert-Lewin has not capitalised on his dead ball record, and Leeds’ creation hasn’t been strong enough

Of all the players to have played at least 25 games in last season’s Premier League, only Dan Burn, Paul Onuachu – both 6ft 7in – and Jacob Greaves at a defensively-pressured Ipswich, registered more aerial duels won than Calvert-Lewin.

But Leeds haven’t felt the full effect of that this season. Calvert-Lewin has won the same amount of headers in the league as he did last time out, but other stars are doing better with their heads – including his teammates.

Joe Rodon already has goals in the Premier League in what has been a rip-roaring start for the Welshman, but they have come from set-pieces.

In fact, Leeds have scored more goals from set-pieces than from open play this season by five to four, yet Calvert-Lewin hasn’t converted any of the dead balls. Instead, Anton Stach, Lukas Nmecha and Sean Longstaff have registered the other three.

With just four goals from open play in the league in ten matches, that isn’t enough for a side of Leeds’ attacking quality and Calvert-Lewin needs to do more in that sense if Leeds are to stay up.

Dominic Calvert-Lewin needs to finish more chances if Leeds are to survive without worry

It’s not just the situations from which Calvert-Lewin isn’t scoring, it’s also the fact that when he is presented with chances, he’s not taking them.

Credit where it is due, his wonderful header against Wolves did set them on their way to a vital three points at Molineux, one that blew the relegation battle wide open. But since then, he’s had a lack of joy at finding the net, despite Leeds being impressed with Calvert-Lewin.

11 shots in his last five games in the Premier League have simply not resulted in a goal, with only four of those even being on target. And having played 419 of the last 450 minutes, that means Calvert-Lewin’s presence is there for 93 percent of Leeds’ possible time.

An expected goals tally of around 1.5 hasn’t been capitalised upon, and the former England international only managed to complete five passes last game, failing with four – almost a 50 percent passing success rate.

Compare that to Patrick Bamford, Raphinha and Rodrigo excelling for Leeds in the past, and they can’t afford to fully rely on the target man.