Everton striker, Dominic Calvert-Lewin has admitted that he faces an uphill task getting into the England team, with Harry Kane ahead of him in the pecking order.
Calvert-Lewin has come on leaps and bounds since Carlo Ancelotti arrived at Goodison Park and the striker’s goals have been a key reason behind Everton being able to sustain a top-four bid.
The striker is having the best season of his career so far, having found the net 18 times but Kane has been a cut above, having scored 26 and assisted 16 times so far.
The Tottenham star has been one of the first names on Gareth Southgate’s team sheet over the last five years and Calvert-Lewin admitted that he has to develop other parts of his game to compete with the 27-year-old.
The Everton man told Sky Sports: “I think I want to become more rounded, I want to keep honing my skills and fine-tuning the qualities that I have.
“And scoring more goals – every striker wants to score more goals.
“For me, when I don’t score goals, it’s about affecting games like I have been doing more often than not.”
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The 23-year-old has developed a reputation of being a traditional penalty box poacher but he has demonstrated on a few occasions this season that he can find the back of the net from long-range.
When asked if adding long-range goals to his repertoire will help him to compete with Kane in the England set-up, Calvert-Lewin said: “I think so yeah. It’s adding different goals to my game now.
“I’ve shown that I can be lethal in the six-yard box and get on the end of crosses and things like that but adding another string to my bow is what I am always looking to try and do.
“That’s adding different types of goals to my game which will ultimately, at the end of the season, when you check how many goals you’ve got, it will add to that grand total.”
Spurs Web Opinion
Kane is obviously guaranteed to play every minute for England in the Euros unless Southgate decides to rest him for a potential dead-rubber.
However, I believe Calvert-Lewin could get some minutes this summer as he will likely be used as a direct option if England are chasing a game.
With the Everton man’s fantastic aerial ability and hold up play, he could be partnered with Kane up front, with the Spurs star playing as a number ten.
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