Sean Dyche says Leeds have cracked Dominic Calvert-Lewin problem Everton could never solve | OneFootball

Sean Dyche says a change of environment and reduced pressure have allowed Dominic Calvert-Lewin to flourish at Leeds United.

“We tried, we did all sorts of things to protect him, and tried to release the pressure off him to allow his body time to recover. He was close, but we could never get him full-out freedom to go sprint and play; he has found that at Leeds.” He told talkSPORT.

“Maybe a different environment, different crowd and different voices - that can affect a player. That has given him, maybe not a new lease of life, but allowed him to broaden his shoulders and allowed him a bit more freedom. At Everton, it was sort of, ‘when is he back?’ for a few years, and maybe that was a burden to carry.”

Calvert-Lewin left Everton as a free agent after nine years last summer, joining Leeds amid fitness doubts. He had started fewer than 20 Premier League games in three of his previous four seasons and had not reached double figures since 2020/21. Since debuting against Newcastle in August, he has not missed a top-flight match through injury, sitting out only the 2-2 draw at Chelsea through illness, and has 11 goals plus an England call-up last month.

That 11-goal haul comes despite just one league strike since early February. He did most of his damage through winter, with seven in six earning December’s Premier League Player of the Month.

One of those arrived in a 1-1 draw at Brentford, when he rose to head in Willy Gnonto’s cross on 82 minutes. “I’m feeling good. I think this is the fittest I’ve been in a long time and I've worked extremely hard to get in this position.” He told Sky Sports.

“When you get a certain narrative around you and you’re tarred with a certain brush, it's quite hard to shake it. For me it was always about being mentally tough and hanging in there at certain points.”

Source: yorkshireeveningpost.co.uk