Ok, 25-yard screamers from your centre-half are not exactly a sustainable means of picking up points. But, with Dominic Calvert-Lewin absent once again, and with Demarai Gray toiling through the middle, Sean Dyche needed someone, anyone, to step up to the plate during Monday’s Premier League clash between Everton and Tottenham Hotspur at Goodison Park.
In truth, since taking over from Frank Lampard at the start of February, Dyche has succeeded in coaxing unexpected amounts of attacking output from a handful of Toffees players hardly renowned for their goalscoring ability.
James Tarkowski and Seamus Coleman netted winners against Arsenal and Leeds. Abdoulaye Doucoure found the net against both Nottingham Forest and Chelsea.
And, on a pulsating Monday night, it was Keane’s turn to take centre stage; striding forward before threatening to send Hugo Lloris’ net into orbit.
Dyche has now lost just three out of nine Premier League games in charge. Airlifting Everton to the vertigo-inducing heights of 15th place.
But if the former Burnley boss is to avoid the sort of back-down-to-earth bumps that undermined the early progress made by Carlo Ancelotti and Rafa Benitez before him, he will be desperate to see Calvert-Lewin return fitter and stronger than ever before. Or, failing that, a new centre-forward arriving to take his place during the summer transfer window.
Is Artem Dovbyk the solution to Everton’s striker problems?
With 15 goals in 18 Ukrainian Premier League games – 20 in all competitions – Artem Dovbyk certainly feels ripe for the picking. Especially after he took his tally of hat-tricks to three for the season with another treble against Metalist 1925 over the weekend.
Everton, according to The Sun, were weighing up an approach for the £17 million-rated Dnipro talisman late in the January window. And few should be surprised if the Toffees pick up where they left off in June.
A powerful, physical presence at 6ft 2ins and a scorer of all types of goals, Dovbyk looks – both on paper and in the flesh – like a striker tailor-made for a coach who helped Chris Wood, Ashley Barnes and Sam Vokes all reach double figures in a single Premier League campaign at Burnley.
“He can play in any top league,” veteran Ukrainian coach Oleg Fedorchuk says of Dovbyk. “It all depends on the style of the team. Arsenal and Man City’s style is unlikely to suit Dovbyk. But the more forceful style of Chelsea and Tottenham (is a better fit).”
“He was the best attacking player in the league (last year). He’s also the number one player this season. (He has) a lot of speed, outstanding physical strength and a good left foot.”
Michael Keane’s 90th minute screamer against Spurs was one of those once-in-a-lifetime sort of finishes. If Everton are to push on under Dyche, they need a more sustainable, reliable, bankable source of goals. The sort of which Artem Dovbyk could potentially provide.
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