2025/26 reviewed: Going forward
One by one, and goal by goal, let's rate Leeds United's attackers from last season in descending order of how many minutes they played.
New books!
I've got two new books available:
Season 2025/26 collects all my writing from last season into one large format softback book, with photos by the brilliant Lee Brown. This is available for pre-order, and buying it now helps me order the right amount from the printers, so please don't delay!
Europe, 2000/01 brings the articles I wrote this year on the 25th anniversary of every Champions League match together in a pocket paperback format, 164 pages of (mostly) great memories. This is available now!
If you order both, you'll automatically get a £2 discount at the checkout.
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Dominic Calvert-Lewin
When Dominic Calvert-Lewin signed, he came with instructions dictated by one Carlo Ancelotti, the manager who got the best out of him at Everton. Play him up front alone. Get the ball out wide. Whip in the crosses. Keep on whipping in the crosses. Cock your eyebrows at him, with your hands in the pockets of your tailored wool coat. Enjoy the goals.
It turns out that Calvert-Lewin is more versatile than those two seasons with Carlo ever suggested and the secret formula was something nobody thought the striker was capable of anymore: keeping him fit. 2019/20, 2020/21 and now 2025/26 are the three seasons when Calvert-Lewin has played more than 2,500 minutes, and they're the three seasons when he's hit double figures in the Premier League. It doesn't matter how much whip is on your crosses, or that you play a particular way. It only matters that he is on the pitch as much as possible.
So his successful season with Leeds has as much to do with the club's medical staff as anything else, although they must have a willing patient in order to work their wonders. Calvert-Lewin was that, and some of his willing hard work must have its roots in leaving Everton at last. He really needed a change, last summer, and he looks delighted with the effect it has had on him. He's not the first player, after signing for Leeds, to wonder how they ever played for anyone else.
We usually experienced his unexpected versatility outside the penalty area, where he was a tireless target man, ready for his knockabout part in Operation Big Lads. His goals map — only skewed from a neat straight line by his late winner against Brighton — made him seem a less flexible player, and some of this depends on how you feel about including four (from five) penalties.
But remember the headers! The powerful placement of Jaka Bijol's flick-on against Crystal Palace, the hours he spent in the air meeting Wilf Gnonto's cross against Brentford, and best of all and first of all diverting Jayden Bogle's deflected cross for a looping beauty over José Sá at Wolves.
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