On the basis of his heading ability, Dominic Calvert-Lewin is already an elite-level striker
– and he may well have been for some time.
Currently, no player has scored more headers in the league than the Everton man (six) since
the start of last season, while he also finished sixth for aerial duels won in 2019-20 — placing
him fourth among strikers.
But what makes him so effective in the air?
The Athletic spoke to a biomechanics expert to get the inside track on Calvert-Lewin’s
aerial prowess.
Calvert-Lewin began the season as he meant to go on: with a towering header in North
London on the opening day.
An arcing Lucas Digne free-kick, hit with pace from midway inside the Tottenham half,
was perfect, but Everton’s No 9 still had work to do to beat Toby Alderweireld, Eric
Dier and – lastly – goalkeeper Hugo Lloris.
But it’s in these situations that the he’s fast becoming almost unstoppable and Dr Neal
Smith, the head of biomechanics at the University of Chichester, explains why:
“The ability to generate good ball speed from his headers comes from the fact that
he is always moving to meet the ball.
You rarely see Calvert-Lewin heading from a standing-still position.
If he is moving towards the intended destination of the header, this means his momentum (body
mass multiplied by his speed) is travelling through the ball’s intended line of flight.
This then helps with the pace of the header.”
Co-author of the book Football Biomechanics, Dr Smith has also advised Sky Sports on its
documentary Cristiano Ronaldo: Tested To The Limit.
He sees some parallels between the two players, particularly in the way they use their obvious
physical gifts.
“With his lower-limb power, Dominic is maybe not as strong at jumping as Ronaldo, because
he hasn’t developed as much yet,” Dr Smith says.
“But they’ve got a similar stature and that same straight-line pace.
“It’s the strength-to-weight ratio that is key for these guys.
They’re both tall, relatively lean yet muscular.
They both can read the flight of the ball and have consistent contact with it.”
Dr Smith also stresses another key factor, exemplified by a range of goals Calvert-Lewin
has scored over the past year.
“Dominic always has a consistent contact point of the middle of the forehead, just
where the hairline meets the forehead,” he says, also referencing a match-winning
goal against Burnley on December 26 last year as “a great example of ‘redirecting’.
“It’s one of the flatter parts of the head, so enables a greater surface area of
the ball to be in contact, and further enables him to watch the ball right up until contact
with the forehead.”
“If he re-directs his headers, he only does so at this point of contact; he does not try
to ‘spin’ or ‘glance’, instead he redirects them by nodding his head towards
the intended target point.”
According to Dr Smith, Calvert-Lewin’s header in the 3-1 loss to Bournemouth last September
was also a good example of why it pays not to be static when crosses are delivered.
“Throughout nearly all of his goal attempts with his head, Dominic makes sure he moves
into the line of flight of the ball early; this enables him to fix the gaze of both his
eyes on to the ball and helps with the ability to judge the flight.
Being in the line of flight helps optimise this judgement.”
Calvert-Lewin’s progress since Marco Silva left the club has been rapid.
He has started to become a penalty-box poacher, rather than just a striker who runs the channels,
works hard and sacrifices himself for the team.
His form has been the product of hard yards on the training ground and sessions in the
video analysis room first under Everton coach Duncan Ferguson, famously dangerous in the
air in his own days as a striker for the club and a man with whom he has spent countless
hours honing his heading and finishing after training.
And Ancelotti has been crucial, too.
The Everton manager has tasked Calvert-Lewin with refining his movements, so he is more
often on the end of the final pass or cross, with Italian great Filippo Inzaghi, a former
Ancelotti player, cited as an example to follow.
“I had a fantastic striker in Inzaghi, who scored 300 goals and 210 with one touch,”
the Italian told the BBC.
“A striker has to be focused in the box and I think Calvert-Lewin understands really
well, because in the box he has speed, he jumps really high, he has power.
Where he has improved more is there, in the box.”
As these heatmaps from Twenty3 show, Calvert-Lewin now spends much more time in the opponents’
six-yard box, to the benefit of both his heading and his overall goal tally.
It is paying off.
With the goals he scored, with the reputation now developing around him, and – most recently
– with his first England cap awarded by Gareth Southgate.
Dominic Calvert-Lewin is on the rise.