Frank Lampard defends Dominic Calvert-Lewin and addresses 'plan' for improvement

Frank Lampard has defended Dominic Calvert-Lewin as the striker still searches for his first goal of 2022.

The England international has missed a large portion of Everton's season thanks to a quadriceps injury, keeping him on the sidelines for four months after he scored in each of his first three Premier League matches of the term.

However, since returning to action, other slight issues have cropped up on occasion to keep Calvert-Lewin out of the side for short spells.

When he has taken to the pitch, he has yet to find the back of the net since the turn of the year.

However, Lampard has defended his striker - particularly after his performance in the 5-0 defeat to Tottenham Hotspur on Monday evening in what was a generally dreadful display from the Blues.

The manager is well aware that the striker knows he needs to improve, and the side has a plan to get him back to the levels supporters know he can hit.

Lampard said: "I have to defend Dominic because he was part of a team performance that was not great and he was not at the level he wants to be.

"He knows that. He is an honest lad. He has come back from injury with a real desire to help out.

"There are bits we need to work on to get the level he wants to be. A striker needs sharpness for two reasons; one for what we see when they score the goals, but two for how we want to play.

"We need to be aggressive off the ball, wherever we are on the pitch.

"To give Dominic credit, we know he is a top level player, desperate to come back, But we also know he has not played football for a long time.

"We need to work on that and as soon as we work on his fitness we will see the Dominic we all know who was plundering a lot of goals in the last few seasons.

"Everything is important