Dominic Calvert-Lewin is on fire, and many Premier League defences are terrified.
Leeds United enter the festive period in good spirits, remaining undefeated throughout December having collected 8 points out of 12 against tough opponents. It is a stark contrast to November’s run, where Daniel Farke’s team lost every single league game. The club now sit in 16th, with some breathing space between them and 18th placed West Ham. Their prospects looking up the table sees The White’s just 5 points shy of creeping into the top half of the table.
On Saturday, Dominic Calvert-Lewin extended his scoring streak to five Premier League games in the 4-1 victory against Crystal Palace. The striker scored a first-half brace at Elland Road, with Farke describing him as “one of the best English strikers in this league”. With such claim, there comes the talk of England and the World Cup in the summer.
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Alan Shearer and Gary Lineker Have Their Say
With 143 caps and 78 goals for England combined, the duo of Alan Shearer and Gary Lineker have much validity on any opinion they have on the game. On their latest episode of the Rest is Football podcast, they discussed the talk of Calvert-Lewin’s form and the possibility of a callup to England. However, they seemed apprehensive about the Leeds striker getting the call in the summer.
Shearer highlighted that “he’s got to do it on a more regular basis”, meanwhile Lineker said: “It’s his first good spell for quite some time after a lot of injuries which have taken their toll.
“We do know there is a very, very good centre-forward in there if he can keep a sustained spell of fitness, but I think at the moment he should be focusing on carrying on doing what he’s doing at present.”
It is a very fair opinion by the legendary strikers to suggest that a spell of 5 games is not a big enough sample to get a call-up to England. After all, it was only the start of November that it seemed as though the 28-year-old was struggling with life in a Leeds shirt. Before his current streak of five games, which started against Manchester City, his only Leeds goal was against struggling Wolves in September.
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Who Is The Competition?
Bayern Munich striker Harry Kane is nailed on to start for Thomas Tuchel’s side, who will likely be operating in a one-striker system. Aston Villa’s Ollie Watkins is next in the pecking order, despite having a slow start to the season. Villa’s form has seen them fly high to 3rd in the Premier League, but the striker only has 3 goals in 24 games across all competitions this season. Unless a dramatic downturn in form was to occur, Watkins ability to stretch defences in a different way to Kane will still be of value to the England manager as a second option.
Lineker emphasised on this: “England will need a backup 9, but I think Ollie Watkins is way ahead of him [Calvert-Lewin] at present.”
Things get blurrier after that, as England will ideally be looking to take a third striker to North America. In that role, the likes of Ivan Toney and Callum Wilson have been trialled and tested in recent years but are not in contention this time around. The surprise candidate so far in 2025/26 has been Brighton’s Danny Welbeck, who has rolled back the years. 7 goals in 16 Premier League games puts the former Manchester United man on track to hit double digits.
For much of his early career, Welbeck was used as a ‘utility’ striker, but at 35 years-old is more limited. The age advantage that Calvert-Lewin, 28, has on Welbeck may pip him to the squad but consistency, which has been the main rival of the former Everton striker is what he needs to overcome to still be in contention for the squad in early summer.
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