In an interview with Sky Sports in August, Everton manager David Moyes said, “you have to keep trying to evolve”.
The Scotsman’s desire to shape his Toffees team into a dynamic force is an ambitious one, but he’s shown since replacing Sean Dyche in January that he has what it takes to lift Everton back into the limelight after years toiling away in the bottom half of the Premier League table.
The objective last term was one of survival, but Moyes’ Everton quickly found form and steered away from the relegation fodder. Some might have feared that it would be more of the same this year, purple patch done and dusted, but careful navigation through a tricky summer transfer window has placed the club in sixth place with four games behind them.
Early days, of course, but the signs are certainly promising, with Jack Grealish and Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall among those to have sparked career revivals after leaving ‘Big Six’ clubs during the off-season.
Goalscoring problems persist
Everton have a new degree of creativity about them, with the season’s early readings suggesting they have been among the most efficient playmakers in the Premier League so far. However, they’ve missed six big chances, with Beto in particular culpable for some shoddy finishing.
Man United
4
7.9
Chelsea
9
7.7
Man City
5
7.6
Brighton
4
6.6
Everton
5
6.3
The Bissau-Guinean striker blows hot and cold, and though he scored against Wolves last month, he lacks the danger he projected on Everton’s rivals during that fine run of form last season.
Grealish isn’t a goalscorer, not really, while Iliman Ndiaye cannot be expected to carry his side in the final third across the duration of the campaign.
What Everton need is a new forward capable of leading the line over the coming years, marrying technical quality and innate shooting skills with a predatory hunger when facing the goalkeeper.
Someone like Richarlison. It’s been three years since Farhad Moshiri sold the Brazilian maverick to Tottenham Hotspur in a £60m deal, good business given his injury problems and inability to recapture that Goodison Park form in the capital.
But Richarlison, 28, remains one of the most threatening players in the Premier League, and Moyes was actually interested in re-signing the star to Everton this summer, ultimately going in a different direction.
That direction led to Thierno Barry, who is certainly unrefined and yet to stamp his authority on the English game, but then unquestionably boasts the talent and profile to rise up as Moyes’ own version of Richarlison.
Why Everton signed Thierno Barry
We are over a month into the 2025/26 season, and Barry has been used in a rotation role so far at Everton. The 22-year-old joined from Villarreal in a £27m deal in the summer, replacing Dominic Calvert-Lewin at the end of his contract.
He’s featured in each of Everton’s four Premier League matches so far, though he’s only started during the win over Wolves and was hooked shortly after the hour mark.
The integration process was always going to be one of stops and starts, but in this French forward, Moyes has landed a 6 foot 5 powerhouse with pace and potential to become an elite striker of the ball.
Last season in La Liga, he scored 11 goals and assisted four more across 35 games, starting only 25 times and creating seven big chances besides. Having won 67% of his aerial battles, you can see why Moyes was so enamoured, but his ability to drive forward with strong strides points toward that aforementioned evolution over at the Hill Dickinson Stadium, steering away from the target-man days of DCL.
Thierry Henry likes what he sees, with Barry’s movement and ability to draw defenders away intelligently, akin to Richarlison when he was in his Everton prime.
Richarlison spent four years on Merseyside, and he scored 53 goals and assisted 15 more across 152 appearances in total. Be it on the left flank or as the Blues’ number nine, the Brazil international was a force to be reckoned with.
Likewise, Barry has spent time coming off the left wing, with the right footer’s protean attacking ability lending itself to such a role. In this way, Moyes might find he can weave Beto and Barry into the same recipe. The new recruit, after all, showcased his creative capacity in La Liga last year.
In fact, Barry has actually scored eight goals from only 14 appearances out on the left wing, so he clearly has the natural sense in the final third to break the netting from any angle.
Could he reach Richarlison’s Everton level? That is not for us to know at this stage. But the Spurs man was once tipped by Carlo Ancelotti to become “one of the top strikers in Europe”, and Barry’s similar build and profile suggest he could take it one step further on Merseyside, in a team which is shaping up to challenge for places at the top end of the Premier League table.
Hailed for his “menacing” profile by talent scout Antonio Mango, Barry hasn’t yet alerted the wider Premier League audience to his presence, but he’s got all the tools to succeed in this division, and if he continues to develop his mobility and refine his presence in the final third, he might just prove to be Everton’s next version of a modern hero in Richarlison.
A budding expertise in stretching lines and making a nuisance of himself, Barry is evidence that Everton are developing into a new state under Moyes’ tutelage, and that, while the 62-year-old remains rooted in his pragmatic principles, he is eager to shape this side into something new.
For now, Beto continues to serve as Everton’s first-choice striker, but as Barry sharpens his tools, that could soon change.
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