January Transfer Window 2026

[hetion]

Where on Jesus are you taking this stat from?

I never said it was an easy chance but if you are 'fantastic in the air' you don't shut your eyes to head it and you do keep it in the stadium.

It's this one I've marked here, you can see the legend in the bottom right for xG of individual shots:

I just think it's interesting how often our eyes will decieve us when watching football. I'd have thought it was an easier chance than that too.

 

[T LEAFE]

Nobel Mendy..

"Everton are in the market for defensive reinforcements and already have their eyes set on a player who is very similar to Michael Keane."

Ffs that's all we need

 

[Nymzee]

It's this one I've marked here, you can see the legend in the bottom right for xG of individual shots:

View attachment 337146

I just think it's interesting how often our eyes will decieve us when watching football. I'd have thought it was an easier chance than that too.

And are all these chances in that area coming from a ball in from the same position, at the same speed, same height, same spin, against the same defence etc.?

I know you love your stats but there is time to delete this and just say "yeh he's not that great at heading the ball".

 

[Zatara]

We couldn't. He was very clear that he wanted to join Roma and play for Gasperini

Thelwell was in talks with Flamengo for him last January. It was reported in a few places and then the Athletic stated that Moyes had elected not to proceed.

Our strikers are possibly the worst in the league unless Barry has a massive shift in form and ability which I cant see. At this rate he'll be lucky to net 5 goals this season. I dont think our centrebacks are good/mobile enough to be able to play with more attack minded fullbacks. I agree we need better options and especially at RB but think we will leak a lot more goals if our CB pairing remains the same and our fullbacks priority is to get forward at very opportunity.
When Brainthwaite comes back maybe Aznou might get more of a shout. Striker and RB are the priorities for me and of equal importance, RB means O'Brien can play CB too which is a bonus as he is more mobile than current duo.

Im not actually sure how the 2 CFs can be quantified as being poor or good yet.

Surely the players need to play to the CFs strengths?

Regarding the defence, if and when OBrien and Branthwaite play together we'll have the ability to play a high line. Also, if Aznou can be ready by season end we have a lot less to do than today.

If you look in the Keane thread you'll find I've been saying basically every week that we can't play Keane and Tarkowski together. O'Brien needs to be in there until Branthwaite is back to give us some recovery pace and let us play a higher line and push fullbacks higher.

The striker thing - It's not that I don't get where people are coming from. We are struggling to score goals and the blame naturally is falling on the striker, I just think that the context of how we're playing is important.

Look at the revisionism happening with DCL atm now that he's scored a few for Leeds. People are saying why did we let him go, he would be scoring in this team etc etc. I'll tell you right now - he would not be scoring in this team. We don't create space in the box for our striker, we don't get other players in the box to make our play less predictable. We're not giving our strikers the conditions to succeed.

For someone to say that we have the worst strikers in the league, I would have to assume they only watch Everton. Outside of Haaland the standard of strikers in the PL is extremely poor. Arsenal are going to win the league without having a decent striker. Thiago has hit double digits already for Brentford despite being nowhere near the player Ivan Toney was.

Do you think Igor Thiago has 10 goals this season playing in this everton team? Personally (with the exception of Haaland who is a freak and obvious outlier) I dont think swapping out Barry or Beto with any other striker in the league would mean us suddenly scoring loads of goals, I really don't.

To a degree, you're absolutely right that better strikers usually get more xG, but he has 0.3 non-penalty xG per 90 which is a touch above average for forwards in the league (same as Woltemade, Watkins, Thiago). Let's say a hugely expensive upgrade is to a player who's the quality of Ekitike or Gyokeres who have...0.4 per 90.

CFs thesedays all over Europe are not what they once were. It seems that every few years theres a lack of a certain player in a position...now its CFs.

What about Rico Lewis for RB and can cover DM? Thought I heard rumours that City may want to offload him to reinvest. Probably not true of course.

Interesting one this. The City fans think he's too weak defensively.

However, he's only just 21 so perhaps he can be developed (as with Aznou) physically?

Only everton could have a striker that wins nearly half of his aerial duels and have fans sit there and think the cbs that are defending against him are having a easy time of it ffs.

The problem with barry is simple.

Hes 6ft 5 and fantastic in the air and we play balls for him like hes aguero.

In the last 3 games we've managed 10 completed crosses, thats pathetic.

Isnt it peculiar that we dont play to their strengths? The only time Beto has looked threatening is with Alcaraz behind him and we had the fun and games of Alcaraz being shunted about last season and Beto suffering.

Now were not putting the ball on the head of our giant CF Barry...its weird.

 

[Zatara]

Nobel Mendy..

"Everton are in the market for defensive reinforcements and already have their eyes set on a player who is very similar to Michael Keane."

Ffs that's all we need

Was linked yesterday. Check him out on youtube, looks a monster.

 

[hetion]

And are all these chances in that area coming from a ball in from the same position, at the same speed, same height, same spin, against the same defence etc.?

I know you love your stats but there is time to delete this and just say "yeh he's not that great at heading the ball".

Literally yes if you're interested:

Historically he's an above average header of the ball. Doesn't mean he'll be great at it in the future but it's probably more likely than not that he'll be perfectly decent at it for us.

P.S. if you think you're better at analysing the quality of a chance than the top data providing companies in football, go prove it to some clubs and earn yourself millions a year and stop talking to us plebs on the internet about Thierno Barry

 

[Nymzee]

Literally yes if you're interested:

Historically he's an above average header of the ball. Doesn't mean he'll be great at it in the future but it's probably more likely than not that he'll be perfectly decent at it for us.

Right, and this whole conversation started with someone saying he's fantastic in the air, which you yourself have just disagreed with, so why are you trying to defend him? (which you do, every time).

 

[hetion]

Right, and this whole conversation started with someone saying he's fantastic in the air, which you yourself have just disagreed with, so why are you trying to defend him? (which you do, every time).

I'm not too interested in the he said she said of the forum, I'm more interested in talking and thinking about football etc. Didn't mean to come across like I was on one side of an argument or another, I don't really care about that.

Re: defending Barry I think sometimes people are too harsh on him generally - not so much in saying he hasn't played well (I think he's played ~fine), but in saying he *is* a bad player or *won't* ever come good for us. That I think lacks clear-headed analysis of him, his qualities as a player and his historical performance as a player. And I just thought this particular discussion of a shot was an example of that, it's not a personal attack or anything.

 

[ForeverEverton]

I think like Grand Old Team says, we aren`t going down and will comfortably be mid table.

BUT Moyes has it said on camera that he wants to aim for Europe and that the players are up for the challenge too.

I think a RB so JOB can play CB, a LB to support Grealish and an experienced Striker may see us qualify for Europe, can't be resting on our laurels now! More to the point I don't think Moyes, TFG or anyone else at the club wants to do that... are we seeing an Everton that wants to push the boundaries? Hopefully!

 

[hetion]

Right, and this whole conversation started with someone saying he's fantastic in the air, which you yourself have just disagreed with, so why are you trying to defend him? (which you do, every time).

Also for what it's worth, I kind of think you're both right, and that's the reason Barry cost 27m which - ridiculously - *is* on the cheap side for a striker for a Prem club these days.

He is fantastic at winning things in the air - he's shown that everywhere he's played, he's way above average at that. But he's inconsistent at his technique when he does win it. We've seen some poor stuff and we've seen some amazing stuff (can't remember the game but thinking of the perfect headed flick-on in the buildup recently). Because he's a player with high potential who needs a lot of coaching and fine-tuning. That's the player we have right now basically and I'm fine with that.

 

[ChesterBlue]

I think like Grand Old Team says, we aren`t going down and will comfortably be mid table.

BUT Moyes has it said on camera that he wants to aim for Europe and that the players are up for the challenge too.

I think a RB so JOB can play CB, a LB to support Grealish and an experienced Striker may see us qualify for Europe, can't be resting on our laurels now! More to the point I don't think Moyes, TFG or anyone else at the club wants to do that... are we seeing an Everton that wants to push the boundaries? Hopefully!

Having JOB and hopefully soon Branthwaite as a CB pairing would allow us to play much higher up the field too given both are quick - agreed that main focus has to be RB and then LB and striker

 

[windymiller]

….time will tell but I wouldn’t compare him to Dele.

Gbamin?

 

[ForeverEverton]

Having JOB and hopefully soon Branthwaite as a CB pairing would allow us to play much higher up the field too given both are quick - agreed that main focus has to be RB and then LB and striker

Couldn't agree more, the future has to be JOB and Jarrad... unless a decent proven CB is bought in.

 

[matty1878]

Couldn't agree more, the future has to be JOB and Jarrad... unless a decent proven CB is bought in.

alrite man we’re have you been?

 

[Eggs]

Gbamin?

…..he had a major thigh injury soon after joining us. There us an argument that it was preventable given he was thrown straight in despite the player saying openly that he’d not had a pre-season and complaining of fatigue.

I think criticising the Rohl acquisition is entirely reasonable, we should steer clear of players with poor injury records. In his case, however, I do think there’s a chance he could still be ok given the type of injuries he has are not particularly repetitive.