A closer look at Everton's struggles in front of goal this season and how Beto and Thierno Barry compared to some of their rivals
Everton strikers Beto and Thierno Barry
Everton strikers Beto and Thierno Barry
View Image
It’s no secret that Everton’s strikers are struggling for goals. The Blues currently sit 14th in the Premier League table, with 12 points from 10 games and have the sixth lowest goal-difference in the top flight.
Despite having two senior number nines in Thierno Barry and Beto, David Moyes’s most reliable man seems to be the winger, Iliman Ndiaye.
The Senegalese star leads the way in terms of goalscoring, with four so far in the league. No-one else in the squad has more than one, and the pair of centre-forwards only have the single goal between them.
In the last eight games in all competitions, there has only been one win for fans to get excited about, and in that group of games only five goals were scored, with none of them coming from the striker position.
When looking at the centre-forwards of the teams around Everton, one thing becomes abundantly clear. The Blues don’t score enough for where they want to be and the aspirations of the supporters and owners.
As Beto has started the majority of games for the team this season, he is likely one of the main culprits when looking at the lack of goals.
The 27-year-old has started seven of the 10 Premier League matches so far, while his counterpart Barry has only started three.
The pair have played a combined total of 904 minutes, taking 20 shots between them in that time, however little success has come from those attempts.
Beto is the main shot-taker, as he has 3.71xG (expected goals) to Barry’s 1.01, according to Sofascore. But when compared to other Premier League sides, these numbers are damning and perhaps highlights the main problem that Moyes will have to solve.
It also not like the pair aren’t being provided with chances, as Ndiaye, Jack Grealish and Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall all have over two expected assists, though the Manchester City loanee is the only one to meet and indeed surpass that total with four.
The teams currently sandwiching Everton in the table are Newcastle United and Fulham, with their main starting number nines being Nick Woltemade and Raul Jimenez respectively.
Woltemade, who was linked with a summer move to the Blues from his former club Stuttgart, has an xG of 3.04 for the campaign so far. However, the big difference between that and Beto’s tally is the actual output, as the Germany international has four league goals to his name already.
Both Everton and Newcastle have scored the same number of goals in the first 10 matches of the campaign, with nearly half of Eddie Howe’s side's breakthroughs having come from their new £69m striker, whereas little is provided from his equivalent on Merseyside.
As for Fulham, Marco Silva’s main man up top is usually Raul Jimenez, with Rodrigo Muniz also given opportunities.
The former has five starts in the Premier League, with four appearances from the bench, yet he still has the same amount of goals as Beto despite only having an xG of 1.21.
Even Muniz, who has only been in the starting XI four times this season, has one goal, equalling the Everton forward's total even with an xG of 0.89.
Fulham will travel to the Hill Dickinson Stadium on Saturday to take on the Blues.
Other squads in and around mid-table also seem to be able to rely on their strikers more than Everton.
Burnley’s Lyle Foster has an xG of 1.30 while actually scoring twice, which is similar to Nottingham Forest’s Chris Wood, who also has two, with an xG of 2.77.
Igor Thiago, meanwhile, has six goals with a 4.47 xG after a stellar start to the season for Brentford, while Brighton’s Danny Welbeck also has six, though with a slightly lower xG of 4.16.
Despite their striker concerns, the Blues have still scored 10 times in their opening 10 outings, a figure being higher than Aston Villa, Leeds United, Nottingham Forest and Wolves.
However, if fans at the Hill Dickinson Stadium want to see their side climb up the table, goals need to be going in a lot more regularly.