Ayegbeni Yakubu has been reflecting on Everton's 1-0 win over Manchester United at Old Trafford
Former Everton striker Ayegbeni Yakubu has backed Thierno Barry to come good while insisting that Idrissa Gueye’s spat with Michael Keane is “normal” in football. During his first spell as Blues boss, David Moyes broke the club’s transfer record for the third time in as many years on a frontman when he snapped up Yakubu for £11.25million from Middlesbrough in 2007.
The Nigerian international rewarded him with 21 goals in his first season at Goodison Park – becoming the first Everton player since Peter Beardsley in 1991/92 to reach the 20-goal mark.
But with Barry, a £27million acquisition from Villarreal in July still waiting to break his duck, the 43-year-old believes he can still be a success.
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The Frenchman has started the last three matches for the Blues and Yakubu, who was speaking courtesy of SportsCasting, told the ECHO: “The strikers just need to keep working hard and believe in themselves.
“I know myself that there is huge pressure playing for Everton. But the fans love it when the players give it everything.
“I was there for four years and they just need to work hard and then they can start to score goals. You can see Moyes is giving the young ones like Barry the chance to play.
“I watched Barry play in the pre-season games and he’s a good lad and I think he just needs that confidence to get one goal and then the confidence will be there. Beto has been doing all right, but we still need a striker who can score goals and I think in good time the fans will enjoy Barry in this team.
Yakubu added: “I think we are fine in the midfield area. Jack Grealish is doing really well and has brought a lot of quality in the team.
“Iliman Ndiaye, he plays like Steven Pienaar, he is working hard. He’s running, he’s chasing the ball.
“Ndiaye is getting better every day and every game he plays, he’s unbelievable. He is a good player and he gives 100% every game.
“You can see that the team is balanced with two really good guys who like to play good football. We’re not kicking it long and we are passing now, which is good.
“Everton must continue to be solid and I just hope the strikers can get one goal then another one will come. They just need goals.
“If they score one goal, the confidence will come. It depends on what Moyes wants to do with Beto and Barry.
“But Barry being a young kid coming to the Premier League is hard because it’s such a tough league. So, they just need to be patient about him and he will score goals.”
On Monday, Everton became the first team in Premier League history to beat Manchester United at Old Trafford after having a player sent off. Yakubu was impressed with their display and joked that perhaps they should play their next game with just 10 men.
He said: I think Everton’s win over Manchester United was one of the best games they ever played. You can see the way they were fighting, they were working together as a team, the defence was solid and the whole team from front to back and the goalkeeper made some great saves.
“(The sending off incident) It’s part of the game. David Moyes was right when he spoke about it with the way you play as a team.
“You want to see everyone do well and not do bad passes, and you have to tell your players because you want to win. You need to fight on the pitch for your team because you want to be successful.
“You have to work together as a team and fight for each other – not that kind of way – but fight for each other on the pitch and that’s the way it goes. We used to fight in the dressing room when I was playing too, we got on each other’s back, so it is normal in football.
“People don’t understand that players fight in training sometimes if there is a bad tackle that is too aggressive. But it’s all part of the game.
“I think in football generally now, it is quite different. Any small contact between opponents is a foul.
“Back when I was playing, we just used to get on with the game. On Monday, Everton’s defence was really solid and the whole team played like they had 11 men, so maybe in the next games they should play with one man down so they can play like this every week!”