Everton face Crystal Palace in their next PL match.placeholder image
Everton face Crystal Palace in their next PL match. | Getty Images
Everton have punched above their weight this season, would a new striker make the difference?
Modern football has changed dramatically in that managers no longer hold all the cards in terms of recruitment.
Gone are the days when a new boss would bring his staff with him and a few players who he has worked with before instead, squad building is a team effort. Most clubs have a sporting or technical director (some have both) who are assisted by analysts and scouts. At Everton, David Moyes will have his say, but there won’t be often when he takes a name to those who crunch the numbers first.
Everton’s struggle for goals continues
More often than not, Moyes will be shown a few players for each position and, depending on budget, a shopping list will be drawn up. For this summer, qualifying for Europe could have a massive effect on how much is spent and how many bodies are added to a squad that is full of good players, if a little short on depth. One position that is reported to be of importance is a new striker, despite splashing out £35m on Thierno Barry last summer after impressing for Villarreal in La Liga. The towering hit-man can’t be faulted for effort, but the Toffees would have been expecting more than the six goals that he has scored in 32 games.
This only makes Everton’s league position all the more impressive with Beto also struggling to find any real consistency. He has five in 32 games, but without the overall standard of play that Barry has brought to Moyes’ forward line. However...according to Brentford owner Matthew Benham, via The Training Ground Guru, he reckons that Everton already have the answer to their goalscoring problems. Brentford have led a data driven recruitment policy for several years now and Benham claims that Beto should be trusted more.
What has been said about Beto?
Benham, speaking to the Men in Blazers podcast CEO Roger Bennett, explained why Beto could be the main man: "For a striker, getting in position is way more informative than finishing. When we played Everton at our place late last year, Beto missed three one-on-ones.
"Any model worth its salt would give Beto an upgrade. Any player who manages to to make three one-on-ones in a single game, even if he happens to miss them, he’s got to get an upgrade. Obviously, your man in the street would slate him."
This is where a robust recruitment policy needs more than just data. Beto might well get into good shooting positions more often than Barry, but it matters not one bit if he doesn’t have the technical ability to score them. With 20 goals in 103 games for Everton, this would suggest that he doesn’t have the consistency needed to take his awareness and natural instinct to the next level, regardless of what the statistics say. Sometimes the eye test can be every bit, if not more important.
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