ECHO Everton reporter Chris Beesley examines some statistics that have emerged following the 3-3 draw against Manchester City
Kylian Mbappe of Real Madrid (left) and Everton manager David Moyes (right)
Kylian Mbappe of Real Madrid (left) and Everton manager David Moyes (right)
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For David Moyes, the manager who once compared trying to compete with Manchester City in the transfer market as “taking a knife to a gun fight,” trying to find a prolific marksman for Everton has been a long-running quest. But even superstar strikers don’t have it all their own way – just ask Kylian Mbappe.
The Frenchman has 41 goals for Real Madrid this term. He’s broken the 40-goal barrier at club level in five of his last six seasons (in 2021/22 he netted a ‘paltry’ 39 for Paris Saint-Germain). Yet with Los Blancos, 36 times champions of Spain and 15 times European Cup winners set for a second straight campaign without either of those prizes, rumours of dressing room unrest have led many to want Mbappe to head for the Bernabeu exit door.
Currently nursing a hamstring injury that makes him a doubt for Sunday’s ‘El Clasico’ showdown against bitter rivals Barcelona at Camp Nou, the 27-year-old was given time off last week and headed to Sardinia.
While approved by the club, the trip did not sit well with some supporters given the timing as photographs of Mbappe on a yacht emerged around the same time Real were playing Espanyol.
Head coach Alvaro Arbeloa insisted: “In his free time, Mbappe can do whatever he wants, like any other player.” However, that plea from the former Liverpool full-back appears to have fallen on deaf ears.
An online petition calling for ‘Mbappe out’ has spread rapidly across social media, encouraging fans to demand change and to act regarding the player’s future at the club. It aimed to collect 200,000 signatures but more than 12 million people signed it in less than 24 hours and at the time of publication, the figure had risen to over 33 million.
Perhaps it’s just a high-profile example of the knee-jerk reaction of the keyboard warriors whose extreme reactions gain undue prominence these days? After all, Moyes, the manager who steered Everton to nine top-eight finishes, including the club’s highest-ever Premier League placing of fourth during his first spell and has revived their fortunes since returning at the midway point of last season, has still come in for some flak at various points this term despite proving himself as arguably the only man who can take charge of the Blues successfully on a long-term basis throughout the modern era.
Or maybe the poll has been hijacked by mischief-making Barca fans ahead of this weekend’s big game? Whatever the truth behind it all, the timing is far from great for either the player or his club.
Everton of course boast the greatest individual goalscorer of them all, Dixie Dean. His 383 goals for the Blues remains unparalleled for a single English club, as of course does his 60 league goals in the 1927/28 season with the 98th anniversary of his hat-trick against Arsenal to break the record being marked this week (on Tuesday).
The pulsating but ultimately disappointing – for both clubs – 3-3 draw against Manchester City the previous evening left Evertonians with another feeling they hadn’t experienced since 1928. Hats off to him because I don’t know how his brilliant mind must work to think these scenarios up, but Bradley Cates (a.k.a. EFC Statto) recorded online that Everton’s 3-3 draw against Manchester City was the first time the Blues had conceded the opening goal, led by two or more goals and then ended up not winning since a trip to Anfield on February 25, 1928.
This correspondent relayed this nugget to both ECHO columnist Michael Ball and video producer Ian Croll ahead of the latest edition of the Royal Blue podcast and the pair of them both immediately responded with: “It would be Liverpool!” But where am I going with all this you might ask...
To another EFC Statto observation is my reply. While I’m sure Everton could find a place for Mbappe in the side, in reality, the chances of him pulling on the royal blue jersey next season are beyond slim.
But having a prolific player does not always guarantee success for a team. Everton have had the top flight’s leading scorer on a dozen separate occasions – a feat that only Tottenham Hotspur with 13 can better, but then they have only been league champions twice (which, for context, is one less than Huddersfield Town), while Dean’s record-breaking 1927/28 season was one of just three occasions that the Blues combined that individual feat with lifting one of their nine titles.
The other two times were also before the Second World War: Tommy Lawton in 1938/39 and Bobby Parker in 1914/15. In contrast, the last time an Everton player topped the charts (Gary Lineker in 1985/86) was when the club heartbreakingly finished runners-up to Liverpool in both the League and FA Cup, in between their title triumphs of 1984/85 and 1986/87.
During the latter success, Howard Kendall’s heroes overcame the adversity of a chronic injury list as no fewer than five separate players netted at least a dozen goals in all competitions: Trevor Steven, Kevin Sheedy and Adrian Heath (all 16); Graeme Sharp (13) and Paul Wilkinson (12)... a year on from when Lineker plundered 40 but the team won nothing.
While Everton aren’t of course scaling anywhere near those heights this term, they have now written a little piece of history, as number cruncher Cates points out.
Three players have scored eight Premier League goals for Everton this season (Thierno Barry, Beto and Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall). This is the first time a trio of Blues players have scored eight or more league goals in a single season since 1989/90 when Tony Cottee got 13 and both Kevin Sheedy and Norman Whiteside finished on nine apiece.
For all that Moyes’ holy grail has been trying to find that dominant striker, first time round at Everton he broke the club’s transfer record three times in as many years to sign James Beattie (£6million in 2005), Andrew Johnson (£8.6million in 2006) and Ayegbeni Yakubu (£11.25million in 2007). Given the club’s relative resources, perhaps he is better spreading the goals around? With neither Barry nor Beto entirely convincing, speculation is mounting about a new striker search this summer and a potential attempt to go back in for Liam Delap, but as an attacking midfielder, Dewsbury-Hall’s contribution cannot be underestimated.
In many respects, the £25million purchase from Chelsea gives Everton something they haven’t had from the centre of the park since Marouane Fellaini, Tim Cahill or Gary Speed but unlike that trio, he relies less on aerial prowess.
As a more compact player, pushing forward from deep, he has more in common with Alan Ball, and if the club cannot afford an elite centre-forward in the mould of an Erling Haaland, or a Kylian Mbappe, that would be a good starting point to build a future Blues team around.