Who makes up Everton's strongest startin line-up after the transfer window closed?
Jack Grealish makes it into Everton's strongest line-up following the end of the transfer window but who joins him?
Jack Grealish makes it into Everton's strongest line-up following the end of the transfer window but who joins him?
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For most of the summer transfer window, the business that Everton did conduct looked encouraging but much of that work felt like it unravelled in a chaotic and muddled final week which left club chiefs panicking.
Despite pocketing over £100million on deadline day with Iliman Ndiaye, Beto, Tim Iroegbunam and Nathan Patterson all sold plus Adam Aznou loaned out, following the late collapse of the purchase of USA World Cup star Folarin Balogun from Monaco, the Blues were left with a first team squad that contains just one striker, one left-back and one right-back – Ainsley Maitland-Niles who has only just arrived.
Although home-grown hero Harrison Armstrong was ultimately retained – only after Hill Dickinson Stadium chiefs bowed to supporter pressure when they threatened to riot over his proposed £40million sale to Nottingham Forest – the upshot is that David Moyes has been left with a paltry squad of just 18 outfield players. That clearly does not look like the kind of resources akin with chief executive Angus Kinnear’s insistence that Everton should be kicking on to the next level, claiming they aren’t far away from being a team capable of qualifying for European competition.
But when everyone is available, who now makes the Blues’ strongest line-up?
Goalkeeper: Jordan Pickford
This is the easy one. Everton’s finest custodian since best in the world Neville Southall was playing for them and undisputed England number one for almost nine years now, Pickford is set to make his 148th consecutive Premier League appearance for the club against Manchester United on Sunday.
The Blues are so fortunate that the 32-year-old, who loves the ‘Dynamite’ terrace anthem the supporters created for him has been such a loyal servant. He’s the only member of England’s starting line-up from the last European Championship final not to have won a major honour at club level, so don’t muck about by unnecessarily resting him for Mark Travers in either Carabao Cup or FA Cup matches either as Everton look to end the longest trophy drought in their history.
Right-back: Ainsley Maitland-Niles
This choice was much tougher. He’s only in there because he’s the only recognised right-back in the entire squad.
We’re yet to see the England international – who won all five of his caps in 2020 – play in a royal blue jersey and after an 18-month search to find a right-back, there would have been few who would have tipped Maitland-Niles to have become Everton’s eventual choice to find a solution to their long-standing problem position. Let’s back him know he’s there and despite reservations about playing at right-back earlier in his career, the 29-year-old has now played 120 matches in the role.
For now at least, Merlin Rohl, a central midfielder by trade, could continue to be deployed there. While the appetite for using 6ft 6in centre-back Jake O’Brien there has diminished – with even Prime Minister Andy Burnham imploring the Blues to end that experiment – it’s understood that Moyes believes Rohl is a credible option there, if not first choice.
Left-back: Vitalii Mykolenko
Having signed a new three-year contract in the summer, the Ukraine international retains the berth by default, considering there are no alternatives. Even though he’s had a couple of the best Premier League left-backs of all-time coaching him since he joined Everton in Ashley Cole and then Leighton Baines, Mykolenko still struggles to convince at times but there is nobody else to choose from with Adam Aznou having been loaned out to Malaga for the season with Moyes still not fancying him for the physical demands of the English top flight.
Jarrad Branthwaite can do a job for you there – at a push – but you don’t want to be removing him from the heart of defence, or unduly risking his hamstrings with him running up and down the flanks given he played just 10 matches last season because of injuries and his playing minutes are currently being managed.
Centre-backs: Jarrad Branthwaite and James Tarkowski
When he’s fit, the aforementioned Branthwaite brings a whole added dimension to Everton’s play. In possession, he can carry the ball upfield out of defence and break the lines by picking a pass while when defending, his recovery pace allows the backline to operate several yards further up the pitch, so he’s a shoo-in while available.
Although the Blues are having to be careful when it comes to Branthwaite’s fitness, James Tarkowski, who has now succeeded Seamus Coleman as club captain, missed just one game last season having racked up 109 consecutive Premier League starts after joining on a Bosman-style free transfer in 2022 after his Burnley contract expired. The skipper turns 34 in November so some would like to see the younger O’Brien, 25, given a go alongside Branthwaite as the Republic of Ireland international has impressed with selected in his favoured role but like Michael Keane, who ended up playing 35 times last season, he remains an able deputy for now.
Holding midfielders: James Garner and Harrison Armstrong
Despite starting the campaign at left-back and also being used at right-back on occasions – some would argue he’s still Everton’s best player in that position – James Garner stepped up a couple of levels in 2025/26 in the engine room. Returning to the City Ground in December where he’d previously spent 18 months on loan from Manchester United, the Birkenhead-born player ran the show, overshadowing Nottingham Forest’s Elliot Anderson, who subsequently moved to Manchester City for £116million.
Named Everton’s Player of the Season, Garner who signed a new contract until 2030 and won his first two England caps, missed just six minutes of action at the end of the 2-0 defeat at Chelsea as his manager protected him from a potential suspension. He’s got to fill one of the slots but the competition for places in the engine room is now fierce.
Moyes has brought in Championship Player of the Season Hayden Hackney from Middlesbrough, who is hoping to follow the likes of Tim Cahill, Joleon Lescott and Jarrod Bowen in leaving the second tier and becoming polished up into a proven Premier League performer under the Scot. After making his debut at Stoke City, Hackney told this correspondent he is targeting double figures this season for goals and assists, but we’re still waiting for Christian Norgaard, earmarked as Idrissa Gueye’s replacement, to kick a ball for the Blues following his summer switch from Arsenal.
Therefore the two new recruits will both have to show their mettle, before they displace Harrison Armstrong, the home-grown hero who The Friedkin Group were prepared to sell to Nottingham Forest – armed with a chunk of that Anderson windfall – for £40million before they were forced to bow to pressure from supporters who threatened to riot.
As Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall said of the Scouse starlet after the 2-0 win over Crystal Palace on the opening day: “He plays well beyond his years and he has that Everton spirit, which I love, and he has an engine on him, he runs all day. If he keeps playing like that it will be hard to take it out of the team.”
Everton's strongest starting line-up after the transfer window closed as chosen by Christopher Beesley
Everton's strongest starting line-up after the transfer window closed as chosen by Christopher Beesley
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Right wing: Brennan Johnson
Unless Tyrique George can switch sides, Iliman Ndiaye’s deadline day departure to Manchester City has now left this position up for grabs. George seems to prefer the left, where he’s now up against Jack Grealish, although the lack of cover up front might lead to him being given opportunities as a central striker.
After failing to score for previous club Crystal Palace in 26 matches – probably hampered by struggling to find a suitable role in their wing-back system – Johnson, who has hit double figures four times over a season in his career and as recently as 2024/25 when his 18th of the campaign secured the Europa League trophy for Tottenham Hotspur, is already up and running for the Blues after providing a goal and an assist in the 4-0 Carabao Cup romp at Preston North End.
That already puts him ahead of £35million man Tyler Dibling in the pecking order, although after showing flashes of his potential in pre-season, the former Southampton wonderkid will be hoping to get more opportunities this term and finally start showing what made him such a highly rated prospect at St Mary’s.
Attacking midfielder: Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall
The £25million recruit from Chelsea last August has got this role nailed down and is unlikely to receive much competition from Charly Alcaraz. Something we haven’t seen yet is Grealish in the number 10 role which could happen with George’s progress on the left wing while in theory, Dibling could also operate there.
Dewsbury-Hall is integral to driving forward from deep though and bridging the gap between midfield and attack. A late developer, he celebrates his 28th birthday on the day of the Manchester United game and should now be at the peak of his powers having provided eight goals and six assists last season and getting off the mark with Everton’s first goal this term against Crystal Palace.
Left wing: Jack Grealish
As already mentioned, George, having made his loan move from Chelsea into a permanent switch, has come on leaps and bounds this summer. Initially brought in from Stamford Bridge following Grealish’s stress fracture injury at former club Aston Villa in January, ultimately all but one of George’s 11 appearances for the Blues last season were as a substitute.
Once fit, Grealish, 31 next week, is the most gifted player in this Everton squad. But the first £100million English footballer has only made two substitute cameo appearances so far since his injury with a mere 53 minutes of action under his belt.
Striker: Thierno Barry
Like Maitland-Niles and Mykolenko in the respective full-back berths, Barry is now the only recognised option in his position which is in stark contrast to his debut season in the Premier League. Back in 2025/26, the Frenchman found himself deployed in what felt like a job share with Beto.
Although it took him 17 matches to break his duck, Barry was in fact, alongside Garner, the only other Blues player to feature in every one of their 41 matches, so the hope has to be that he can keep fit this term. At least he’s already up and running on the goals front with four to his name in August.