It's rare that Everton fans can get excited about a young talent, but Tyrique George could be the real deal.
Everton winger Tyrique George is someone supporters can be genuinely excited about.
After spending the second half of last season on loan from Chelsea, you could be forgiven for being slightly underwhelmed. The former Chelsea man struggled to make a significant impact, partly due to his lack of opportunities, but many could see a little spark that excited supporters.
George was an incredibly highly rated product of Chelsea’s academy. Although there might not be much evidence of that due to the fact that they allowed him to depart, he was. Chelsea are in a weird position where they want to sign every single youngster under the sun, but they’ll happily get rid of their own.
Chelsea have actually made over £300m from selling academy products alone. Trevoh Chalobah, Lewis Hall, Mason Mount, Ian Maatsen, Omari Hutchinson, Ethan Ampadu, Callum Hudson-Odoi, to name a few.
A lot of these you could picture making an impact for Chelsea if they played for them today.
The point being, Chelsea allowing him to depart means very little. He was pure profit on the books, after all.
But what is it that makes George so exciting?
Firstly, George is still only 20 years old. He is far from reaching his full potential, so when you take that into account, it’s scary to think where he could be in a few years time.
George is a player who gets fans off their seats. Every time he gets the ball, you feel like he’s going to try to make something happen. It’s not always going to come off, but at least you know he’s looking to impact the game in a positive way.
In his first three games of the season, George has produced five carries that have ended with a shot, with only Julio Enciso managing more. George has also created six chances.
It’s early days and a small sample size, of course, but it’s just showing the impact he’s making already at Everton.
There are times when George can be frustrating. His end product often looks so close to coming off and resulting in an assist or a goal, but he’s still not quite there yet. Which isn’t a criticism, by the way.
At the age of 20, George isn’t meant to be the finished product. If he were, he certainly wouldn’t be playing for Everton, that’s for sure.
One of George’s most impressive traits is his ball-striking ability. It’s incredibly rare that George doesn’t connect with the ball properly. Now, that might sound a little amateur-ish, but if you look at some of the strikes Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall had against Manchester United, you’ll see the difference.
Action Images via Reuters
Action Images via Reuters
George always connects with power and pace, even if it flies into the stands behind the goal. That means when he does hit the target, it makes it incredibly difficult for goalkeepers to save. Just look at his finish against United, and his goal in pre-season against Newcastle.
George can also shoot off either foot, which is incredibly beneficial, and can go either way when taking on his marker. Being a right-footed left-winger, it’s natural for George to want to cut inside onto his right, but when he’s in and around the penalty area, he’s happy to go either way.
This makes it difficult for defenders to predict where he’s going to go, as he can go to the byline to deliver a cross, or cut inside to shoot.
But what does the future hold for George? Due to the fact that he’s comfortable on both feet, it shouldn’t be a huge issue him playing on the right-hand side, and that does feel like where he could be deployed over the coming weeks.
It’s fairly obvious that Jack Grealish is going to start on the left, but it’s going to be incredibly difficult to leave George out of the team. Having a right-footed right-winger could benefit us too.
As we saw with Thierno Barry’s header against Crystal Palace, having someone comfortable floating crosses into the box on their stronger foot was beneficial. If we can have George getting to the byline and delivering on the right, and Grealish doing his thing on the left, we could have a nice balance in attack.
This isn’t an aim to overhype, but it’s nice to recognise when we’ve got an exciting talent on our hands.