Photo by Harvey Murphy/News Images/NurPhoto via Getty Images
Photo by Harvey Murphy/News Images/NurPhoto via Getty Images
The extended international break is almost over, and it will soon be time for Everton to take to the field in the Premier League again.
David Moyes will get his players back in the coming days as he prepares for Sunday’s trip to Hull City, three weeks on from the 1-0 win over Ipswich Town.
Fans are relatively pleased with the current state of play. The mood was low around a month ago after seeing what happened on transfer deadline day. But Everton have locked in and got points on the board. Currently, the club sit seventh in the Premier League, having taken nine points from five games.
Some tricky fixtures are on the horizon, so Moyes needs as many players on song as possible.
There have been some outstanding performers so far, but there are also some perhaps with points to prove.
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Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall
Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall had an excellent first season at Everton after transferring from Chelsea, but we haven’t quite seen his best level so far in 2026/27.
He scored in the opening 2-0 win over Crystal Palace, and many felt he would kick on after scoring such a brilliant goal. But he has not made another goal contribution since.
Sadly, things haven’t really been coming off for the Englishman in the number 10 role, and no doubt he’ll be keener than anyone to get back on track.
Encouragingly, Dewsbury-Hall is still performing well in several metrics, which should buy him more time in the starting XI from Moyes. But there is just that element of him having a point to prove, especially with Charly Alcaraz scoring the winner against Wolves, and then also apparently looking quite good against Blackburn Rovers in the recent behind-closed-doors friendly.
Brennan Johnson
Everton fans were pleased with the deal that saw Brennan Johnson sign and Dwight McNeil move in the opposite direction.
But Johnson hasn’t really got going properly yet at Hill Dickinson Stadium. He did score in the win over Preston North End in the Carabao Cup, but that has been his only goal contribution.
He isn’t quite yet making the attacking impact Moyes would no doubt like him to, and it’s important that he eventually gets there given the huge burden on Thierno Barry. Johnson is seen as the alternative to the Frenchman at the moment, and he could do with scoring soon.
He has a point to prove to show he deserves to be the regular starting right winger, with Tyler Dibling now really breathing down his neck after a couple of promising performances. He also has to show he really is the right man to rotate with Barry – his previous record as a centre-forward suggests he should be.
Unfortunately, he didn’t really have any top performances for Wales over the international break, so he’s going to have to dig deep now at Everton if he wants to keep starting games over the likes of Dibling and Tyrique George.
Merlin Rohl
Merlin Rohl arguably ended 2025/26 as one of Everton’s better players, having gone several weeks without minutes at the start of the year.
He then got a fair bit of involvement in Everton’s pre-season, and had outings as a right-back before Ainsley Maitland-Niles signed on deadline day. An injury meant he was unavailable against Ipswich, so we haven’t really seen a great deal of the German so far this campaign.
His opportunities will surely come given the size of the squad and the need to rotate.
But for now Rohl looks to be back on the fringes, with Maitland-Niles the first-choice right-back, and the likes of Harrison Armstrong, James Garner, Hayden Hackney and Dewsbury-Hall all ahead of him in the midfield pecking order. Christian Norgaard is also back fit again and is another rival to him.
So there’s a lot for him to prove. Can he become a regular again amid such fierce competition in the two areas he operates?