Everton's Thierno Barry next to a blank player silhouette with Hill Dickinson Stadium background
Everton's Thierno Barry next to a blank player silhouette with Hill Dickinson Stadium background
Thierno Barry is beginning to evolve into the striker Everton believed he could be.
Joining from Villarreal in a deal widely reported to be worth £27million in last year's summer window, Barry came with lofty expectations at Everton.
However, still only 22 years old at the time, the Frenchman cut a raw and unrefined figure.
As such, patience was always likely to be required by the Hill Dickinson Stadium faithful with him.
They are now being rewarded for doing so, as he's netted 10 goals in 13 total appearances already this season.
Barry isn't the finished article yet though, and there's one element of his game that still clearly needs to be worked on.
Which ex-Blackburn striker does Alan Myers want Thierno Barry to learn from?
As with any position on the football pitch, there are certain traits that separate good players from the best.
If you're a striker, being a deadly and consistent finisher in front of goal is perhaps the biggest divider between goalscorers, and strikers who can score goals.
Speaking on The True Blue Everton Podcast, ex-Blackburn director of communication Myers and former Rovers coach Tony Grant picked out a player they'd worked with at Ewood Park as someone for Barry to look up to.
"Top strikers are clinical," Myers said. "You and I worked at Blackburn when Jordan Rhodes was there.
"And you know, sometimes it'd be a criticism of Jordan because there was not an awful lot else to his [game].
Jordan Rhodes has called time on his incredible playing career 👏 Wishing our former frontman a happy retirement and best of luck in what comes next... @EFL | #Rovers 🔵⚪️ https://t.co/Ron35A2wTK
— Blackburn Rovers (@Rovers) September 3, 2025
"But the thing is, he was a prolific goalscorer. He was a clinical goalscorer. You knew if he was on one-one-one with the keeper, you know where it's going. It's a goal.
"And I think if Barry can add that to his game, I think that's going to be [what takes him to the next level]."
So, aside from his finishing, what kind of striker was Rhodes - who bagged 248 career goals - and is there anything else Barry can take from the type of player he was?
The two Rhodes traits Barry has big chance to emulate
One of Barry's biggest weapons as a centre-forward is his height, standing 6'5" tall and bringing massive presence and potential in the air.
Despite standing slightly smaller at 6'1" tall, Rhodes was superb in the air, with a large chunk of his 123 Championship goals coming via his head.
Rhodes was a sneaky-good athlete too, even though he wasn't as quick as Barry and possessing the build of a more bruising centre-forward than an agile one.
The now-retired striker was able to contort his body very effectively, enabling him to score pretty much every kind of goal possible.
Barry has the natural athletic ability and that same contortionism trait as Rhodes did, so he's already well on his way to being that kind of striker.
But, unless he can learn from and implement Rhodes' predatory knack in front of goal and around the box, then Barry may never be the lethal goalscorer he so clearly could be.