Everton's search for their dream striker | OneFootball

Matthew Hobbs and Tom McCoy, BBC Sport9comments  |  Jump to last

After a summer of largely successful recruitment for Everton, a question mark still remains at centre-forward, which has been a problem position since the departure of Romelu Lukaku in 2017.

The Toffees have signed 17 strikers over the past 10 years at a combined cost of almost £160M... with decidedly mixed results.

Since Lukaku's sale in the summer of 2017, the Blues have scored 357 Premier League goals - the fewest of any ever-present club.

Despite having signed 17 strikers in that time, Everton are yet to find a reliable long-term option - and selection problems persist to this day.

So far this season, Everton's two strikers have scored one goal between them in 16 Premier League appearances.

Lukaku joined Everton in 2013, initially on loan from Chelsea, before the move was made permanent for a then club record £28M fee the following summer.

The Belgium international excelled on Merseyside, overtaking Duncan Ferguson as the club's record Premier League scorer with 68 goals in 141 games at an average of one every 175 minutes. Lukaku set a benchmark that no Everton forward has come close to emulating since.

The nature of their signings - including 19-year-old Tyler Dibling and 22-year-old Barry - highlights the ongoing need to box clever in the transfer market, bringing in developing talent that could be later sold for a profit if required.

Top strikers cost money - nearly half of the £2.6bn spent this summer by Premier League clubs went on forwards - and Everton have been operating at the bottom of the food chain in recent windows.

If Everton are to target a first trophy since 1995, or first European qualification since 2017, they surely need to score more often - meaning they could bolster their attacking ranks in January.

Michael Kenrick 2 Posted 26/10/2025 at 08:11:19

Thanks for spotting that and putting it up, Steve.

It's very detailed, the graphics and tables tell a compelling and pretty horrible story of abject failure... with a few 'almost' exceptions.

While I agree the strikers role should produce the lion's share of the spoils, (hope you're reading Beto) I feel the key to a successful side is to see goals coming from all departments.

At the present time we are getting a few from those other departments, and basically naff all from those paid (handsomely) to produce them.

I was in tears last night, after yet another defeat for the R S, but they were of unbridled joy, laughter and pure shadenfreude. Long may it continue !

Martin Farrington 5 Posted 26/10/2025 at 09:24:51

Everton are the worst in premier league history.

Thats official.

Two things that scream out.

1. Why ?

2. Managers have consistently failed to play to what little strength those strikers had. (Ancelotti being the exception).

Going back to when I first saw Everton with Joe Royle, there was always a foil. Plus fast tricky wingers, who could put it on a sixpence. Tough midfielders.

When Everton failed to recover post heysel we dropped to a lone attacker with no support. Hoofing it to them expecting them to win it, win their own flick on, beat the opposition and score.

A failure which has been on wash spin repeat for 4 decades.

After selling to a picnic man who got rid of us pronto to the biggest crook who was never arrested, the Shit Show was sealed.

Our scouting system has always failed. But its not just that. Scouts bring forward players.

The owner / board / chair / dof are the ones who say yay or nay.

When you choose Ramirez over Haaland because you are in the pocket of the agent that sums it all up.

But its historic. The prolific strikers we snubbed in favour of someone awful reads like a who's who of Beatles rejection.

Playing lone striker is Moyes way. Generally with no support and not playing to their strength. He admits it. I don't consider all of the summer signings successful.

3 keepers, a left back not good enough, a striker that non league would baulk at and an 18 year old with vast potential but has so far choked with the little time he's had.

I don't believe we will sign a striker. Moyes is looking for a Centre half as a priority by all accounts.

Even if we did get one half decent end of career front man, Moyes would not care to support the guy in a tactical manner.

The huge bonus we have is the attraction factor of Grealish and to a lesser degree Illy. Plus the awesome stadium.

All in all its a conundrum.

Yes Dennis, it is shocking to read that our most prolific striker in the Premier League era is Omar Niasse in terms of number of minutes per goal scored - even though he scored only 8 goals. But Koeman’s treatment of him was atrocious, and the club stood by and let him get away with it. I have no illusions that Niasse was a quality striker, but he was a trier, much better than the donkeys we recruited over the years. And the shitshow at the management level since Moshiri took over meant that Everton ruined many young strikers’ careers- Mose Kean, Chermiti, Onyekuru, etc. Let us hope that we don’t let Barry go that way. He will need patience and a gradual adjustment to the league. If we do that, there is a chance that he will score goals for us probably next season. In the meantime, Beto should have been the striker to shoulder most of the scoring burden, but unfortunately for us and him, it is not working out for him. Maybe best to cut our losses on Beto, sell him and get in an experienced striker like Gabriel Jesus or Ivan Toney even if it is for the short term.

Mark Murphy 7 Posted 26/10/2025 at 09:48:00

“ So far this season, Everton's two strikers have scored one goal between them in 16 Premier League appearances.”This seasons going faster than I thought!

It's all about the service to strikers. Harry Kane would struggle to score as many playing for us as he does for Munich.

Lukaku had barklay and delefao.

In his best season dcl has Rodriguez and siggurdsson

We have full backs that don't have quality, we have wingers that don't cross the ball so we play narrow.

In this system we need kdh to get close to 10 and Ndiaye to be our top goal scorer again as the others don't score enough.

I would play Ndiaye as a striker and get Alcaraz and Dibbling more involved.

On paper this team has better technical footballers than last season but probably less goals as Doucoure has gone and Alcaraz isn't rated to start games.

Moyes has to get the team creating more chances.