The big winners from Everton's 2026/27 pre-season | OneFootball

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Pre-season is done and dusted, and soon, it’s time for the real thing.

This coming Saturday, Everton will welcome Crystal Palace to Hill Dickinson Stadium, and the whole rigmarole gets going once again.

It’s been a generally positive pre-season for the Toffees. While there is still understandable, and fair, frustration over the lack of movement on a right-back (and other positions), Everton’s squad is stronger — on paper — than the one that ended last season.

But before we switch fully into preview mode ahead of the Palace game, let’s take a look back at some of the players who really impressed over pre-season.

THIERNO BARRY

Three goals across pre-season for Barry, who netted against Dundee, Stuttgart and Newcastle United, but what was most pleasing was his general level of performance.

Against Newcastle, in particular, the Frenchman was excellent, dragging defenders all over the pitch, making positive off-the-ball runs and even driving forward in possession.

He showed brilliant poise with a neat pass into Harrison Armstrong against Lille, with the youngster failing to capitalise on a brilliant opportunity.

With Beto struggling to hit his best level, Barry seems set to be the undisputed number one forward heading into the early part of the campaign. We just need to see that consistency from him, now.

HARRISON ARMSTRONG

Bad miss against Lille aside, what a summer it has been for Armstrong.

Should there be really any consideration if he goes out on loan? As long as he gets plenty of minutes this season, whether starting or from the bench, he has proven he is already good enough to be part of a Premier League squad.

Everton are stacked in central midfield, but Armstrong’s development means they can afford not to rush James Garner back as he recovers from groin surgery, and perhaps they can be a little more cautious with Christian Nørgaard, too.

Armstrong will have his ups and downs. He is 19 and far from the finished product, but he looks the part.

ADAM AZNOU

Aznou’s first season at Everton was not handled well. He should have either been given more opportunities or he should have been sent out on loan in January.

However, he has taken his chance to impress this pre-season.

In an attacking sense, Aznou is levels above Vitaliy Mykolenko. Defensively, the Moroccan still has work to do, but that’s to be expected of a younger player.

The crux is whether David Moyes will use him enough as a back-up, because if not, Everton need to get him sent out on loan so he can play plenty of games, and they need to strengthen their left-back options.

TYLER DIBLING

It was a slow start to pre-season for Dibling, but as the summer has worn on, we’ve started to see more of the confident, direct player Everton seemingly thought they were signing.

Dibling is adept at keeping possession, but too often last season, albeit he did not play much at all from the start of February onwards, the youngster seemed afraid to take risks.

That has certainly not been the case over the past few games, and it seems he has really started to find his feet.

Hopefully, he has built up some trust from Moyes, who now needs to repay that work rate and start rewarding Dibling with some game time.

JARRAD BRANTHWAITE

Getting through pre-season was vital for Branthwaite as he aims to get back to full fitness after his horrifically disrupted 2025-26 campaign.

There’s still got to be caution, after all, it was on the eve of last season that the centre-back went down injured, but that he has made it through his planned programme without any setbacks is a huge plus point.

Everton have handled him well, and do not be surprised to see that careful management of his minutes continue into the season.

It would be highly unlikely, for example, that Branthwaite plays against Palace and then goes again against Preston North End in the League Cup a few days later.

But let’s just all keep our fingers crossed, because we know just how vital Branthwaite is to transforming this team.