The Richarlison reminder that highlights Everton’s pressing issue | OneFootball

One of Everton’s favourite forwards of the last decade was signing autographs at their new home. His first visit to the Hill Dickinson Stadium had brought an assist and a win. Sadly for the Evertonians who asked Richarlison to sign their shirts, he is now a Tottenham forward. He set up a goal for a Senegalese: but Pape Matar Sarr, not Iliman Ndiaye.

Richarlison was not exactly a 21st-century Dixie Dean in his time at Everton but he spent four seasons at Goodison Park and reached double figures for Premier League goals in three of them. And since his left in 2022, his sale enforced by Everton’s lack of funds and fears about failing Financial Fair Play, no one has.

A quarter of the way into the current campaign, their strikers have a lone league goal between them. They have none on Merseyside: Beto’s strike came at Molineux. When he almost got an assist in Tottenham’s 3-0 victory, it was with a miskick. Jack Grealish latched on to it and Pedro Porro cleared his shot off the line.

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Richarlison’s first visit to the Hill Dickinson Stadium came with a win and an assist for Tottenham (AFP via Getty Images)

Beto threatened to score with an overhead kick but that loose touch proved more telling. It can be a question of which direction the ball bounces off Beto, how far and how fast. Everton could be forgiven for thinking back eight days, to their visit to Manchester City. Before injury time, each striker had two real chances. Erling Haaland scored his. Beto did not. Few expected him to be the Evertonian Haaland, but there were reasons to believe he could have delivered more in this campaign.

He had scored seven goals in his final 17 games last season, a run that felt both a surprise and encouraging. A subsequent regression has been notable for an array of misses. Some of them arguably cost Everton victory in the stalemate against Aston Villa. Others have also felt ill-timed and not least because, if Thierno Barry was bought this summer to be the future of Everton’s forward line, he looks too raw and no more likely to score.

Beto is in the select group of centre-forwards who can trouble Virgil van Dijk. Along with Carlos Alcaraz, he helped turn defeat into victory against Crystal Palace. Moyes sees him as a willing worker, Barry as a work in progress. But he tends to take one off for the other, swapping them more in desperation than inspiration. Everton have a pair of strikers who, between them, cost them more than £50m and who deliver insufficient goals.

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Beto’s form has regressed after an uptick last season (AFP via Getty Images)

Only three teams have fewer in the Premier League. But Everton are xG underachievers; or wasteful. The numbers say they underperformed by 3.37 goals. Much of that is Beto on his own; at least he gets in the positions to miss them. He has the 13th highest expected goals in the division but 51 players have more actual goals.

And Everton only have four goals from their last six league games: one from a defender, one from a defensive midfielder, one from a penalty and one from a tackle. Yet that number can feel an unfair reflection of their efforts. “We need to be more clinical and a bit more creative with how we can make better chances,” reflected Moyes after the loss to Tottenham. “We had enough opportunities, but couldn't get it.”

He may rue one who got away. Moyes wanted Liam Delap in the summer, seeing him as a classic Everton No 9. He made a persuasive case but the glamour of Chelsea won out. The eventual verdict may be that Delap made the wrong choice there, when Moyes could have guaranteed him games. But then Everton have had to compromise in their striking search in the past: a reason to buy Beto in 2023, six months after they had decided he was no better than players they already had, was because Udinese were willing to structure a deal so less was paid up front.

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Liam Delap was the striker target that got away in the summer (PA Wire)

Moyes’ revamp of Everton has given them more creativity on the flanks, with Grealish arriving and getting four assists in August, with Ndiaye moving to the right and showing his class. The counter-argument may be that they have too little invention in the middle. Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall has been installed as the new No 10; his goal and assist to date both came at Wolves but there have been none since.

Perhaps Alcaraz, who has a Tim Cahill-esque ability to make things happen, could be introduced as more of a catalytic alternative, a player who could sniff out goals. Maybe Dwight McNeil, who has suffered from Grealish’s arrival, could be recalled for his set-piece prowess, maybe moving the Manchester City loanee or Ndiaye into the No 10 role.

Moyes has to find the answers within. “We can’t change the players we have so we will keep practicing with them,” he said. “Hopefully the goals will come.” He once steered Everton to fourth with a non-scoring striker, in Marcus Bent, but that was 21 years ago and a one-off. Now part of Everton’s strategy consists of simply hoping Beto can rediscover the route to goal.