Can Thierno Barry recover from his slow start at Everton?

It seemed like Everton had a largely productive summer. In addition to signing Barry, the club kept Beto despite rumours suggesting he was on the move. However, the latter, who scored eight Premier League goals last season, has been appalling in front of goal. 

According to Opta, Beto has a goals vs xG metric of –2.89, which is one of the worst in the top flight. He has landed four shots on target in 14 league appearances and has a conversion rate of 7.14%. It is no wonder David Moyes has benched the 27-year-old for five consecutive matches.

Thierno Barry is the player benefiting from Beto’s misfortunes, but he, too, is struggling to prove himself as a goalscorer. The ex-Villarreal star is goalless in 16 appearances across all competitions, 9 of which have been starts.

This has led to questions over whether Everton need to look for another striker in January, either to play alongside Barry or to replace him in the starting lineup. However, perhaps the Frenchman just needs more time to find his way at the club.

After all, Barry is not alone in getting off to a stuttering start at Everton. History has shown that several slow-starting Everton forwards went on to be a success later down the line. 

Dominic Calvert-Lewin is one example. His goal tally remained fairly modest over his first few years at Goodison Park, before hitting 29 league goals across the 2019-20 and 2020-21 seasons.

The man who joined Leeds United last summer experienced two particularly strong campaigns, so much so that he received England recognition. His final few injury-impacted seasons at Everton might not have been as impressive, but it was certainly worth keeping him around for how he played between 2019 and 2021.

Of course, there are others who were given the same chances, but never made anything of themselves in the Premier League. Brett Angell is one example, scoring only one top-flight goal in 20 appearances during the ‘90s. Some have even drawn comparisons between the struggles of Angell and Barry.

There are more recent examples who come from more similar backgrounds to Barry. Sandro Ramirez also arrived from La Liga, back in 2017, and he had just completed a 14-goal season at Malaga. The Spaniard only scored once before he was shown the door, after the kind of disastrous spell Barry will be keen to avoid.

Ramirez is not the only forward to have arrived from abroad and failed to make an impression on their respective managers. From Oumar Niasse to Cenk Tosun and Moise Kean, there’s hardly been a shortage. Each of those players had strong records in other leagues but were simply unable to hack the Premier League.

Which type of striker will Barry become? Will his struggles continue? Or can he change his fortunes and follow in the footsteps of players like Calvert-Lewin?

Barry is at least offering contributions outside of scoring goals. He is a hard worker who holds up the ball, presses the opposition defence, and wins his fair share of headers.

However, a striker has to be scoring goals. He’s twice seen goals disallowed this season, so perhaps this could provide some hope. Then again, he has only landed one shot on target all season in the Premier League, despite taking 14 shots from inside the box.

That record is nowhere near good enough and it shows that there is a bigger problem than Everton’s style of play. Barry has had to adapt because, with Everton’s more conservative approach – in a league where almost all opponents have a genuine threat – a contrast to a Villarreal team who often played on the frontfoot last season.

Everton have already faced the likes of Liverpool and Manchester City, teams who have spent hundreds of millions of pounds. Life is not about to get any easier, with fixtures against Chelsea and Arsenal rapidly approaching.

Barry’s likely to receive fewer chances in that upcoming schedule, while his inability to test opposition goalkeepers with those that do arrive is a big concern. There have been precious few signs from Barry that he has the ability to become the main attacking outlet at Hill Dickinson Stadium. 

Perhaps a boost in confidence would aid the 23-year-old in his search for goals. It is at least good to see the match-going supporters are still giving him their backing and this is vital if he is ever to live up to the £27M transfer fee.

But right now, it is hard to see Barry going from where he is now to regularly finding the net. If he proves his doubters wrong, excellent, but the club should definitely be considering attacking transfer targets ahead of the January transfer window.

Barry deserves some patience, at least until the end of the season, and to be given some opportunities. However, relying on him and Beto for the remainder of the campaign seems like a high-risk gamble with the prospect of a low reward.

 

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