Everton transfer stance on Tomas Soucek and Josh Brownhill as David Moyes makes strikers admission

Everton transfer stance on Tomas Soucek and Josh Brownhill as David Moyes makes strikers admission

The state-of-play as Everton head into the final days of a busy summer with hopes of doing further business

Everton boss David Moyes is an admirer of West Ham United midfielder Tomas Soucek (Image: Malcolm Couzens/Getty Images)

David Moyes has challenged his forwards to deliver the goals needed to help Everton climb the Premier League table - insisting he believes they can do just that.

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Beto and Thierno Barry struggled to find the back of the net during pre-season. Beto’s penalty against Accrington Stanley in July was the only goal scored by either across seven matches, leading to the Blues boss laying down a challenge - specifically to the Guinea-Bissau international - during preparations for the new campaign.

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That was a tactic designed to spur him on, Moyes revealed, as he backed the pair to score the chances that should be created by the attacking arsenal lined up around them and said: “I absolutely have faith in the two strikers.”

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Moyes entered the summer with the ambition of addressing the club’s longstanding firepower issues. Injuries, tactics and circumstance were factors that contributed to a misfiring attack, particularly under previous manager Sean Dyche.

To deliver that plan, however, the recruitment drive has focused primarily on attacking midfielders who Moyes hopes will contribute goals while creating more chances for his front men.

The expectation is signings Jack Grealish, Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall, Carlos Alcaraz and Tyler Dibling will also combine with Iliman Ndiaye and Dwight McNeil to prevent whoever is up front from becoming isolated.

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With the transfer window set to close on Monday and Youssef Chermiti in talks over a move to Rangers, Moyes was asked ahead of the trip to Wolves whether he had any concerns about his forwards.

The Scot said he had spoken with his squad about the need for players across the team to provide goals - highlighting that Ndiaye, Alcaraz and James Garner had each scored across the 2-0 league win over Brighton and Carabao Cup victory, by the same scoreline, over Mansfield Town. Beto opened his account for the season in midweek.

Moyes added: “We're needing our number nines to be the ones who do it. Beto ended up with eight goals [in the Premier League] last year. For probably only playing half the season, it was a brilliant record.

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“I have been challenging him a little bit to sort of push him. People think I don't want him, it’s not, it’s really to try and prod him a wee bit to see if I can get goals. Let me tell you, he is an unbelievable lad. [He is great] in training, he is very humble, self-effacing, he's happy to laugh at himself, but to try and make himself better.

“So for all those reasons we think so much of him because in what he's doing he's actually accepting that ‘I have to get better’. And let's be fair, probably from where he started he has got unbelievably better from where he was. But I wanted him to get in a run in the pre-season games of getting two goals in one game, two in another game, where he was in the mood and that's where I was trying to have a little bit of a dig - to see if I could get him to get some goals.”

Beto hit a stunning vein of form shortly after Moyes returned to Everton in January, taking advantage of injuries to his competition - Dominic Calvert-Lewin, Chermiti and Armando Broja - to score the goals that carried the team away from trouble. Five goals across four league games in February included strikes against Liverpool and Manchester United.

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He will have competition this season, however. Moyes has repeatedly stressed new signing Barry, a £27.5m arrival from Villarreal, will need time to develop but has been impressed by the 22-year-old’s impact after he started the last two games.

The France youth international has been involved in the build up to three of the club’s four goals so far this season.

Moyes said: “I have to say, Barry's involvement in the first game against Brighton, he did a couple of brilliant things for the goals, he really did. There's a bit of competition between them now to see who's going to sort of get it. There might not be much between them, we'll be honest at the moment, but we're needing them to score goals.”

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Moyes intends to play one up top this season and so, even if Chermiti was to depart north to Scotland, mostly likely on a loan deal, another forward is not considered the top priority heading into the final days of the transfer window.

Having made eight signings, Moyes is hopeful of strengthening again, however. While, in his pre-Wolves press conference, he suggested there was still a chance he could reach the 10 incomings he set as his target last month, he is also aware the coming days might not yield a ninth addition, let alone a 10th.

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In recent days, at least since the breakthrough in talks that led to Dibling’s move, his concern has been in his defence. While he welcomed Vitalii Mykolenko back from injury on Wednesday the sheer number of setbacks he has endured across his back four has pre-occupied him.

The Blues are yet to find a specialist right back, missing out on Kenny Tete when he made a late call to stay at Fulham and deciding against a move for James Justin, who has now joined Leeds United. Should Jake O’Brien continue in that role beyond Monday, further cover may be required.

Central midfield remains a big focus and there is interest in West Ham United’s Tomas Soucek. Moyes is keen for Premier League experience in that role but Josh Brownhill, who left Burnley this summer, is understood to not be on his radar heading into the weekend.

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Among his considerations are the expected loss of Idrissa Gueye to the Africa Cup of Nations in January and the potential for a new arrival to allow teen starlet Harrison Armstrong to gain first-team football on loan in the Championship, where he has a long list of suitors.

Tim Iroegbunam, meanwhile, is expected to stay with the squad after starting the first two league games. Sevilla have explored a loan move for Nathan Patterson but there remains significant work to do if that is to progress any further.

A decision over Armstrong, who enjoyed a stellar stint at Derby County at the end of last season, will be made in the coming days and will be impacted by whether Moyes can land the additional midfielder he craves.

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He said: “I think a lot depends if we maybe get a more experienced midfield player in. It's very difficult now, is it better he comes [with us] and he sits on the bench and gets little bits of moments, trains with us every day, or is it better that he goes and plays maybe 20 games in the Championship? That's really the decision we feel as if we've got to take.

"I think he's still young, and probably the biggest one that I can think is very similar is Leon Osman. First of all to Carlisle, then I sent him to Derby, and Ozzy took two loans, then came back and just about went right in the team and had an unbelievable career and went on to become an England international at the end as well.

"So I’ve got that in my head as well, but if we don't get a loan, I would have no problem keeping him because I think he's got potential.”

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Meanwhile, James Smith began his new role as director of scouting and recruitment on Thursday. Smith was named as part of the new leadership group spearheaded by chief executive Angus Kinnear and joins from the City Football Group, where he held the same position. His start represented a return to Everton, where he spent a decade as part of the recruitment and insights team before joining Manchester United. He then moved to Manchester City in 2014, before being appointed the recruitment lead for the City Group’s global network of clubs in 2023.

Former Blues forward Nick Chadwick has also been appointed as individual development lead coach, a role that will see him work with players to help them improve areas of their game.

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