It’s hard to shake off the feeling that Jack Grealish is slowly rediscovering his best version after signing for Everton on loan this summer. The 30-year-old has five goal contributions in eight matches and has created the most chances from open play in the Premier League so far this season.
Grealish won the Premier League player of the month award in August for the first time in his career after registering four assists in consecutive starts against Brighton and Wolves. He scored his first goal in a royal blue shirt in dramatic fashion – a 93rd-minute winner to end Crystal Palace’s unbeaten streak at Hill Dickinson Stadium.
Along with Iliman Ndiaye, he has become the cornerstone of the Everton attack under David Moyes this season.
“He is even better than I thought,” said Moyes following a 3-2 win away at Wolves at the end of August, in which Grealish provided two assists, completed five dribbles and missed one big chance.
“He probably needs a bit of love and attention. He needs the games as well. Hopefully, he starts building on it and he gets even better as the season goes on.
“He is making a big difference. Whether it is his assists, his presence, lots of things. So all credit to him. He is playing the minutes he may not have had in recent years.
“You know, he’s so good. What Jack gives us is something just on the edge, which, hopefully it’s on the edge of creativeness and maybe scoring goals.”
He has created the most chances from open play (19) and has the most progressive carries (31) for a player in the league this season. He’s also second in the league in key passes (20) and goal-creating actions (6). Grealish’s four assists are also the joint-highest in the league so far.
In short, Grealish is a chance-creating machine who takes up the ball on the left, darts towards his opposition full-back, pauses, lifts his head up and follows it up with either a decisive and incisive pass or a layoff to a nearby teammate to exploit the space and chaos he’s created.
The problem, however, is that the strikers haven’t really lived up to Grealish’s brilliance. Instead of feeding on chances and getting into great goal-scoring positions, both Beto and Thierno Barry have been massively underwhelming this season.
They have a combined one goal in the league between them this season, and while summer signing Barry is yet to open his goal-scoring account at Everton, it’s Beto who’s been a bigger let-down.
The Everton number nine has the third-highest expected goals per 90 minutes in the league this season. He is fifth on the list of the highest expected goals (3.9) this season but has only scored once. For comparison, Erling Haaland has scored 11 goals from an xG of 8.9.
While Beto is no Haaland, the least you’d expect from him is to convert simple chances. The Guinea-Bissau international had chances to open the scoring in big games against Manchester City and Liverpool this season, but failures in front of goal have proven costly for David Moyes’s side.
The Toffees’ attack, led by Jack Grealish and Iliman Ndiaye, has created 12.5 expected goals – the ninth highest in the league so far. However, they’ve only scored nine goals from those chances owing to the strikers’ profligacy. Only Crystal Palace and Nottingham Forest have scored fewer goals compared to chances created more than Everton in the league this season.
It’s also not just wastefulness plaguing Everton’s strikers. Beto and Thierno Barry are also not getting into good goal-scoring positions to take advantage of the brilliance of Grealish and Ndiaye.
Beto and Barry are currently averaging 2.6 and 2.4 shots per 90, placing them 79th and 72nd in the Premier League, respectively. Both of them have just four shots on target between them and while Beto gets 42.4% of his shots on target, Barry’s conversion rate is 33.3%.
At this point, the problems stemming from the striker position are clear as day to everyone at the club, especially the fans. It remains to be seen how Moyes and his support staff opt to address this issue because the current level of wastefulness in front of goal is unsustainable.
While respite can only be found, if at all, during the winter transfer window, in the meantime, does Moyes stick to his misfiring strikers or tries to shake things up? What about Iliman Ndiaye as false 9?