David Moyes was impressed with the performances of his summer signings Thierno Barry and Merlin Röhl in Everton’s 1-0 win over Aston Villa.
Barry scored the only goal of the game just before the hour-mark while Röhl pulled strings in the middle and had his best performance since joining Everton from Freiburg on Deadline Day.
Both Barry and Röhl have taken their time to settle in at the club. The French striker had to wait until the first week of December to score his first goal for the club. He has three in the last four league matches now.
Röhl, meanwhile, has endured an injury-laden spell and had to undergo a hernia operation. He has also played in a variety of positions, making adaptation a bit more complicated.
Speaking about them after the game, Moyes said, "I always hoped [Barry] would come through. I don't think it's easy as a young player coming from overseas to the Premier League.
“Thierno has the even more difficult one of being a centre forward trying to score goals. I think we're going to have to give him time – there are lots of things that he needs to improve on greatly, so we're not getting carried away but he gets the winning goal today and if you do that in games, which is important, it means an awful lot.
"Then I think that Evertonians might have just started to see a bit more of Merlin Röhl today. I see quite a lot of it in training. He's been up and down a little bit and he's coming back from a hernia operation, so he's just beginning to get an idea of what the Premier League is like. He's got loads to improve on as well but if we're going to judge them so quickly then we're not going to give them an opportunity [to show their best].
"I say it because the people who have watched Everton for many years will know the likes of Leighton Baines, Joleon Lescott, Phil Jagielka – they all had to bide their time before they got regular games. I'm not saying it's exactly the same but if they go on to be as good as any of those players, that's what we want."
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1 Posted 19/01/2026 at 18:34:02
He put his self about like a proper premier league CF, his work rate and closing down was just as impressive as his goal.
Hope he can show more of this for the rest of the season and keep on improving.
Next season when fully settled with a good pre season behind him, I'd hope and expect most of us including me, will be made to eat our words.