Why it's Time for Thierno Barry to be Everton's Main Man Up Front
The striker has played 144 minutes this season and has now shown why he needs to start
Thierno Barry came short at Anfield on Saturday and 20 seconds later Everton had the ball in the back of the net.
Idrissa Gana Gueye’s strike proved to be no more than a Merseyside derby consolation in a 2-1 defeat by rivals Liverpool but the start of the move provided more clarity on who should be leading the line for the Toffees.
That’s because the build-up to the goal wouldn’t have been possible with Beto on the field. The number nine is on the end of attacking moves whereas Barry has often been the one starting them with a quick hold of the ball or lay-off. This is key as David Moyes looks to make the most of Jack Grealish and Iliman Ndiaye, players boasting a match-winning quality Beto has never really possessed.
At Anfield, the starting forward toiled and fed off scraps in what was a disjointed first-half display where punts upfield came back and Everton couldn’t get out of their own half. Replaced by Barry at half-time, the second half was different and suddenly, the ball started to stick.
Come minute 57, Barry came for the ball and laid it off for Gueye. It was a simple touch that travelled less than a metre but allowed Everton to fly 50 yards up the pitch and score.
With the young Frenchmen acting as a foil by involving himself in a deeper position around the centre circle, Everton function better and his presence allows the space for quality players like Grealish Ndiaye and Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall to look up, get forward and attack.
When Beto is on the pitch, the trio are often creating a chance for him to finish. With Barry in place, all three are more involved in getting on the end of attacks themselves. Not always, of course; after all Beto was playing when Grealish expertly assisted for Dewsbury-Hall at Molineux in the 3-2 win over Wolves but on the balance of play, Everton are more fluid and attacks flows better with Barry up front.
This isn’t a slight on Beto. If he ends this campaign with say, 10 or 12 goals, I won’t be surprised in the slightest. He’ll miss headers and one-on-ones this season but he will continue to pop up in the right place at the right time to convert a good number too. In the main though, he should feature from the bench. Beto can still contribute massively but all in all, Barry’s style gets the best out of Everton and so he should be the man to start against West Ham next Monday and beyond.
Beto can still contribute massively but Barry’s style suits the Blues better
The French forward, who can hold the ball, keep the ball and use the ball, is the perfect focal point for the quality players buzzing around him.
Thierno’s father Amadou was an international basketball star for Guinea and, speaking to me days before his son was officially unveiled as a new Everton player, explained: “You know, to score in basketball, you have to hide well from your opponent and so I told Thierno that learning the reflexes required for basketball would help him out with his movement on the soccer field.”
You can see Barry’s positioning is smart with his back to goal and he appears more savvy and streetwise than the other forward at the club.
With Beto starting, Everton have to feed him and he is best racing on to a through ball. When it comes to battling defenders and holding the ball though, he is largely ineffective as he struggles to make the play stick and is often dispossessed.
Barry showed for both goals in the 2-0 win over Brighton at Hill Dickinson Stadium that he can keep the ball and bring others in. For the opener, he expertly backed in to the defender, kept possession and set Everton on their way. The second saw him make a pass in the air before running onto the ball out wide. From there the Toffees shifted the ball left for Grealish to tee up James Garner.
Of course, attackers are judged heavily on goals and so far in 144 minutes on the pitch, Barry is yet to net or even assist. However, he has already enhanced the impact of the midfield on Everton’s forward play and this is vital. The Toffees best attackers and main thread are out wide and behind the striker and Barry can aid them. He’s already proved efficient and effective for the team.
I’ve now seen enough to know Beto will have his moments in the sun this season but that it is Thierno Barry who will see Everton’s stars shine brightest.
An Everton season ticket holder and football writer, you can subscribe to all of Ell Bretland's work at https://ellbretland.substack.com
Reader Responses
Selected thoughts from readers21/09/2025 23:11:42
What’s the alternative? Beto is a nice guy and gives his best but his best isn't good enough for this level.
Barry isn’t much better but he is younger and will be given more patience, but not much more.
22/09/2025 08:43:49
I agree, Beto had very little service on Saturday, but the ball hardly ever sticks, and if it does he often (but not always) then gives it away.
He has usually been more effective coming on as a disruptive second half sub, as he often did replacing DCL.
Beto has been given a good run of starts, time for Barry to get the opportunities.
22/09/2025 11:00:09
There’s no point in going into the reasons why we find ourselves without a reliable centre forward all Moyes can do now is make the best out of a tricky situation.
Seems to me he has 4 main alternatives…
1. Stick with Beto…this though means playing high balls and hoping that something happens and that he will convert the chances that we create by being in the right position…by no means a given as his first touch is often not good enough.
2. Replace with Barry…from what we have seen so far Barry has a good first touch and brings other people into the game his running off the ball and finding space is good but his physical presence for aerial challenges is weak and so far has shown no goal threat.
3. False 9 (Alcaraz or Ndiaye)…can we play with a false 9? Possibly but we would need to change our set up in more ways to do so…our full backs are too stationary and we look for too many long and high balls…so Pickford would have to minimise the hoofs…More mobility from the back will come when Myko recovers completely from his injury and Branthwaite is back in the team…maybe moving Garner to right back would help for this set up and with KDH deeper gives an opportunity for Dibbling to come into the team.
4. Play Barry with Alcaraz or Ndiaye playing off him…this seems unlikely but could be considered as a change-up during the game as Barry looks to be someone who can dovetail in a partnership rather than play as a lone striker -where at the moment at least- he is finding the physical duels in the premiership tough going.
We have three important and winnable games coming up let’s hope Moyes shows some imagination in finding the best solution for alleviating our number 9 problem.
22/09/2025 15:01:51
I'd expect the Club to be looking at a possible signing in January, probably on loan. Even if Barry comes good & establishes himself as our first choice centre forward, we'll be lucky to get through the whole season with only two strikers. The false no. 9 may become a necessity rather than an option.
22/09/2025 15:12:21
Cracking article. Lets hope Barry starts notching goals and assists and more pre assists and pre pre and pre pre pre assists too.
22/09/2025 16:02:34
Barry did what most substitutes do when they enter the fray. He kept it very simple and having received a nice ball he played the simplest of passes to a man moving forward. That's about as much as you can say. There was still an awful lot to do. The three players involved in the goal all produced skills your average park player could only dream of. I'm not sure Barry did. We hear the discussion at half time was to "shorten it up" after spending the entire first half lumping aimless balls to the RS defenders. It would appear even Moyes accepted plan A wasnt working.
I worry that there is a danger that we are getting carried away in our desperation for a forward. There appears to be two camps forming inside our club. The Beto camp and the Barry camp. Truth be told (Barry's simple touch aside) Both men struggled to put a foot right in this game. When a forward fails to make a ball played into him stick,his team mates are caught going forward in support. I believe the The RS saw every ball played into our forwards (both of them) as an opportunity to launched a counter attack.
We paid around 55m for these two. Yet we passively allowed a better player to leave for nothing and while I desperately hope at least one of our boys will come good(both would be nice), I cant help thinking that despite playing for a team many believe to be relegation fodder. The "championship at best DCL" will run into fitness and outscore the pair of them this season.
The striker position isn't our only worry. While I'm delighted with the improvement in midfield. Our defence (mainly Tarkowski) frightens me to death. I just hope his eye catching last ditch tackles do not (once again) mask the fact that despite seeing the movement in front of him. He was was caught flat footed for both RS goals. The tackle with the wrong foot for the second was bad enough, but what was that floppy head challenge for the first all about ?
22/09/2025 16:56:14
Well said, Darren. I find it unfathomable that a deal wasn't sorted out with DCL - even after he'd offically left & was free to go wherever. I find it hard to believe we couldn't have made a better offer than Leeds United. Especially, as it seemed clear that Chermiti would either be sold or loaned out.
22/09/2025 19:01:04
Totally agree with you both, Darren and Dennis. Despite his frequent absences through injury, DCL did know how to put the ball in the back of the net - when he actually had some decent service. On form, he was certainly more clinical than Beto and was definitely more experienced than Barry. Shame we let him go IMO.
22/09/2025 20:42:03
Dave #10, when DCL left he had no clue how to put the ball in the net, and hadn't for years -- the last time he was "on form" was spring 2021. Over the past four seasons Beto has scored twice as often as DCL on a minutes-per-goal basis. Dom is a vastly superior all-around player, but if your top priority for your striker is goals, Beto is the clear choice.
Regarding Barry and Beto, I really think we're going to see some job-sharing from this point on. Beto scores goals in clumps -- 5 in 4 last winter, 5 in 6 at Udinese -- but Barry bagged 19 in all comps last season and clearly knows where the net is, so if he can show Moyes some predatory instinct, he's going to get his chances.
Barry shows some of DCL's layoff skills, and he's dominant in the air -- I read somewhere that he had the highest percentage of winning aerial duels in Europe last year, tied with some center back I never heard of -- so I hope our fan base is really, really patient with him.
23/09/2025 10:39:46
I've seen enough from Barry to believe we have a decent player here already, in time he could become very, very good. His hold up play, whilst simple enough to look at, has been instrumental in the goals we've scored against Brighton and Liverpool, and a massive improvement on Beto, in that regard.
I am a big fan of Beto because he's just so likeable but he is very poor with his back to goal, as we all know. But he will score a few this season, no doubt.
I'm quite happy to see us rotate our strikers but in games where we know possession will be limited, then Barry has to play. Especially away from home against the top teams.
I'm going out on a limb here but I see Barry becoming a Drogba type player. Consistent goalscorer but a Huge team player who brings the best out of others!
That's at best, at worst he could be another Emile Heskey!
23/09/2025 18:25:48
Lee 12,
Barry becoming like Drogba?? I can’t stop laughing Hahaha
At best he may turn out to be half as good as Heskey!
Heskey was underrated, you don’t play for the scum and England if you’re no good!
24/09/2025 18:40:00
Haha, yeah that didn't work last night but I still believe he'll be a good player but it does appear there's something not quite right. He looks a bit lost and not generally happy, maybe he just needs time to adapt to life in England?
I never rated Heskey tbh, but everyone who played WITH him always said how valuable he was to the team. Especially Michael Owen, who scored a lot of his goals alongside Emile.
Far too early to judge Barry but he will land somewhere between the two, imo.
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21/09/2025 21:27:31
You've more or less read my mind here, Ell, as I was formulating a similar article myself.
The key thing for me — and you're absolutely right about the context of the three creative players behind the striker — is Barry's movement.
If you watch him when we have the ball, he's frequently moving off the shoulder of the last man and pointing, EA FIFA-style, into the gap where he wants a through-ball played but, at the moment, it's not coming.
Hopefully we start making the most of that by seeking him out — it'll give us more variety than constantly seeking out Grealish when he's doubled up down the left.