Everton always seems to start the season with the best of the fixtures. This has always somehow been the case with the Toffees, meaning, there will always be a few managers in Fantasy Premier League, building their squads with Everton assets in contention.
Sadly, the days of Baines and Coleman marrow our Fantasy Premier League teams are in the distant past. Even a Sean Dyche, can’t inspire them to a few clean sheets. Ask Pickford owners.
It is not only at the back, that Everton has struggled largely at one might argue, their lack of any cutting edge at the front makes it easier for opponents to nick a goal at the later ends of the game.
In matches against Wolves and Fulham, which Everton lost both by a goal to nil, they created a ton of chances. Another team with a potent striker in their starting eleven would have probably run out winners by a two or three-goal margin, given the opportunities that were created.
It would be wrong to assume, Everton under Dyche, are a horrible team, with only a matter of time before a drop a division. They are not great certainly, or good either, but a solid lower half team, one would expect a Dyche team should be.
Everton’s problem lies primarily in their toothless approach in the opposition box. Brighton fans will have uncanny memories of Neal Maupay playing for their squads. The Seagulls would dominate the game, and blow opponents away, without any change to the scoreline.
Neal Maupay would either fluff his lines or express his presence by picking a fight with the opposition players, not much by putting the ball in the back of the net.
Everton brought in Maupay as a substitute for their main man, Calvert Lewin, but Dominic faces much adversity to stay fit for a long period. So Maupay became the main man, and his name is back on the list of underachievers this season.
Maupay ranks fifth amongst the list of players underachieving this season with a negative xGi of 1.47. He has been ever-present in this list since he arrived on the shores of Brighton.
The takeaway from Maupay’s statistics can be perceived from another side of the coin. Everton is creating chances with players like Harrison coming into the team along with the likes of McNeil, Dele and Danjuma, yet to play a minute.
Once these players are fully integrated into the squad, there will be chances created. Certainly Maupay, and it does seem increasingly likely even Calvert Lewin, doesn’t have the caliber to lead the line as the sole forward of a Premier League team.
Everton needed a striker, the talent pool in their midfield is far superior on paper in comparison to teams expected to be around the dreaded bottom three during the crunch of the season.
Dyche will be hoping the signing of new forward Beto will ease his goal-scoring worries to some good degree.
Beto arrives in Merseyside from the Italian club Udinese. The Portuguese striker found the back of the net ten times in thirty-four appearances playing for his former side in the previous campaign and eleven times in the season before that in his debut season in the Italian league.
In many ways, Beto is the quintessential Dyche striker of reminiscence of Chris Wood, playing for Burnley. Beto is tall and physically strong with the ability to hold up play and being good in the air. Qualities deemed must-have for a forward playing in a team managed by Dyche.
Everton, as a team, on paper, has a much superior squad than what Dyche had at his disposal managing Burnley. He not only kept Burnley up, but in the brighter days at Turf Moor, Dyche almost led Burnley to a European campaign.
Beto operating in a better team under Dyche can certainly produce the goals with his abilities accompanied by his manager’s tactics.
There were murmurs at the start of the season of Danjuma starting as the forward in the team if Calvert Lewin goes down, and a magician decides not to cast a magic spell in Maupay’s finishing abilities.
Danjuma has already combined with Beto against Doncaster, as Beto got off the mark. The Portuguese scored the first goal in England and the first goal of the season for his new club, four matches in.
It is hard to justify a striker of a team, despite the good fixtures, who have failed to score a single goal, but as mentioned, Everton have been creating chances, and their creative outlets are yet to be integrated into the squad.
In Fantasy Premier League terms, Beto is priced at six million, half a million more than the likes of Pedro, and a similar starting point to the likes of Wissa.
At the moment Wissa is certainly much ahead in the pecking order, and it is hard to justify Beto being the seventh attacker when there are so many good options in midfield and Jackson or Alvarez as the second striker.
Fantasy managers have targeted the international break between game week eight and game week nine as the potential time to use the first wild card.
Here, Beto can become an interesting option. Provided Beto looks good in the weeks before them, plenty of time for Fantasy managers to assess, Everton plays Forest and Luton at home in game week seven and game week eight.
Beto can be a perfect punt option for managers looking to wildcard in the mentioned window. The squad can be dead ended with Beto occupying in the forward spots for two weeks, post the wild card he can be transferred out again.
At six million, he can be a punt, which not many non-wildcards can afford to go for, providing the perfect opportunity to create some rank differentials. This is of course dependent on if Beto finds his feet in the Premier League.