Everton’s interest in Thierno Barry makes sense. The Villarreal forward is 6’5” tall and can provide the aerial threat that David Moyes demands up front. But he is a player capable of providing much more in that striker role – a tall man with a twist.
Everton need to add forwards following significant departures this summer. For all his injury struggles, Dominic Calvert-Lewin still played 1614 Premier League minutes last season. Abdoulaye Doucoure, often used in an advanced role, has left the club too.
It leaves Beto as the senior man expected to lead the line, something he did to good effect in scoring seven Premier League goals between February and May. But Barry is someone who can fulfil that remit and more if he fulfils his potential on Merseyside.
The 22-year-old French forward can be a formidable physical presence but he is a different player to Beto. Everton’s striker has won admirers with his work off the ball but remains occasionally frustrating because of his inability to play simple passes.
According to Genius IQ, whose statistical data enables expected-pass completion rates to be calculated as a result of tracking the whereabouts of every player on the pitch at all times, Beto ranked among the worst passers in the Premier League last season.
Barry can bring that movement off the ball as a willing runner in behind, but he is a different proposition to Beto with the ball at his feet. He can make runs in behind with the ball as well as without it, something that he has shown in LaLiga and for his country.
The selection of Barry by France at the European Under-21 Championship in Slovakia marked belated recognition for a player who was not always earmarked for the top. He had to leave France for Belgium and Switzerland in search of opportunities.
If Barry makes a move this summer, it will be the fourth year in a row that he has changed clubs, reflecting the fact that he continues to adapt to each challenge in front of him. From Sochaux’s reserves to the Spanish top flight, he just keeps impressing.
It was in Belgium’s second tier at Beveren that his potential first became clear. Barry scored 20 league goals that year. Gunter Vandebroeck was part of Beveren’s coaching staff that season and remembers a raw but rare talent who made a swift impression.
“He was still very young but he was hungry and determined,” Vandebroeck tells Sky Sports. He describes Barry as a “quiet winner” but one who was “the first to celebrate in the locker room after a win” despite being a teenager when he first arrived at the club.
“He was a bit on his own at times, but always very focused and goal-oriented as well as a bit stubborn. Tactically, he had a lot to improve because he needed freedom to express himself but he won his place in the team quickly by scoring a lot of goals.
“His positive impact on the team and the results was immediate. His unpredictability was his greatest asset. He could score at the most unexpected moments. He could score the most beautiful goals, but he also scored the ugly ones. A real goalscorer.”
That should not be a shock given that Barry is a player with so many different ways to the hurt opposition. His movement is among his best weapons and he is capable of either outmuscling defenders or outsprinting them. He manages to get off a lot of shots.
Then, as now, there remained things to work on, of course. “In his time with us, he complicated things too much. So he needed to improve his vision and decision-making in the final third to make the next steps.” But he has done so since leaving Beveren.
Vandebroeck describes it as “no surprise that he was able to make the move to Basel and then to a mid-table club in LaLiga” – packing in a lot of experience for a player who only turns 23 in October. That alone illustrates why Premier League clubs are interested.
In fact, Barry is one of only 14 players across Europe’s five major leagues who is currently aged 22 or under who reached double figures for league goals last season. It is an indication that the pool of players producing what he is producing is scarily small.
If Everton can acquire such a player then they would be buying big potential in an area of the pitch where the opportunity to upgrade is obvious. Supporters should be excited even if the expectations must be tempered by the demands of the Premier League.
With that in mind, Vandebroeck speaks of someone still needing to prove himself at Villarreal. “Who knows what his next step could be then?” But Thierno Barry is a player in a hurry – and he has succeeded in every situation he has been thrust into thus far.
Sky Sports to show 215 live PL games from next season
From next season, Sky Sports’ Premier League coverage will increase from 128 matches to at least 215 games exclusively live.
And 80 per cent of all televised Premier League games next season are on Sky Sports.
