Thierno Barry transfer: Everton interest in Villarreal striker reflects France Under-21 forward’s rare combination of qualities | Football News

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The interest of Everton for Thierno Barry makes sense. The Villarreal striker measures 6’5 inches high and can provide the air threat that David Moyes demands in advance. But he is a player capable of providing much more in this role of attacker – a tall man with a touch.

Everton should add advantages after major departures this summer. Despite all his injury difficulties, Dominic Calvert-Lewin has always played 1614 minutes of the Premier League last season. Abdoulaye Doucoure, often used in an advanced role, also left the club.

He leaves Beto while the senior man expected to direct the line, which he did wisely by scoring seven goals in the Premier League between February and May. But Barry is someone who can make this discount and more if he realizes his potential on the Merseyside.

The 22 -year -old French striker can be a great physical presence, but he is a different player from Beto. The Everton striker won admirers with his work on the ball but sometimes remains frustrating due to his inability to play simple passes.

According to Genius IQ, whose statistical data make it possible to calculate the completion rates of the expected passes following the follow -up of the fate of each player on the field at any time, Beto ranked among the worst league passers -by last season.

Barry can bring this movement of the ball as a voluntary runner behind, but it is a different proposition of beto with the ball at his feet. He can go shopping behind the ball as well as without him, something he has shown in Laliga and for his country.

Barry’s selection by France at the European Championship under 21 in Slovakia marked the late recognition for a player who has not always been intended for the summit. He had to leave France for Belgium and Switzerland looking for opportunities.

If Barry takes a step this summer, it will be the fourth consecutive year that he has changed clubs, reflecting the fact that he continues to adapt to each challenge in front of him. From Sochaux reserves to the Spanish elite, it remains impressive.

It is in the second level of Belgium in Beveren that his potential has become clear. Barry scored 20 league goals that year. Gunter Vandebroeck was one of the Beveren coaches staff this season and remembers a raw but rare talent that has made a quick impression.

“He was still very young but he was hungry and determined,” says Vandebroeck Sky Sports. He describes Barry as a “silent winner” but the one who was “the first to celebrate in the locker room after a victory” despite his teenager when he arrived at the club for the first time.

“He was a bit alone sometimes, but still very focused and focused on the goals as well as a little stubborn. Tactically, he had a lot to improve because he needed freedom to express himself, but he quickly won his place in the team 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. A real scorer.”

This should not be a shock since Barry is a player with so many different ways of injuring the opposition. His movement is one of his best weapons and he is able to overcome the defenders or to overcome them. He manages to remove a lot of blows.

Then, as now, there were things on which to work on, of course. “In his time with us, he also complicated things. He therefore needed to improve his vision and his decision -making in the last third to make the next steps.” But he did it since his departure from Beveren.

Vandebroeck describes him as “no surprise that he was able to move to Basel, then in a mid -table club in Laliga” – packing a lot of experience for a player who is only 23 years old in October. This alone illustrates why the Premier League clubs are interested.

In fact, Barry is one of the only 14 players through the five major European leagues which is currently 22 or less that has reached double figures for the league goals last season. This is an indication that the players’ swimming pool produces what it produces is frightening.

If Everton can acquire such a player, he would buy great potential in an area of the field where the possibility of upgrading is obvious. Supporters must be excited even if expectations must be tempered by requests from the Premier League.

With this mind, Vandebroeck talks about someone who still needs to prove himself in Villarreal. “Who knows what could be his next step?” But Thierno Barry is a hurried player – and he has succeeded in all the situations in which he has been pushed so far.