Why Everton have saved a lot of money by avoiding Gabriel Barbosa

According to earlier reports from Mirror, Everton were keen on the signature of Inter attacker Gabriel Barbosa. Marco Silva’s Everton side haven’t been the tough side that they were expected to be at the start of the season.

They were able to seal some extremely useful purchases which were touted to help the Toffees finally break into the top 6.

Instead, with 22 games of the season already behind us, Everton have won just 8 games and sit on the edge of the top half of the table at 10th place.

While they haven’t been overly shy at getting the goals, the lack of an out and out striker is clearly affecting this team. With Cenk Tosun on the verge of a move away from Goodison Park according to reports from the Express, Everton must look into the market to sign a new striker.

Richarlison and Dominic Calvert-Lewin have been preferred in the central striking role by Marco Silva. Calvert-Lewis is still a developing striker and we’ve seen that Richarlison is far more effective as a winger because he’s having to take up extra responsibilities as a striker.

On the wing, he could be their deadliest player with the intricate movement and dribbling skills he possesses. He is also capable of picking out special passes while having the finesse and the technical brilliance to take shots on from distance and test the goalkeeper on most occasions.

With Tosun outbound and Oumar Niasse out of favour, a new striker is a necessity for Marco Silva. While Chelsea striker Michy Batshuayi has been linked with a move to Goodison by the Mirror, Everton must look at other options too given that Michy belongs to a team with some striker troubles of their own.

However, Gabriel Barbosa would not have been the right kind of player for this current group that Everton boasts. He is a second striker who is often deployed off the main forward so as to collect any touchdowns or second balls. He has had a loan spell at Benfica and has now been shipped out on loan to Flamengo until January of next year, as confirmed by Marca.

He is a pacy attacker who is an adept dribbler and has a keen eye for goal. While his attributes would’ve been extremely useful to most Premier League sides, Everton didn’t seem like the right fit for the Brazilian.

What Everton need is a striker who can free up Richarlison from his current role and let him weave his magic.

While Barbosa is an excellent player, he would’ve been a redundant signing by Marco Silva who already has Ademola Lookman and Calvert-Lewin who can both play the second striker’s role perfectly well.

With Gabigol, they would have got another Richarlison and that would not have been the right move for Marco Silva’s side at this point in time. It is very good that the Toffees didn’t end up signing Gabriel Barbosa.