Youssef Chermiti transfer could be the start to Everton finally solving their striker woes
Everton look to have finally got the striker they’ve been looking for this summer, with Fabrizio Romano taking to Twitter to say that the Toffees have agreed on a deal with Sporting Lisbon for Youssef Chermiti.
The 19-year-old forward broke into the Sporting first team this season, making 16 appearances in the league, scoring 3 goals and assisting another two, while also making five Europa League appearances.
Now he is very much, not the finished article, which nobody should be expecting of a player with such little first-team experience. But there is a reason there has been so much made about the talent he possesses.
Looking at the striker’s FBREf scouting report shows that there are plenty of reasons for optimism at Goodison Park, most of the evidence suggests the Portuguese forward will get into positions to score goals.
Compared to his positional peers in Europe’s next eight competitions, Chermiti falls in the top five per cent of strikers for expected goals per 90 minutes played, with an average of 0.54, suggesting he should be scoring a goal every other game.
In reality, his finishing is leaving a bit to be desired at the moment, falling in the 45th percentile for non-penalty xG, meaning he is below the average goals scored a game for strikers in Europe.
However, Chermiti can help bring his teammates into matches, with his assist record falling in the top 11% of strikers, despite being in the second percentile for shot-creating actions per 90 minutes played.
On the ball, the Portuguese forward has room for improvement very rarely creating much in terms of dribbles or passes, including an incredibly low pass completion average of 68.3% per 90 minutes.
Yet the 19-year-old is always an option in the penalty area, touching the ball just under seven times per game in the opposition box, better than 95% of forwards manage in games.
What these stats outline is that Chermiti will carry a threat for the Toffees, but is very much a raw talent, he is unlikely to fly into the Everton frontline and immediately score 20 goals in his first season.
Does he solve Everton’s problems?
Everton’s search for a striker this summer has been with the purpose of easing the workload on Dominic Calvert-Lewin, and although Chermiti seems an exciting prospect, it is unlikely he’ll be the man to immediately do that.
That leaves the question of whether Everton view this as the entire solution to their search this summer, does Dyche really think the combination of the Sporting man and Arnaut Danjuma give his side enough?
It would feel slightly naïve to assume that those two signings would propel the Toffees away from the drop zone, they were the Premier League’s second lowest scorers last term, and an extra five goals wouldn’t have helped that issue particularly.
If Dyche is able to bring an extra forward and slowly blood Chermiti into the Premier League, with cameos from the bench and occasional starts, it could help him to find his feet. But to do that he needs more first choice options than just Calvert-Lewin.
All in all this seems a very smart piece of business by the Toffees, but this needs to be the start of their purchasing of strikers, rather than the end.
In other Everton news, Dyche has said that he sees Danjuma as more of a wide option than a centre-forward