Why Jacob Murphy is the Forward Everton Needs

Arne Slot’s name won’t win many popularity contests on the blue half of Merseyside. Yet, almost by accident, the former Liverpool manager may have offered the clearest argument for why Jacob Murphy is exactly the kind of forward Everton now need.

The Toffees, eyeing a push for European football next season, are scouring the market for attacking help. Jack Grealish remains a headline target as they try to lure him back to Hill Dickinson Stadium, but one signing will not be enough. This is a squad that has lacked variety and volume in the final third for too long.

Murphy, long since established as a reliable Premier League performer at Newcastle, has emerged as a serious option. He is not the glamour name. He is not the marquee shirt-seller. What he is, though, is a specialist in the one area Everton have consistently come up short: supplying the striker.

Slot’s blunt assessment

Slot laid it out plainly last season when he was still in the Liverpool dugout. Ahead of facing Leeds United in December 2025, he was asked about the adaptation of Alexander Isak and the difference between Newcastle’s set-up and his own squad.

“It makes it harder for [Isak] compared to his time at Newcastle but I think it is also him adjusting to his teammates and his teammates adjusting to him,” he said. “But it is obvious and clear that we have not the profile of Jacob Murphy, for example, available at this moment at this time.”

Liverpool fans bristled. Praising a Newcastle winger as a missing profile at Anfield was never going to land well. His stock with that fanbase dipped again.

Strip away the tribal noise, though, and Slot’s point cuts straight to Everton’s current problem. Murphy is a wide player who thinks first about his centre-forward. He plays to feed the man in the middle. That is precisely the profile Everton have been crying out for.

The numbers behind the need

Everton’s attacking metrics last season tell a familiar, troubling story. They ranked 15th in the league for shots on target per match. Fifteenth for big chances created. Fifteenth for touches in the opposition box, according to FotMob.

This is not a team that starves itself of effort. It starves itself of quality service.

Murphy, by contrast, thrived as a creator in an attack-minded Newcastle side. He produced more big chances than any other player in Eddie Howe’s squad last season. Ten in total.

Drop that output into Everton’s dressing room and the picture changes. Those 10 big chances would have put him joint-second in their ranks, level with Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall and only two behind James Garner. For a player who is not the central playmaker, that is a significant contribution.

These are not speculative numbers. They are exactly the kind of marginal gains that decide whether a season ends with a late scramble for mid-table respectability or a serious tilt at Europe.

Why Murphy fits the Toffees’ puzzle

Murphy’s value lies less in headline-grabbing goals and more in the rhythm of a team’s attack. He stretches the pitch, hits early balls, and looks up for runners rather than dwelling on the ball. That profile matters for a side that often labours in possession and struggles to turn territory into clear chances.

Everton’s forwards have too often fed on scraps. The build-up stalls, the final pass goes missing, and the numbers in the box are wasted. A winger wired to serve the striker changes the dynamic. It gives structure to attacks and, crucially, repeatable patterns that produce chances week after week.

Slot’s comment, mocked at the time by Liverpool supporters, now reads like a scouting note written for Everton. He identified a type of player his own squad lacked: a direct, supply-first winger with the discipline to prioritise the man in the middle.

Now, as Newcastle show signs they may be willing to listen to offers, that same profile could become the missing piece in Everton’s attacking plan.

If the Toffees are serious about stepping out of mid-table and into Europe, they will need more than big names and big fees. They will need players whose skill sets actually solve problems. Murphy, as Slot inadvertently highlighted, looks like one who does.