Jacob Murphy: The Winger Everton Needs for European Push
Arne Slot probably won’t be getting a warm welcome in the Everton end any time soon. But his words might just explain why Jacob Murphy is exactly the kind of forward the blue half of Merseyside now needs.
The winger Liverpool didn’t have – but Everton might
When Slot was still Liverpool manager, he made a throwaway remark that irritated his own fanbase but now reads very differently across Stanley Park.
Speaking before a clash with Leeds United in December 2025, Slot was discussing Alexander Isak’s adaptation and the lack of certain profiles in his Liverpool squad. He said: “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. 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. Everton fans barely noticed. Now, with Everton pushing to sign Murphy from Newcastle United, that line suddenly feels like a scouting report delivered by accident from the other side of the divide.
Slot’s point was simple: Murphy offers a profile Liverpool lacked. A winger whose first instinct is to serve the striker.
Everton’s blunt edge
That is precisely where Everton have been short.
Sean Dyche has dragged the club clear of trouble, but the numbers tell a story of an attack that still splutters more than it roars. Last season, Everton ranked 15th in the Premier League for shots on target per match. Fifteenth for big chances created. Fifteenth for touches in the opposition box, according to FotMob.
For a club with open ambitions of European football and an ongoing pursuit of Jack Grealish to light up Hill Dickinson Stadium, that simply is not enough. The Toffees need volume. They need craft. They need someone who thinks like a provider.
Murphy does.
Murphy’s value: supply first, ego second
At Newcastle, Murphy has become the quiet enabler in Eddie Howe’s attack. Not the headline act, not the superstar, but the man who makes the number nine’s life easier.
Last season, no one in Howe’s squad created more big chances than Murphy. Nobody. His total of 10 big chances created would have put him joint-second in Everton’s ranks, level with Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall and only two behind James Garner.
Those are not eye-catching numbers for a fantasy football superstar. They are the numbers of a system player, a facilitator, a winger who measures his game in the quality of service rather than the volume of shots.
That is exactly the profile Slot said he did not have. It might be exactly the one Dyche is missing.
Why he fits the blueprint
Everton’s attack has often felt like a grind. Crosses slung in, second balls fought for, scraps turned into half-chances. It suits Dyche’s intensity, but not always his strikers.
A wide player who consistently picks out the right pass, who naturally looks for the central forward, changes that dynamic. Murphy’s game is built on that supply line. He stretches the pitch, he runs without the ball, and when he gets it, he looks inside.
For a side that has too often laboured to create clear openings, those habits matter as much as any highlight-reel goal.
Newcastle’s apparent willingness to let him move on only sharpens the intrigue. A Premier League-proven winger, still in his prime, available at a time when Everton need to add depth and variety to their forward line.
Slot’s comment was mocked on the red side of the city. On the blue side, it now reads like a recommendation letter.
If Everton do bring Jacob Murphy to Merseyside, the irony will be hard to ignore: the former Liverpool manager may have spelled out, better than anyone, why he could be the missing piece in Everton’s push for Europe.
