Why Everton must put star up for sale after 8 games

David Moyes’ Everton have had a mixed bag of a start to the 2026/27 Premier League campaign and sit 11th in the table after eight matches played.

The Toffees have won two, drawn four, and lost two of their eight games in the top-flight, scoring eight goals and conceding nine goals, and they lost their most recent game 2-0 to Arsenal in North London.

One of the areas in which they need to improve the most is their goalscoring output, as they are averaging one goal per game and have failed to score in three of their eight matches so far.

The club have made too many poor signings in the attacking positions in recent years, and they moved on from one of their flops in the summer when they traded Dwight McNeil for Brennan Johnson.

How Dwight McNeil flopped at Everton

In the summer of 2022, the Toffees swooped to sign the English winger from Burnley for a fee of £20m to bolster their options in the wide areas.

He had a solid, if unspectacular, first two seasons at Goodison Park, scoring ten goals and providing nine assists in 71 appearances in the Premier League in the 2022/23 and 2023/24 campaigns combined.

Unfortunately, though, the left-footed midfielder followed that up with a return of four goals in 43 appearances in the following two seasons in the Premier League before being sent to Crystal Palace in a straight swap for Johnson.

In the 2025/26 campaign, McNeil failed to score a single goal in 22 games in the division for the Toffees, and Moyes left him as an unused substitute on 14 occasions.

The 26-year-old attacker’s declining form and lack of impact in the final third led to him becoming a bit-part player on Merseyside, which was why the club were willing to let him go in a swap deal, instead of holding out for a transfer fee, in the summer.

£13m Everton star must be given the McNeil treatment

Now, Moyes may have to treat another one of his players like McNeil and part ways with them by any means necessary in the upcoming January transfer window.

In the summer of 2025, Everton paid Flamengo a fee of around £13m to sign central midfielder Carlos Alcaraz on a permanent deal after he spent the second half of the 2024/25 campaign on loan at the club.

The Argentine midfield talent caught the eye during his loan spell with the Toffees in the Premier League, as he scored two goals and provided three assists in 16 appearances in the top-flight.

His impressive performances in the second half of that season on loan were enough to convince the Merseyside outfit to splash £13m on his services, and that is a decision that they may now regret.

In his first full season with the Toffees, Alcaraz only started six of his 20 appearances in the Premier League and failed to score a single goal for the club, whilst only supplying one assist.

This season, the former Southampton central midfielder has only played 32 minutes of action across four appearances as a substitute in the league for Moyes.

In those 32 minutes, Alcaraz lost 71% of his duels, only completed 62% of his attempted passes, and did not create any chances for his teammates to score.

To his credit, the 23-year-old talent did come off the bench to score the winner against Wolverhampton Wanderers in the League Cup last month, but his performances in the Premier League have not been good enough.

After just eight league games this season, Moyes should already be putting the feelers out to see if any clubs are interested in taking the midfielder off Everton’s hands when the January transfer window opens.

He is looking like the new McNeil on Merseyside because of how much his form has tailed off after a promising start to life with the Toffees, and now he should be put up for sale because of his lack of involvement on the pitch.

The £13m-rated midfielder has been a flop since signing permanently for Everton, given his lack of minutes, starts, and goal contributions in the Premier League since the start of last season, and must now be moved on in the next transfer window.