View: Premier League striker wouldn't provide Everton with a Beto upgrade

Joshua Zirkzee looks set to leave Man United this summer, but the reported Everton target shouldn’t be signed to fit the vision of upgrading on Beto.

Indeed, the 24-year-old United striker was strongly linked with a move to Hill Dickinson Stadium in the recent winter transfer window, but nothing materialised.

Everton eventually acquired the loan signature of Tyrique George from Chelsea to help bolster their forward line, but the youngster hasn’t hit the ground running on Merseyside.

Zirkzee is widely expected to leave Old Trafford at the end of the season, having joined the Red Devils in the summer of 2024 as somewhat of a project player from Bologna.

However, he’s not enjoyed a great time of things in Manchester, but with Everton no doubt looking at signing a striker ahead of the 2026-27 campaign, Zirkzee may feature highly on their wishlist.

How does Joshua Zirkzee’s stats compare to Beto’s?

Everton’s interest in Zirkzee dates back to 2021, when he was still an emerging 19-year-old talent with German giants Bayern Munich.

The Netherlands international has routinely been linked with the Toffees over the past few years, but for whatever reason, has never made the switch.

However, the stars could finally align for him and Everton this summer, as David Moyes is sure to be on the hunt for another centre-forward, and Zirkzee is being heavily backed to leave Man United.

Indeed, he’s started just four times in the Premier League this season, and is down the pecking order at Old Trafford.

Zirkzee’s signature could be acquired on the relative cheap then, but a deal would still only make sense if they’re convinced he’d be an upgrade on Beto, and that’s surely not the case.

As per Sofascore, Beto has six goals compared to Zirkzee’s two in the league this season, albeit from 31 game played compared to 18 for the United man.

However, they both only average 40 and 31 minutes on the pitch respectively, with Beto averaging 0.2 goals per 90 compared to Zirkzee’s 0.1.

The Everton man also records fewer shots off target per game (0.4 vs 0.5), completes more dribbles per game (0.4 vs 0.3), wins more ground duels (1.2 vs 0.9) and more aerial duels per game (2.5 vs 0.9) than Zirkzee respectively.

Everton should be aiming bigger than Zirkzee

A lot of their underlying numbers are actually very similar, and so judging from that, Everton could probably expect to get relatively the same sort of production out of Zirkzee as they currently do with Beto.

That’s a problem, as whilst he’s in excellent form at the moment, Beto only has six league goals to his name this season, with three of those coming in the last four games.

With the Toffees now aiming for consistent European football moving forward, TFG should be pushing the boat out and aiming higher than Zirkzee, with all due respect.

The 24-year-old is talented, and does still have potential, but he’s not shown that on a consistent basis in the Premier League, and it feels as though he’d be the type of acquisition that would put Everton back to square one needing another striker soon enough.

The post View: Premier League striker wouldn't provide Everton with a Beto upgrade appeared first on Goodison News.