Beto made his Premier League debut in Everton’s 2-2 draw with Sheffield United on Saturday.
TNT Sport analysts Peter Crouch and Joleon Lescott both believe Everton’s new signing Beto may have the desired impact this season.
On Tuesday, the Portuguese midfielder joined the Blues from Udinese in a move worth over £26 million. He came off the bench the next day to make an immediate impact against Doncaster Rovers, scoring the equalizer in a 2-1 victory, and he followed that up with a great performance in Saturday’s 2-2 draw against Sheffield United.
Beto won 12 duels and completed seven successful dribbles on his Premier League debut tonight, despite not scoring.
He will surely need to reach the back of the goal to correct a problem that has plagued the club for the past two seasons, but his debut statistics convinced former Liverpool and Tottenham striker Crouch that Sean Dyche has discovered his ideal striker in the 25-year-old.
“It’s difficult to say he’s going to get the goals to fire Everton out [of a relegation battle], but what I saw were some encouraging signs of him leading the line well,” Crouch, who has 106 Premier League goals to his name, said after the game on TNT.
“What I saw today was that he’s going to unsettle defenders, pull them in different directions, and make their lives difficult.”
“He has a great attitude; I saw him working back and hard.”
“The Everton fans will respond positively to that; they want players who will give everything for the shirt, and he appears to be willing to do so right away.”
Former Blue Lescott also weighed in on the new striker’s defensive abilities. The 41-year-old believes Beto may be a bother for opponents, but that he must eventually find his way into more scoring positions.
“I don’t think it’ll be fun [for defenders] to deal with Beto,” he remarked. “He likes the physical aspect of the game.”
“He’s doing everything [in the game], but there has to be a balance.” He’ll be upset at times if he’s performing teamwork without getting chances to score goals, and as much as he enjoyed today, he’ll want to score.
“That’s his bread and butter; he’ll be judged on it, so Evertonians will be encouraged by his performance and will want to see goals.”
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