Everton's Pursuit of Jacob Murphy: Filling the Creative Void
Arne Slot will never be welcomed with open arms on the blue half of Merseyside, but his words may yet shape Everton’s next big attacking move.
The former Liverpool manager once highlighted exactly the type of player his old side lacked. Now that same profile could be heading to Hill Dickinson Stadium – and could be precisely what Everton have been missing.
Slot’s warning that now sounds like a recommendation
Back in December 2025, as Liverpool prepared to face Leeds United, Slot was asked about Alexander Isak’s adaptation compared to his Newcastle days. His answer drifted quickly towards another Newcastle name.
“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,” Slot 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.”
The comment irritated Liverpool supporters. It sounded like a public admission that their squad lacked a certain kind of wide player. It also dragged Murphy, a solid but rarely headline-grabbing winger, into a debate about Liverpool’s shortcomings.
Strip away the tribal anger, though, and Slot’s assessment reads like a glowing scouting note. A specialist wide provider. A winger who thinks first about the striker. A profile Liverpool did not have – but one Everton badly do.
Everton’s creative void
Everton’s interest in Murphy comes as they aim to push beyond mid-table and into the European conversation. The ambition is clear: bring back Jack Grealish, add more firepower, and finally build an attack that does more than merely survive.
The numbers from last season underline the problem. 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. A team stuck in the bottom half of the attacking metrics, no matter how hard they pushed.
They did not just lack goals. They lacked supply. Patterns. Reliable delivery into dangerous areas.
That is where Murphy steps into the frame.
Murphy’s edge: a winger who serves the striker
At Newcastle, Murphy has long been a Premier League-proven option, trusted to play his role without fuss. Not the star, but often the one feeding the star.
Last season, he created more big chances than any other player in Eddie Howe’s squad. Ten in total. In a Newcastle side packed with attacking threats, he still led the way when it came to carving out clear openings.
Drop those numbers into Everton’s squad and they stand out immediately. Murphy’s 10 big chances created would have put him joint-second at Hill Dickinson Stadium, level with Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall and only two behind James Garner.
For a team that laboured to get the ball into the box with any regularity, a winger whose first instinct is to supply the centre-forward is not a luxury. It is a necessity.
Why Newcastle might finally listen – and why Everton must
The sense now is that Newcastle are open to letting Murphy move on. Not because he has failed, but because cycles end, squads evolve, and opportunities emerge.
For Everton, this is where Slot’s old observation suddenly looks prophetic. He complained Liverpool did not have a Jacob Murphy type. Everton do not either. But they are at least trying to correct that.
Murphy brings pace, width and, crucially, end product in the form of chance creation. He does not need to be the face on the billboard. He just needs to keep doing what the numbers say he already does: serve the striker, lift the volume of chances, and drag his side up those attacking rankings.
Liverpool fans mocked Slot for invoking Murphy’s name as a missing piece. If Everton get this deal done, those same words might end up describing exactly why the winger becomes central to a very different Merseyside project.
