Seamus Coleman and Jamie Carragher have turned Everton's deadline-day business into a broader verdict on the squad David Moyes inherited. Coleman said the club were left with one senior striker, while Carragher backed the view that the attack has been left too thin to cope. Everton pocketed over £100million on deadline day after the window swings that followed the late collapse of the Folarin Balogun move from Monaco.

Coleman and Carragher's criticism

Coleman's central complaint was blunt. Speaking to liverpoolecho.co.uk, he said: "Then in the summer, who sells a striker before you get one in?" He also added: "We can all have frustrations, and the performances probably weren’t where they should be, but you can’t even take off your striker, who might be tired from running around, to replace him with another one, because you don’t have one. We’re talking about a Premier League-level club."

Carragher pushed the same point from a different angle on the same panel. "What did you expect this season with what David Moyes was left with, really? One striker who’s probably not the answer," he said. That is the sharpest line in the debate, and it fits the shape of the squad Everton ended up with.

What Everton were left with

The club were left with a first-team squad of 18 outfield players. The squad contained just one striker, one left-back and one right-back. That is a thin group by any standard, and it sits alongside an 11th-place start with 10 points from 8 Premier League matches. Their league form is LLDWD, which is enough to show a side that has steadied in patches without finding real rhythm.

Carragher also pointed to the mood around the club, saying Evertonians still seemed unhappy despite the start. Coleman, meanwhile, argued that the fanbase are right to want more and that January should bring bodies in. On this evidence, the complaint is less about one poor result and more about the job Moyes has been asked to do with too little cover in attack.

The January window is where this becomes unavoidable. Everton have a late-season problem already, and the last line of defence is still a single senior striker.

Written by Jack Mercer with AI-assisted research, cross-checked against 1 outlet. How we work →