Jacob Murphy: The Missing Piece for Everton's European Ambitions

Arne Slot will never be welcomed with open arms in the Everton half of Merseyside. Yet the former Liverpool manager may have already delivered the clearest argument for why Jacob Murphy could be exactly what Everton are missing.

The Toffees are pushing to build a squad capable of reaching Europe next season. Jack Grealish remains the glamour target for a return to Hill Dickinson Stadium, but one player will not fix an attack that has too often run dry. They need volume. Variety. End product.

Murphy’s name has quietly moved towards the top of that list.

Slot’s blunt assessment that now suits Everton

Back in December 2025, ahead of facing Leeds United, Slot was asked about Alexander Isak’s adaptation and the difference between his current squad and Newcastle’s. His answer carried a line that jarred with Liverpool supporters.

“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.”

Liverpool fans bristled. Why mention a Newcastle winger as the missing profile at Anfield? Strip away the tribal noise, though, and the point lands squarely in Everton’s favour.

Slot was highlighting a very specific type of wide player: someone who lives to serve the centre-forward, who stretches the pitch, who thinks first about supply rather than the spectacular. That is Murphy’s game.

A problem Everton can no longer ignore

Everton’s issue has not just been finishing. It has been getting the ball into the right areas often enough.

Last season, the numbers told a familiar story.

• Fifteenth in the league for shots on target per match.
• Fifteenth for big chances created.
• Fifteenth for touches in the opposition box, according to FotMob.

Mid-table creativity. Mid-table threat. Mid-table outcomes.

For a club talking about European qualification, that is nowhere near enough. The forward line has lacked someone who repeatedly feeds the striker, who turns good positions into clear chances rather than hopeful crosses.

Murphy does that. Consistently.

At Newcastle last season, no one in Eddie Howe’s squad created more big chances than the 29-year-old. His total of 10 stood alone at the top of their chart. Transfer that output to Everton and he would have finished joint-second for the club, level with Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall and only two behind James Garner.

That is not a luxury profile. That is a need.

Why Murphy fits the Toffees’ blueprint

Murphy is not being pursued as a headline act. He is being targeted because his skill set plugs a gap Everton have failed to fill for years.

He runs beyond. He hugs the touchline when needed. He delivers early. His first instinct is to make the striker’s life easier, not to cut inside and crowd the same spaces as the No 10. For a side that has laboured to get bodies and the ball into the box, that kind of winger can change the rhythm of attacks.

It is exactly the “profile” Slot complained he did not have. The same profile Everton have been missing while their forwards feed on scraps.

So while Liverpool fans mocked Slot’s reference to Murphy, those same words now read like a scouting report written on Everton’s behalf. The irony is hard to miss: a former Liverpool boss, unpopular across Stanley Park, may have outlined the blueprint for an Everton signing that could push the club closer to Europe.

If Newcastle really are ready to let Jacob Murphy go, the question for Everton is simple: can they afford not to move for a player who offers what they so clearly lack?