Arne Slot’s Assessment of Jacob Murphy: A Blueprint for Everton

Arne Slot’s name won’t win many popularity contests on the blue half of Merseyside, but his words might yet shape Everton’s attack.

Long before Everton’s interest in Jacob Murphy gathered pace, the former Liverpool manager had already delivered a pointed assessment of the Newcastle winger – one that now reads like a scouting report tailor-made for the Toffees.

Slot’s warning that sounded like a recommendation

Speaking in December 2025, ahead of Liverpool’s clash with Leeds United, Slot was asked about Alexander Isak and why the striker’s output differed from his time at Newcastle.

His answer veered in a direction that raised eyebrows on Merseyside.

“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. The implication was blunt: Liverpool lacked a Murphy-type wide player. Rival supporters mocked the comment, and Slot’s stock with the Anfield crowd slipped another notch.

Across the park, though, those same words now sound very different. They sound like a blueprint.

Everton’s glaring attacking problem

Everton’s pursuit of European football demands more than romantic talk of Jack Grealish returning to Hill Dickinson Stadium. The squad needs hard numbers, creativity, and a sharper edge in the final third.

Last season exposed those shortcomings in brutal detail. 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.

That is mid-table attacking output from a side with ambitions far above it.

Too often, the striker has fed on scraps. Too often, promising moves have fizzled out before the final ball. The structure has been there; the supply line has not.

Which is exactly where Murphy comes in.

The Murphy profile Everton lack

Slot’s comment cut to the heart of Murphy’s value. He wasn’t praising flair or dribbling numbers. He was talking about profile – a winger whose first instinct is to serve the centre-forward.

Murphy has spent several seasons proving himself as a Premier League-level attacker at Newcastle. Not always the headline act, rarely the loudest name on the teamsheet, but consistently useful and relentlessly direct.

The numbers back that up. For Newcastle last season, Murphy created more big chances than any other player in Eddie Howe’s squad. Ten in total.

At Everton, that tally would have put him joint-second for big chances created, level with Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall and just two behind James Garner. In a team crying out for more incision in the final third, that is not a trivial upgrade. It is a shift in how the attack functions.

Murphy doesn’t just hug the touchline and recycle possession. He drives, crosses early, and looks for the striker. That is the “profile” Slot said he lacked at Liverpool. It is also the profile Everton have been missing.

Newcastle’s stance and Everton’s opportunity

The picture now emerging from Tyneside is that Newcastle appear open to letting Murphy move on. For Everton, that changes the conversation from wishful thinking to realistic opportunity.

They are already pushing to bring Grealish back, a move that would add creativity and ball-carrying from deeper areas. But Grealish is not a wide supplier in the Murphy mould. He comes to feet, drifts inside, dictates tempo.

Murphy stretches games. He works the channels. He feeds the man in the middle.

One complements the other. And together, they could transform an attack that has too often felt blunt and predictable.

Slot may have taken flak from Liverpool supporters for daring to highlight what his own squad lacked. The irony is that his assessment now reads like a clear endorsement of why Murphy belongs at Everton.

If the Toffees are serious about climbing into Europe, the question isn’t whether Murphy is good enough for them.

It’s whether they can afford to let a player with his profile go somewhere else.