Thierno Barry appears to be growing in confidence around his Everton team-mates
13:55, 25 Jan 2026Updated 14:22, 26 Jan 2026
Thierno Barry celebrates his superb match winner at Aston Villa . Photo by Visionhaus/Getty Images(Image: )
Thierno Barry’s growing confidence is being reflected on the training pitches at Finch Farm. The forward produced a sublime chipped finish to seal a remarkable three points for a depleted Everton side at Aston Villa last Sunday.
It was his fourth Premier League goal since opening his account at the start of December and was the best, and most important, of the lot.
While supporters have had a glimpse of playful moments from behind-the-scenes – Barry’s social media posts having included footage making light of situations such as the Idrissa Gueye and Michael Keane fracas that led the latter seeing a red card at Manchester United – the 23-year-old has not always been the most vocal away from the cameras.
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That is now changing according to David Moyes, who is hopeful the France youth international is building towards a good second half of the season.
Asked whether the match-winner at Villa Park had led to him seeing a notable change in Barry, Moyes said to reporters in the embargoed section of Friday’s press conference: “I am. He was shouting on the training pitch today, which is something that you might say would be normal, but it’s not been normal for Thierno.
“He’s really feeling his way in and edging his way in. I think he took his goal brilliantly well.
“We need him to get more, that’s a fact. But you’ve got to start somewhere, haven’t you?”
The significance of the goal at Villa Park was not lost on Moyes. Barry’s previous goals had been to make it 2-0 to Everton in both the home and away games against Nottingham Forest and a late consolation in the 4-2 defeat to Brentford.
The deft clip over Emiliano Martinez was, therefore, his first true match winner. That it came against a team fighting for the title made it even more satisfying.
Moyes said: “There’s always a thing about being a striker scoring in big games. It was a big game to score against Aston Villa.
“It was a big game for him. He didn’t get many chances in the game, if any, but the one he did get he took, so that’s more like the way you want them to be, you get one chance then you take it, that’s good.”
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