Michael Ball has been singing praises of Beto for his performance for Everton against Brentford on Wednesday despite the striker missing several chances.
Everton came from behind to play a 1-1 draw with Brentford and take a point back to Merseyside on 26 February, with Jake O’Brien finding the back of the net for David Moyes’ side.
The Goodison Park outfit could have claimed all three points had Beto finished one of his three 1v1 opportunities against Mark Flekken.
The centre-forward has, therefore, been the subject of criticism from fans and pundits in recent days despite scoring five goals in the Toffees’ previous four league games.
Beto has sprung to life under David Moyes. (Credit: Imago)
Ball admits to jinxing Beto
Meanwhile, Ball has admitted that he may have jinxed Beto by waxing lyrical about his confidence in his 1v1 situations last week and subsequently apologised about the same.
The former defender, though, pointed out that the Guinea-Bissau international should have done better to convert all three of those chances.
“I’ve got to apologise about Beto because in my last column, I gave him a lot of praise and said how when he’s one-on-one, you’re very confident that he’ll find the back of the net”, Ball wrote in his column on the Liverpool Echo website (3 March).
“Unfortunately, I think I jinxed him for Brentford! If you look at all three opportunities, he should have done better.
“For the first one, if he’d had stayed down then he might have got his opponent sent off, but he was confident enough to get back up and try and score a goal.”
Competitions Matches Minutes Goals Assists Yellow Cards Red Cards
Premier League 19 753′ 6 – 1 –
FA Cup 2 158′ 1 – 1 –
EFL Cup 2 152′ 1 – – –
Beto for Everton in 2024-25
Ball went on to defend Beto from criticism, insisting that the 27-year-old puts his “heart and soul” into every game he plays for the Merseyside-based club.
He also noted that even the likes of Erling Haaland and Mohamed Salah miss big chances and made a point for Beto to be given credit for his contributions.
“People say he’s not very good at holding the ball up, but he won a header in the build-up for his second chance, played a one-two and spun, so again he deserves credit”, he wrote.
“He puts his heart and soul into every game and look, Erling Haaland misses big chances and so does Mohamed Salah, it happens in football.
“Like Moyes said, you’ve got to give him credit for keeping going and had another opportunity late on that the keeper did well to save.
“Beto will be disappointed because scoring goals is what he gets paid to do and has been in fine form, but you don’t get everything going your own way in football.”
Beto
Beto has scored five goals in five Premier League appearances. (Credit: Imago)
Everton rue missed opportunities
Although a draw against Brentford away from home is not a bad result by any means, Everton cannot help but feel they could have taken all three points.
The same is true for their 2-2 draw against Manchester United at Goodison Park on 22 February when they allowed Ruben Amorim’s side to get back in the game after taking a two-goal lead.
Moyes’ side would have been above Tottenham in 13th place had they earned an extra four points from their games against Manchester United and Brentford.
