Thomas Tuchel Made His First Big Blunder
Pull up a stool and pour one out for Thomas Tuchel's scouting department. On Friday morning, England's new boss finalized his squad for the upcoming Nations League fixtures. Instead of calling up the in-form engine driving Everton up the Premier League table, Tuchel chose Borussia Dortmund teenager Jobe Bellingham.
Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall was left staring at his phone in total disbelief. Leaving out a 28-year-old midfielder who has spent the entire autumn dominating opponents is baffling. Tuchel claimed Dewsbury-Hall was "very close" after enjoying "a very good season," which is polite manager speak for a slap in the face.
If Tuchel wanted to see how an elite professional handles rejection, he should have tuned into Hill Dickinson Stadium on Friday night. Dewsbury-Hall did not sulk in the dressing room or post cryptic lyrics on social media. He chose violence from the opening whistle.
Against Coventry City, Dewsbury-Hall played with genuine fury. His thunderous second-half strike sparked an electric comeback, dragging his squad to an emphatic 3-1 victory that launched the Blues directly into fifth place. He looked possessed every time he touched the ball, snapping into challenges and dictating the tempo.
After the final whistle, he did not hide behind generic media training. As reported by BBC Sport, he addressed the snub with refreshing honesty.
"It was a disappointing morning, I'm not going to lie. It's a massive dream of mine to play for my country. I know I was close," Dewsbury-Hall told Sky Sports.
He admitted the sting plainly before showing the exact grit that separates top competitors from flat-track bullies.
"[I'm] sad, yeah, but really proud of myself and how I have reacted. All I can keep doing is putting in good performances and hopefully one day I get the nod, because I'm never going to give up."
That is how a leader responds to adversity. You do not whine to your agent; you make the national team manager look foolish before the weekend even gets rolling.
Escaping The Stamford Bridge Bench For Merseyside Freedom
None of this resilience should surprise anyone who has followed Dewsbury-Hall's career path. The man took the dirt road to reach the top flight. He did not make his Premier League debut for boyhood club Leicester City until he was 22 years old.
Before that breakthrough, he was grinding through winter nights on loan at Blackpool and Luton Town. He lived through the heartbreak of Leicester's relegation battle, stayed to dominate the Championship under Enzo Maresca, and secured a £30m move to Chelsea. That switch to Stamford Bridge looked like a death sentence for his prime years.
Maresca brought him along only to bury him on the bench behind an endless rotation of expensive signings. Dewsbury-Hall was restricted to domestic cup outings and second-rate European ties. A midfielder entering his peak was turning into an overpaid spectator.
Moving to Everton in August 2025 at age 26 saved him from football purgatory. Goodison gave him a pulse, and Hill Dickinson Stadium has given him an undeniable stage. The numbers speak for themselves.
Since the beginning of last season, he has registered 11 goals and seven assists in the Premier League. David Moyes deserves credit for recognizing what Chelsea completely ignored. Moyes stopped trapping him in rigid defensive responsibilities and handed him total tactical liberty.
"I'm really, really enjoying it," Dewsbury-Hall explained after Friday's win. "I've got a really good hybrid role in this team, where the gaffer is giving me the freedom to pop up all over the pitch."
That tactical freedom is causing headaches for every opposition manager. He hunts down loose balls, drifts between defensive lines, and arrives late in the box to punish static center-backs. He has the engine of a cross-country runner combined with the bite of an old-school enforcer.
"I've got the mentality," he added. "I'll keep pushing and pushing and see what happens."
Thierno Barry: Haaland Tape, TikTok Trends, and Instant Chaos
While Dewsbury-Hall supplied the emotional fire, Thierno Barry provided pure box-office entertainment. The 24-year-old French striker is suddenly turning into an absolute nightmare for opposing defenders. Let us be completely honest about Barry's arrival on Merseyside.
When he joined from Spanish outfit Villarreal last summer, he looked totally out of his depth. He struggled for form, his touch was erratic, and he managed just eight goals all of last season. Supporters were openly wondering if the recruitment team had wasted money on another attacking gamble.
Those doubts look ridiculous today. Within five minutes of the second half restarting against Coventry, Barry flipped the contest completely on its head. He produced two ruthless, predatory finishes in the span of five minutes to take the game away from the visitors.
Those two strikes pushed his season tally to 10 goals in all competitions. That blows his entire output from last season out of the water before we have even reached mid-November. In fact, across all competitions in English football right now, only one man has scored more goals than Thierno Barry: Erling Haaland with 14.
Barry is sitting right behind the Manchester City superstar with 10. The French forward is not keeping his footballing idols a secret either. He watches Haaland footage the way aspiring directors study classic cinema.
"I'm very happy because I'm a fan of him," Barry told Match of the Day. "I watch a lot of videos of him and try and do the things he does. If I can play with him until the end to get the Golden Boot, I will try."
That takes serious guts. Putting your name in the Golden Boot conversation alongside Haaland requires either pure delusion or supreme confidence, and Barry clearly has plenty of the latter. His post-match celebrations had the entire ground laughing.
Barry has developed an obsession with viral celebrations, but his Friday plan ran into an awkward teammate problem. He spotted an NFL celebration on social media on Thursday and tried to rope Tyrique George into performing it with him after scoring.
George chickened out, leaving Barry completely stranded by the corner flag.
"I was on TikTok yesterday and I saw an NFL guy do the celebration," Barry admitted. "I said to Tyrique that if we scored tomorrow, we would do the dance like that, but I think he was shy to do it, so I did the dance alone."
You have to respect a striker who bangs in two goals, dances solo, and immediately roasts his own teammate on television thirty minutes later. That swagger is infectious.
Moyes Reaches 592 While Frank Lampard Cries Foul
Friday night was also a landmark moment in club history for David Moyes. The Scottish manager officially equaled Harry Catterick's historic record of 592 matches in charge of Everton. Catterick managed the club from 1961 to 1973, lifting league titles and carving his legacy into English football folklore.
Matching that longevity in modern football is an absurd achievement. Moyes has weathered board upheavals, financial chaos, and relegation scraps, yet here he sits with Everton in fifth place.
"I am proud," Moyes wrote in the match programme. "The thought of being the Everton manager who has managed the most games is something I'm very proud of. Everton has been huge for me and my family."
However, let us not pretend this match was flawless. Everton were shockingly flat in the opening forty-five minutes. They were sloppy in possession, second to loose balls, and deservedly fell behind to an aggressive Coventry side.
Moyes had to read the riot act at halftime because twenty minutes of passive defending against better opposition will kill you. A clinical top-six side would have buried Everton before Barry could even lace up his boots for the second half. Moyes woke them up, but the sluggish start remains a real concern.
Meanwhile, over in the Coventry technical area, Frank Lampard was busy orchestrating the sideshow of the night. Coventry played well early, but their back four crumbled the moment Barry applied pressure. Rather than admitting his team fell apart in a five-minute span, Lampard looked for excuses.
As detailed in the BBC match coverage, Lampard spent his post-match interviews complaining that an uncalled hair pull in the penalty box cost Coventry the match. Complaining about hair pulling when your defensive structure caves in like wet cardboard is classic deflection.
Coventry did not lose because of an unspotted tug on someone's locks. They lost because Dewsbury-Hall ran them into the ground and Barry battered their center-backs. With back-to-back league wins in the bag, Everton are rolling with genuine momentum.
Dewsbury-Hall now faces a long wait until the next international break in March. If Friday night was any indication of how he channels frustration, Premier League midfields are in for a miserable winter.
