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David Moyes is showing some tough love to Beto to try to improve the Everton striker. The Blues boss has faith in the Guinea-Bissau forward as well as summer signing Thierno Barry.

Beto, 27, has scored just 16 goals in 74 appearances so far in his Everton career while Barry has yet to net after arriving from Villarreal for £27m. But Moyes has backed Beto and has been pushing him on the training ground.

“We're needing our number nines to be the ones who do it,” said the Scot. “Beto ended up with eight goals [in the Premier League] last year. For probably only playing half the season, it was a brilliant record. I have been challenging him a little bit to sort of push him. People think I don't want him, it’s not, it’s really to try and prod him a wee bit to see if I can get goals.

“Let me tell you, he is an unbelievable lad. In training, he is very humble, self-effacing, he's happy to laugh at himself, but to try and make himself better.

"So for all those reasons we think so much of him because in what he's doing he's actually accepting that ‘I have to get better’.

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“And let's be fair, probably from where he started he has got unbelievably better from where he was.

“But I wanted him to get in a run in the pre-season games of getting two goals in one game, two in another game, where he was in the mood and that's where I was trying to have a little bit of a dig - to see if I could get him to get some goals.

“But I have to say, Barry's involvement in the first game against Brighton, he did a couple of brilliant things for the goals, he really did. There's a bit of competition between them now to see who's going to sort of get it.”

Everton travel to Wolves on Saturday looking to build on their win over Brighton last weekend and a Carabao Cup victory against League One Mansfield Town.

Harrison Armstrong impressed in midweek with two assists and there is loan interest in the 18-year-old from Preston among others but Moyes won’t make a decision on letting him go until he sees if they land another player in his position.

Moyes added: “I think a lot depends if we maybe get a more experienced midfield player in. “It's very difficult now, is it better if he comes [with us] and he sits on the bench and gets little bits of moments, trains with us every day, or is it better that he goes and plays maybe 20 games in the Championship?

“That's really the decision we feel as if we've got to take.”

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