A big talent: Moyes may have already found Everton's next Tim Cahill

Bournemouth have got Everton’s number, with the Toffees losing their fourth match in succession against the South Coast side on Sunday, bowing out of the FA Cup in the fourth round.

This isn’t the be-all and end-all for David Moyes’ rejuvenated team, having clinched three successive wins in the Premier League to create ample breathing room at the bottom end of the table.

Everton are battling injuries, stripped of bodywork but still producing coherent and determined performances that look a world away from the colourless football under Sean Dyche’s wing.

How Moyes is combating injuries at Everton

Everton’s deficiency on the fitness front is concerning, to be sure, but recent results in the Premier League do highlight the club’s strength in a new system.

The lead-up to Moyes’ appointment saw the Merseysiders fail to score across eight of ten Premier League matches, and they have bagged eight goals from four fixtures since.

This is all the more impressive when considering the forwards are dropping like flies, Dominic Calvert-Lewin, Armando Broja, Youssef Chermiti and Dwight McNeil all sidelined.

Every cloud though, ay. With McNeil not expected to return just yet, new recruit Charly Alcaraz may be tasked with fighting from the opening whistle once again in the coming days – with Liverpool heading to Goodison for a crunch top-flight contest.

Moyes may have a star in the Argentine midfielder.

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Moyes could have Everton’s new Tim Cahill waiting in the wings

It’s safe to say that Everton must be sick of the sight of Bournemouth, with their Saturday win at Goodison extending the Toffees’ record against the Cherries to eight defeats from ten fixtures in all competitions.

However, Alcaraz’s debut was hailed by the likes of correspondent Paddy Boyland, who praised the dynamic ace for giving Everton “something different in midfield.”

His swashbuckling style is characterised by throttle-shaking movements and a desire to drive play into dangerous areas, where he or his teammates can find space to shoot.

Everton might have failed to address issues at centre-forward and on the right flank, but this signing adds impetus and depth to a side that has walked with strong footing over the past few weeks, no longer pressed within the thickness of the relegation zone.

And given that he was signed on loan with an obligatory £13m buy option at the end of the season, this might prove to be a shrewd deal indeed given that Juventus were keen on snapping up their former loanee for a £40m fee last year.

Replacing the less mobile Abdoulaye Doucoure for the final 25 minutes in the FA Cup, the 22-year-old hit the woodwork from a free-kick, took 23 touches, won his only contested ground duel and placed two key passes for teammates, as per Sofascore.

Typically playing off the striker’s back, Alcaraz’s style almost gives rise to memories of Tim Cahill, one of Everton’s finest Premier League stars and a linchpin throughout the bulk of Moyes’ first regime.

With 226 games and 56 highlight goals to his name in the English top flight, the retired Australian star was described as Everton’s “talisman” by Phil Neville, who continued to stress that the versatile player was “right up there” with the best of the best in the club’s storied modern history.

Competent as a box-to-box midfielder and dangerous as a makeshift striker, Alcaraz could certainly do worse than take a leaf from the Aussie star’s book, and given that Moyes has been behind the new Everton signing, it feels like he’s looking to repeat his own trick in dynamising the Everton attack.

Explosiveness has been in short supply on the blue half of Merseyside over recent years, and with Orel Mangala now sidelined until the end of the season, sorting this deal out felt significant.

Alcaraz, moreover, isn’t quite a player who excels in possession-based systems, instead powering forward and unleashing his will onto the pitch, be that through his ball striking or playmaking skills.

Alcaraz may not be an aerial monster in the same vein as Cahill, but he’s electric, powerful and creative with his attacking tools, ranking among the top 1% of positional peers over the past year for shots taken, the top 4% for shot-creating actions, the top 3% for progressive carries and the top 1% for successful take-ons per 90, as per FBref.

Talent scout Jacek Kulig hailed Alcaraz for being “one of the biggest talents in Argentina” following his breakout with Racing Club before he transferred to Southampton and looks set to explode now back in English football.

Still only 22, Alcaraz has crucial Premier League experience to his name with the Saints and indeed brings something different to Moyes’ midfield, thunderously purposeful and proving himself to be multi-dimensional against Bournemouth as he skidded back into deeper positions and looked composed as he turned play back toward Everton’s offensive third.

Toward the end of the dysfunctional Farhad Moshiri era, Everton repeatedly fanned the flames of their support base’s frustrations, but Moyes is back and has already begun to remind English football of why he’s such a revered figure at Goodison Park.

More work is needed on the transfer front, but in Alcaraz, a combative and energetic new midfield force has been welcomed to the fold.

Moyes might just have signed his future talisman, very much in the mould of Cahill.

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