David Moyes challenged Thierno Barry to be more ruthless even after the forward scored his first hat-trick for Everton in the 4-0 Carabao Cup win at Preston North End.
The 23-year-old was the Blues' star man as he took the match ball home from Deepdale after continuing his good form from pre-season and his start in the Premier League, which saw him net in the opening day win over Crystal Palace.
His manager was understandably pleased with Barry, who has now scored half of last season's tally in his first two games of the 2026-27 campaign, but he wants more.
Progress this summer
Moyes acknowledged the £27m signing from Villarreal appears to have made progress this summer - putting some of that down to work the player embarked on away from the club.
Asked what had been key to Barry's development, the Everton boss said: "He said he was working with somebody in the summer back home who tried to change his mindset a little bit. I think that's something he found really difficult last year, which it [can be] for a lot of boys coming in for their first year from overseas. I think it's even worse for a centre-forward because you've got a lot of big decisions to make."
Call for more goals
While Moyes was pleased with his frontman's efforts, he called for more. Pointing to the missed chances, which included a scuffed effort at Lee Nicholls when played through with the second-round tie goalless, he said: "Generally he's been much better since he came back.
"I still think I'd like more, if you think of the one or two opportunities he had and he didn't score, so I'm nearly annoyed that he didn't do those ones as well. I know he got three goals, but he had a couple really laid on his plate - I want him to score the other ones as well."
On the wider display, which also saw Brennan Johnson score his first goal of his Blues career, Moyes added: "[I was most pleased] with the goals, probably, in the end. I thought we played well. I thought we had some good moments, [played] some good football.
"We probably didn't, at the end of it, create enough, especially in the first half I thought, but generally, I thought we did pretty well with the ball tonight."
Next round
Everton's reward is a third-round tie at home to Wolves, who were relegated from the Premier League last season but did win the tie between the teams, at the same stage of last season's Carabao Cup, 2-0 at Molineux.
