The summer of spending continues for Everton.
The Toffees spent £40 million to sign the uber-talented 19-year-old winger Tyler Dibling from Southampton.
It’s the second-largest transfer fee the club has ever spent, and it sends a clear message that Everton’s ambition to compete in the top half of the table is genuine.
After Tyler Dibling, the Toffees have now spent £112.3m on eight different players.
Dibling spent most of his career in the Southampton academy, transferring to Chelsea in 2022, and then back to Southampton FC a year later.
Dibling was one of the few bright spots for last-place Southampton last season, starting 20 matches mainly on the right wing.
His dribbling caught the attention of many top clubs, but Everton eventually won the race to get his signature.
It’s a bold move to pay £35m plus add-ons for a 19-year-old, but Tyler Dibling seems worth that price tag.
In this Tyler Dibling scout report and player analysis, we will examine Tyler Dibling strengths as a winger, his data profile, how he fits with David Moyes Everton tactics, and some areas for improvement.
Tyler Dibling Style Of Play
The best way to describe Tyler Dibling is a pure dribbler.
It seems as if the ball almost sticks to his foot when he weaves his way through defenders.
You can see here against Bournemouth that he shrugs off one defender, dribbles right by another, and then drives right at the opponent’s back line and plays a key pass to his striker.
He will primarily hug the touchline and take defenders on 1-v-1.
Because he is such a good dribbler, more often than not, teams would double him out wide, which made it difficult for him to create chances.
However, when he got the few chances to actually go 1-v-1, he would burn past defenders.
He is naturally left-footed, so he loves to cut inside.
He is also really good at getting to the touchline and playing in a cross with his right foot.
It won’t pop up in the data, but he is a really good and accurate crosser.
You can see here against Tottenham Hotspur; they are backing off and do not want him to blow by them.
From almost nothing, he is able to flick the ball with the outside of his left boot and play it right on the money to the forward.
That honestly looks very similar to what Lamine Yamal does constantly at Barcelona.
Tyler Dibling Stats
When you first glance at Tyler Dibling’s data profile, it looks average.
Tyler Dibling Radar Chart
However, you have to put into context that not only was he a teenager playing in his first season in the Premier League, but he was also playing for by far the worst team.
There are a couple of key data points that stick out and emphasise his ability as an elite dribbler.
He averaged 2.17 successful take-ons per 90 minutes last season.
That was the ninth-highest average among Premier League wingers who played at least 10 90s.
Because he is an elite dribbler, he drew 2.4 fouls per 90 minutes (89th percentile) and actually won two penalties for Southampton.
It should be noted that Dibling is a good defender, which is crucial for Everton, given their limited possession.
He tackled 61.5% of the dribblers he faced last season, which puts him in the 97th percentile for wingers in the Premier League.
His chance creation and goalscoring numbers are a bit alarming, which I will discuss in the “Room for Improvement” section.
David Moyes Style of Play
David Moyes tactics have transformed Everton into a team that can build out from the back.
He built on the foundation that Sean Dyche built in and out of possession, giving Everton more tactical flexibility.
There were two things that David Moyes changed outside of Everton: simply controlling more possession.
First, he established a 3-2-5 build-up structure, which allowed Everton to push Vitaliy Mykolenko further up the pitch.
Because Jake O’Brien is essentially a centre-back playing right back, he was able to easily push more centrally to create that back three in possession with the other two centre-backs.
In the final third, Iliman Ndiaye was able to play more centrally than as a winger, providing width like he was under Sean Dyche.
This allowed him to play in a more natural position, and his production skyrocketed under Moyes.
This is especially important to remember when talking about Tyler Dibling’s role at Everton.
Because Vitaliy Mykolenko is the one providing the width on the left and O’Brien is dropping into a back three, Everton needs a winger on the right who can provide that type of width, while also being able to take defenders on 1-v-1.
From his heatmap last season, you can see that Dibling typically hugged the touchline out wide.
He is exactly what Everton needs because, before signing him, they didn’t have a true right winger.
Tyler Dibling Heatmap At Southampton 2024/2025
For example, in the first three Premier League matches of this season, Iliman Ndiaye and Carlos Alcaraz played as right wingers in David Moyes’ 4-2-3-1 system.
As mentioned before, Ndiaye is someone who likes to get into more central areas, so he may move into the number ‘10’ role, allowing Dibling to occupy the right wing spot.
Jack Grealish has seemingly found his form in Everton blue, dishing out four assists in his last two matches.
If Dibling can provide anywhere close to that level of chance creation or crosses, Everton’s offence will be very dangerous in the wide areas.
Tyler Dibling Room For Improvement
While Tyler Dibling has incredible close control dribbling, he gets the ball taken off of him a lot.
When you watch him on film, he often tries to dribble through multiple defenders, which rarely works in the Premier League.
Last season, his successful take-on percentage was only 40.9%, which was around the Premier League average for wingers.
Dibling is an amazing dribbler, but he needs to be somewhat of a goal-scoring threat and a more consistent chance creator.
In 20 starts last season for Southampton, he created only 2.5 expected goals and 1.5 expected assists.
Both of those put him below the 10th percentile for wingers in the Premier League.
Dibling also needs to start crossing the ball at a higher rate.
Everton completed the third-most crosses into the penalty area, so it’s a very big part of how they create chances in the final third.
For Dibling to succeed at Everton, he will have to do that consistently.
One other thing that Dibling needs to become is an off-the-ball threat.
As good as he is at dribbling, that can’t be the only thing you do.
From his radar chart above, you can see that he ranked fairly low in the number of progressive passes received.
Again, he played for Southampton, but when you watch him, he seems to be looking to receive the ball and then dribble rather than to get behind the opponent’s back line.
He’s young, but he has quite a few tools he needs to add to his arsenal to become an elite winger in the Premier League.
Conclusion
It’s a bold move to pay £35m for a 19-year-old who didn’t put up good chance creation numbers in his lone season in the Premier League.
However, when you watch Tyler Dibling dribble the ball, it’s clear why so many elite clubs want him.
His close control, ball carrying, and ability to drive at defenders are truly elite foundations that he can build on for years to come.
I am sure Everton want Iliman Ndiaye to play in more central positions given how successful he was under Moyes last season.
To allow him to do that, Everton needed a right winger to provide width and create chances.
Tyler Dibling has all the potential in the world, and his skill set will fit in perfectly with David Moyes Everton.
Maybe it was a case of him playing for one of the worst offensive teams in the Premier League, so it will be interesting to see if he can add an element of chance creation and goal scoring to his arsenal in Everton blue.
