Cenk Tosun and Oumar Niasse have struggled for Premier League goals at Everton but Richarlison has adapted impressively at Goodison Park.
Yakubu knows what it is like to be a big-money centre-forward at Everton.
The Toffees paid a club-record £7.5 million to sign the Nigerian powerhouse from Middlesbrough 11 years ago. And Yakubu proved to be rather impressive value for money, becoming a key figure at Goodison Park and scoring 25 Premier League goals for the club.
So he is well placed to judge the struggles of Cenk Tosun and Oumar Niasse.
Everton paid a massive £27 million to sign Tosun from Besiktas in January but he’s scored just seven league goals since. Niasse, meanwhile, has never established a starting berth since arriving for £13 million from Lokomotiv Moscow and hasn’t made a single league start all season.
And, speaking to The Mirror, the now-retired Yakubu has offered a dose of reality to Everton’s misfiring strikers.
“Everton are a big club, so if they spend a lot of money on a striker, they expect goals – that is the job of the player,” the 35-year-old said.
“There is pressure to score, and sometimes you can go three or four games with no goals, but you have to keep doing what you’re doing, believing you will score.
“Scoring in the Premier League is difficult because it’s one of the best leagues in the world, so you need to be patient.”
Yakubu has, however, been impressed by the form of Richarlison since his summer arrival on Merseyside. Eyebrows were raised when Everton paid a record £50 million to Watford for the Brazilian and he has scored four goals in eight games since, with Marco Silva turning him from a waspish winger into a genuine centre-forward.
“Richarlison is doing really well. He has been the one scoring goals, so he deserves the credit. It’s not easy coming from Watford to Everton, a really big club.”
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