Crunching tackles that help win hard-fought away points in an all-action performance are the kind of things Everton fans have become well accustomed to when watching James Garner. Now the rest of the Premier League are starting to take proper notice. Following Everton's goalless draw at Tottenham on Saturday, during which midfielder Garner bested a home line-up boasting the near-£200m midfield pairing of Sandro Tonali and Mateus Fernandes, Match of the Day pundit Thomas Frank hailed Garner's display.
It featured crucial challenges on Tonali and Fernandes to halt promising home attacks - by a player who missed a significant part of pre-season after hernia surgery. "Garner today was extremely good," said Frank. "He is aware; he's talking; he's organising.
"In a high-press situation, he does the recovery, and that's just so exceptional and so important when you are playing against a team who are dominating you. "He was running so hard, so that's one side of his game, but also so important is his touches. It's through him that a lot of things are happening." Fellow pundit and former Everton defender Ashley Williams said: "He's really impressive.
If you're a centre-back behind him, he's the type of midfielder you want." Garner was signed for an initial fee of only £9m from Manchester United in 2022, having spent the previous season on loan helping Nottingham Forest get promoted to the Premier League. The academy graduate did not make a Premier League start for United. After taking two seasons to settle at Everton under Frank Lampard and then Sean Dyche amid a backdrop of financial problems and points deductions, the 2025-26 campaign proved to be a watershed moment.
Garner played all but six minutes of Everton's Premier League campaign to spearhead a European push that lasted for much of the season. In December Everton travelled to Forest with a depleted squad and won 2-0 to move within four points of the top four. Garner scored Everton's opening goal in a commanding display that underlined his development.
Following that win, manager David Moyes said: "When I came in, I still saw a bit of a boy and I think I now see someone who's turning into a really good leader as well, beginning to take a bit more responsibility and grow up and begin to start to act like a real midfield player." The data backs up Garner's growing maturity. He ranked top for a host of metrics for Everton last season, in terms of creativity and physicality, making the most successful passes, tackles and interceptions, but also providing the most assists and engineering the most chances. Perhaps most impressively, he stepped up in the absence of key winger Jack Grealish - four of Garner's seven assists came after Grealish's season was ended by injury in January.
Extract — continue reading at the source.
