Confirmed Signing James Tarkowski

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EFC78 said:
It's a popular comment from our fanbase, but it doesn't say much because our defence was dire all season and he missed most of it, and I have suspicions about his commitment to the cause and how injured he actually was at various points.
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My favourite GOT thing is psychoanalysis of people none of us have ever met.
 

Brett Angell Delight said:
A very hard comparison to make. Nobody has seen him defend at this level for anybody other than a Burnley side who have (had) a unique way of playing in the PL. He played under very little expectation and certainly had some impressive defensive stats, but his numbers on the ball were woeful.

Obviously I hope you’re right, but my official contribution to the vaults is as follows:

He’ll lose the dogged determination that playing for a team of yard dogs gave him and/or won’t cope with being asked to pass the ball to teammates. We’ll persist in playing him through mistakes and poor form, in the hope that he comes good but he won’t and his player thread on here will be absolutely radioactive by January, calling on us to get rid of him. History will show him as another crap signing, devoid of any imagination or forethought.
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They aren't at all
 
Brett Angell Delight said:
I couldn’t agree harder if I tried, but go back through the threads of every single disastrous signing we’ve made recently and I guarantee in every one you’ll see the same argument you just made.

“He’s not quite as crap as what we have”

In some cases it proved not to be true and in others, it was valid but not quite as crap still equalled crap.

He played for Burnley. He was rumoured to have attracted interest from big clubs but none ever took the punt on him, I suspect because they were unsure whether a Burnley grock would fit into another PL defence well.

Only one team has been idiotic enough to take a punt on a Burnley grock CB in recent times.
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Keane, tbf, isn't a 'grock'. He's actually decent on the ball too, which is why Everton managers from Ancelotti to Lampard have relied on him for that. But Everton don't need a CB like Maldini or even just John Stones - they just need a player capable of finding passes to midfielders - and that's where the onus has to be on getting quality ball players in. Bar Delph, who's off, we haven't had one midfielder capable of getting on the ball from the defence and starting attacks, which often means we'd have to rely on Keane/Mina/Holgate to do that and that's where a huge part of the problem lies.

We first and foremost need a good defender. Tarkowski is that. He's shown his leadership qualities, he's good in the air and improves on what we have bar Mina, who unfortunately can't stay fit and may be leaving anyway. He's on a free transfer and we simply don't have funds until we can guarantee shifting players.
 

Off topic but just off the back of a few comments, I don’t know what it is that people see differently with holgate. People always seem to swing from one extreme to the other with him when for me his performances have pretty consistently just been in the ‘alright’ bracket. I just find it a bit mad that people keep saying he really stepped up and was great at the end of the season. We conceded 10 in our last 3 games and he was centre half for all of them. How is that stepping up?!
 
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Brett Angell Delight said:
As I recall, of all PL CBs he was in the bottom 2% for passes attempted and the bottom 2% of pass completion %. I’d say that’s pretty ropey.
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This is PL last season of Everton and Burnley defenders, ordered by passes attempted.

I highly doubt Keane was in the bottom 2% for passes attempted and he's the only one on this list he's below? His 68.81% isn't great, but he also played by far the most long passes on that list, which explains the drop off, as long passes tend to be less successful than short ones...

Player Games Played Passes ↓Passes Successful Passing Accuracy Successful Long Passes Long Passes, Total
Keane, Michael32121192776.55125255
Tarkowski, James35118081268.81140293
Taylor, Charlie3198069771.1274210
Coleman, Séamus3095170674.2453144
Holgate, Mason2584357768.4575207
Mee, Ben2175152970.4489202
Godfrey, Ben2370554076.62279
Lowton, Matthew2564943767.3362171
Roberts, Connor2164647172.912493
Collins, Nathan1963043669.2146132
Digne, Lucas1350838675.981339
Kenny, Jonjoe1536126673.681853
Mina, Yerry1335628580.062251
Mykolenko, Vitalii1332023573.441340
Pieters, Erik1225417267.721438
Branthwaite, Jarrad61158775.65514
Long, Kevin61027977.45816
 
Lanolin said:
Off topic but just off the back of a few comments, I don’t know what it is that people see differently with holgate. People always seem to swing from one extreme to the other with him when for be his performances have pretty consistently just been in the ‘alright’ bracket. I just find it a bit mad that people keep saying he really stepped up and was great at the end of the season. We conceded 10 in our last 3 games and he was centre half for all of them. How is that stepping up?!
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Holgate escapes a lot of criticism because fans love to hate on Keane.

He'll have nowhere to hide if Keane becomes a peripheral squad player next season.
 

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