David Moyes, James Tarkowski and Michael Keane prior to Everton Carabao Cup tie against Mansfield Town
David Moyes, James Tarkowski and Michael Keane prior to Everton Carabao Cup tie against Mansfield Town
(Image: (Alex Livesey/Getty Images))
James Tarkowski insists there has been a mentality shift at Everton – and it is all down to David Moyes. The Blues enjoyed an impressive run of results last season after the 62-year-old returned to the club in January following Sean Dyche’s departure.
And they have claimed seven points from their opening four league games of the season, as well as booking their place in the third round of the Carabao Cup. And Tarkowski has revealed that his side are no longer thinking about beating the drop, with his manager targeting a top-half table finish.
"As a group, the manager set his stall out," the defender said. "He wants us right at the top half of the table and pushing up there.
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“He showed us what we need to do to do that, the amount of goals we need, the amount of points we need.
“So he set his stall out and now it's up to us to go out there and do it over the season. It's been a good start to the season and progress is being made, for sure.
“I think [against Villa] was the best we've played, to be honest, without winning, so now we have to move forward again."
Moyes' side produced a dominant performance but were forced to settle for a point against Aston Villa at the weekend.
But Tarkowski believes: "I think we're going to get better. We're going to keep progressing, keep improving with the players we've got here – there's some very good players on the bench who haven't been used to today who I think can be very exciting for us.
"We've took on Villa and I know they've not had a great start to the season, but I think they're one of the best teams around.
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“So to put a performance like that, to sort of dominate for most of the game, just despite we didn't get the goal in the end.
"[We're] slightly disappointed that we didn't win, but as a defender, it's a clean sheet – and I thought as a team we defended really solidly well throughout the game and kept a team with very, very good forward players to very little chances.
"I also thought we got the ball wide to our exciting players, to our players who are going to create chances, got the ball into Beto a lot and we did all the right things without getting the goal in the end."