Everton defender James Tarkowski isn't the player he once was, but will he remain in the starting XI this season?
Should James Tarkowski be Everton's starting centre-back?
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Well, that was a fun transfer Deadline Day wasn’t it?
Anyway, the Everton squad from September to January (at least) is how it is now and boy, we need all the help we can get. Starting with the new captain of Everton, James Tarkowski.
Tarkowski joined the Blues in 2022 on a free transfer after his Burnley contract had expired. A former England international, this transfer was very Everton of yesteryear and seemed like a no-brainer, which it was.
Tarkowski brought a defensive mindset similar to that of a previous captain, Phil Jagielka, and has been a success in terms of that. My question to you all is…is his time up now?
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Is it time to filter Tarkowski out of the side?
Another thing to get out of the way, as a player and as a person, James Tarkowski is decent enough and has been a great player and servant to the Blues in his short time here. We will all never forget that rocket at the end of the Merseyside derby any time soon, which literally shook Goodison Park like never before.
My thoughts on ‘Tarky’ are that he is rapidly losing the little pace he did have and it’s starting to become a concern for Everton.
One thing Tarkowski had was the ability to recover in situations in which his pace was not an issue. Last season, for me, started the downfall.
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Maybe having Jarrad Branthwaite next to him was masking some of the issues he already had, and Michael Keane (with all due respect) is not Jarrad Branthwaite and will always need a leader like Tarky next to him to lead him as he has done in the past.
I agree that Tarkowski has a presence on the pitch and has leadership qualities about him. That being said, with some incidents last season, Tarkowski seemed to be nowhere to be seen and was more interested in winding up the opposition's players than getting the lads he was captaining back to basics.
I wouldn’t have made a soon to be 34-year-old James Tarkowski our captain; my vote would have went to Jordan Pickford for the short term. Let’s face it, Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall is the one groomed to be our next captain, but I think that would be premature at this stage.
Does this mean Tarkowski plays every week now he is club captain? Plays terrible and still plays the week later?
Everton do have a knack of draining the players who are on the downturn, see Tim Howard, Sylvain Distin and Seamus Coleman. I am not saying for one moment that James Tarkowski is useless, I just feel it might be time to reduce his game time before he becomes a liability, but with Everton short of bodies, I cannot see that happening any time soon.