Tarkowski close to making Everton switch

Mina's fitness over 4 years must be a serious concern but I'd like him to stay if he was gonna play at least 32 league games per season, allowing for injuries and suspensions. This seems unlikely.

Frank and his team have a huge job this summer to put their mark on the Everton squad.

The likes of Gallagher and Broja won't come cheap – I think these are the type of players Frank will be looking to land when funds become available from sales.

He is competitive, has a bit of nastiness, and is a leader – exactly what we need in defence. I think we bought the wrong centre-back from Burnley when we bought Keane.

Everton need to build a team of tough competitive players and this is a great start. Next, we need a creative midfielder.

Those who are moaning about buying a player from a relegated club should remember that Pickford was signed from relegated Sunderland.

Whilst I think Tarkowski is a downgrade on Mina, he's absolutely not a downgrade though when he's available for 2-3 times the number of games per year (touch wood!). His leadership alongside Keane, Holgate or Branthwaite could be critical, and allow Coleman to hand over to Patterson more as well.

If Richarlison really is off, we have Gordon as a ready-made replacement on the left, so re-investing in players like Gallagher and Sangare or Paulinho could really sort midfield too. With Simms and Dobbin coming in to replace some of the goals.

That'd put us just needing strength in depth, which would lead to a much more chilled approach to loans like Broja or Gilmore or Loftus-Cheek.

If Mina goes, he will be needed!

By that logic, you seem to be implying that Everton were not mediocre.

Considering defence statistics, the mediocre Burnley conceded 53 goals whereas the non-mediocre Everton conceded 66 goals.

We need to get real with our expectations and Tarkowski is certainly an improvement.

That said, I do not think we have space for him and Keane in a team (unless we are planning on becoming the low block specialists of the league) so I would like to see Keane and Mina (sob) shifted and a young, high potential centre-back with pace to come in, someone like Cameron-Vickers.

I see there are more rumours of Richarlison going, I think it's time unless he is going to sign a new contract. Chelsea are being mentioned in the press, if they have genuine interest I can see us plundering them for players in return, hopefully using Gallagher as a loan makeweight. The players we should be looking at are Broja, Gallagher, Gilmour and possibly the young centre-back who was on loan at Huddersfield last season.

Broja need only come in if we are looking to shift Calvert-Lewin as well, though in my eyes we would be crazy to let both Calvert-Lewin and Richarlison go this summer. Broja would be an able replacement though. Interesting times, I want to see some young, unpolished gems from abroad (i.e. MLS and South America) to come in as squad fillers too.

Another option we should be considering is Grillitsch on a free from Hoffenheim. Austrian international who can play central defensive midfielder and also across the back. He would not only potentially fill in at the back if needed (saving us millions in signing a back-up centre-back) but play that No 6 we need. He is gritty, determined and an excellent passer of the ball. He was superb last season in the Bundesliga.

I believe Grillitsch is close to signing a contract with Fiorentina sadly. Would have been a useful and sensible move for us.

After Tarkowski, who I think will be a solid player for us, I don't imagine we'll do any more business till July.

The biggest need is a really good central defensive midfielder who can hit the ground running. And a replacement for Richarlison or Calvert-Lewin if either or both should leave.

I'd be surprised to see Gallagher come. Chances are that Chelsea wanna keep him and if they do sell it probably won't be for less than £30M, not sure we'll spend that much on any one player this summer. A loan (with purchase option) for Billy Gilmour is probably more likely though he hardly convinced at Norwich.

First training session with Richarlison might be interesting.

I reckon he'll be a really good centre-half for us, he has been the mainstay in a usually solid Burnley defence. Good signing on a free

It wouldn't surprise me if we bought another centre-back, sold two, and put Branthwaite out on loan.

I cannot see Frank playing Keane and Tarkowski as a centre-back pairing in a back four. It seems possible that he is preparing for a 3 at the back system maybe, with Godfrey in alongside Tarkowski and possibly one other.

Which then makes the full-back positions more fluid as they obviously become wing-backs. I'm not sure he'd play Mykolenko as a left-sided defender so you'd assume that he will adopt the left-wingback role. This is an interesting one for me as I see Mykolenko as more of an orthodox full-back who is foremost a defender who is decent at getting forward but is no way a creative wingback.

This then also makes the job of replacing Seamus Coleman more flexible, as it may put less defensive burden upon an emerging Patterson who has strong attacking instincts but lacks experience and some physicality. It also gives Frank the option to sign or try other right-sided players who can play this role.

It will be interesting to see what he does. Especially given that you'd assume Tarkowski will now be the first defender on the team sheet – and he has been played almost exclusively as part of a centre-back pairing in a back 4.

I notice Lacazette has rejoined Lyon, so we could see the departure of Calvert-Lewin. Once he has gone, we will have money to go for Gallagher or Gilmour. The former for me, but there will be some stiff competition.

I have to agree with you on the Mina scenario, his body is just not up to it and Tarkowski is better than what we have.

If both Mina and Keane are sold and we take one of our new midfield recruits on loan, will it not be possible to finance the purchase of the other without having to sell Calvert-Lewin?

If we do end up with a player on loan, let's hope we have the option to buy at the end of the loan period.

Reportedly he wanted £100k per week. Given our straitened circumstances that seems very high for a defender with two international caps in 2018 and none since. He has been deployed in a Burnley team accustomed to playing with a deep defensive set-up with strong penalty box defending. That would be fine if Lampard was planning to follow suit but his media comments suggest he isn't. Will Tarkowski be able to adjust?

On a positive note, the player's appearance record is very good. In each of the last 4 years, he has made at least 35 Premier League appearances per season.

Sometimes the least-heralded signings turn out to be the best. I hope that proves to be the case with Tarkowski.

On top of that, I also struggle to see a club giving us a decent fee for Mina, given his injuries. Knowing our luck, we'll be stuck with both Keane and Mina and Yerry will suddenly become injury free for the entire season. This means we'll be paying Tarkowski £100k per week to sit on the bench!

Still, he is a decent defender and gives us a better chance of improving our awful defending at set-pieces.

More like the above please...

I hope Mina is sold, he's just not reliable enough. Any money for him would be a bonus and Tarkowksi (I hope anyways) will be on lower wages than Minas £120k/week if he comes.

If the above happens, it's sensible business and also good to see we may be doing some early business.

I'd also look to sell Keane to raise funds for other areas.

There would be takers for sure. He's quality. Not too old. Someone would take a gamble (like us when we purchased Delph for £10M).

What about Lewis Gibson? Doesn't seem like he's got much game time when loaned out. So he will be sold?

To give Branthwaite more game time, either Holgate or Keane should be sold as well if there are takers.

Tar, Godfrey, Branthwaite, Holgate or Keane as centre-back.

We are targeting the same 'ok' but very limited squad players instead of looking for upgrades to our poor injury prone defenders.

I'll take 17th position next season right now.

Branthwaite clearly needs a year on loan in the Championship. Mina is on his way. None of Keane, Godfrey, or Holgate have been reliable and I reckon at least one will leave.

Tarkowski is a solid defender. We were woeful, absolutely woeful on set-pieces last season. This should improve us there.

He will bring with him leadership also.

We don't need Hollywood signings.

This is a 'Moyes' type signing that made us the 6th best team in the league 10 years ago.

I expect another defender will arrive on top of this, and that is a good thing. Sell Keane and Mina, bring in Tarkowski and another.

Our target is 10th, maybe 8th, not 6t/4th. And this guy is free. He fits the bill.

I’d say it is more of a Walter Smith type signing than a Moyesie.

Moyes purposely did not sign older players for the most part.

Tarkowski is the same age that Alan Stubbs was signing for Everton in 2001 on a free transfer.

And although I don’t like to compare players generally, and the club over varying generations - the one thing I can draw from this is that Stubbsy managed to play about 4/5 years before he was finished.

Our Icelander is still out on bail allegedly, its almost 12 months since he was arrested, its a long time to be left in limbo.

Keane played much of a season on a foot so badly infected he risked losing it, and he never said a word publicly about it despite taking loud abuse for his lack of pace.

And when he fractured his skull, he missed only four games, and the first thing he did on his return was stick his head in for a heavily contested ball. And he never bailed on a single header.

Criticizing his football is legitimate. Criticizing his courage is bullshit.

Tarkowsky feels more sure of himself in general. And I think we need that. For a team with eyes on mid table and needing some more consistency in defense (whilst on a tight budget) he seems a very sensible first signing to me, though I’d always prefer someone with a bit more pace (oh for a young Joseph Yobo).

It's not his commitment or his courage. It's his lack of anticipation and reading of the game. His regular ability to switch off and watch the ball go over his head. Only he doesn't have the powers of recovery that other defenders can rely on when that happens.

He's too nice and not a leader. But that doesn't mean he lacks courage. And he is a decent defender too when he is confident and concentrating.

Scares the shit out of me though. But so do quite a few of our players.

Tarkowski will bring the desperately needed leadership that Keane cannot provide, and a better reading of the game. But anyone who thinks he is faster than Keane or can play higher up the pitch is going to be disappointed.

For the season just gone, Michael Keane ranked 7th for the number of interceptions. He managed 62 interceptions throughout the season.

James Tarkowski only ranked 17th, with 49 interceptions. Maybe Keane is a better reader of the game than Tarkowski after all?

Howard, Coleman, Jagielka, Distin, Baines.

Could that now be:

Pickford, Coleman, Tarkowski, Godfrey, Mykolenko

We'll see – but certainly heartening to think that might be the case.

As for getting a central defensive midfielder who can play immediately, one might say we have one coming back in Gbamin who played hundreds of minutes for CSKA Moscow. I know, but maybe worth pressuring him preseason to see if it'll save us £40M…

Will Coleman still have the legs for another Premier League season?

Hopefully he does as he has been an outstanding servant, but it may be time for Nathan Patterson to stake his claim to a place in the starting eleven.

Howeger, whether he's really any better than Keane or Holgate remains to be seen. Hopefully he is. He is certainly more violent and I say that as something in his favour. I'm not sure if that violence or aggression is what people are seeing as leadership – or whether they think he's an organiser. We certainly lack an organiser.

Otherwise, not entirely sure what style we'll play or who his partner will be. Hopefully it is a back 4 – but I wouldn't be surprised if he's paired with Holgate ahead of Branthwaite and Godfrey and Keane.

The only thing that concerns me is we need 3 in the midfield. So 3-5-2 could work with rhe right players, but I get the impression that Lampard tends to lean towards 3-4-3, which leaves us open. I don't like that formation at all.

I'm making a pledge to myself and the dogs this summer. I'm just going to let what will be will be and wait for August.

What happened to Jay (BRZ)?

@48 Robert. You are slightly correct in that we'd be prepared to overspend on such a player a couple of years ago. Only Tarkowski is wanted by a couple of clubs

Nobody in their right mind was prepared to spend £45M on Sigurdsson. We battled with no other club to get him. Just like there wasn't a queue of clubs who were waiting to spend £20M+ on Michael Keane.

This insane outfit we're going as high as £60M and beyond for Wilf Zaha – thankfully Palace never accepted our highest offer. Good player and certainly better than most of what we had but the money was crazy and guess what - nobody else remotely in the running willing to spend anywhere near that kind of money for him.

Distin was crap. Bottled the big moments (witness the back pass in the semi final v Liverpool that Suarez put away when we were comfortable. Or when he brought down the attacker in the European game in the area earning a penalty AND a red card….he could have brought him down out of the area OR Let the guy score but the red and pen cost us the tie)

Distin was a complete urban myth

Lescott was x10 better: a goal scoring threat and could play in the middle or the left. But the way he exited Goodison has caused fans much amnesia. Lescott put a prime Ferando Torres in his pocket ahead of our cup win v Liverpool when Dan Gosling scored.

I couldn't agree more. Distin couldn't lace the boots of Lescott. Comfortably the better player and probably one of the best centre-backs to have played for the club.

Distin had exceptional physical attributes that very often got him out of the trouble he'd cause himself through poor positioning or reading of the game and often a poor touch.

The crowd around me used to love his last-ditch sliding powerhouse tackles near the corner flags. Everyone except for me as I sat there thinking that the opposition now have a corner from a phase of play he should've snuffed out before it even became a problem.

The players operate best in 4-3-3 / 4-2-3-1. Tarkowski is not, alas, Rudiger and will not change that.

I wouldn't go as far to say Distin was crap; that would reinvoke a debate between me and my brother.

Back to Lescott. Forget that semi-final moment. You've just reminded of more injustice when Spit the Carragher wrestled Lescott to the ground and it got waved away.

I'm trying to stay calm this summer. I've promised Everton won't dominate my life.

I've been promising that for nearly 30 years of marriage.

Every player makes mistakes at times and defenders and GKs obviously pay the price more. For me Distin a really good signing and most of the time put in a sold performance. He had pace, was left footed and formed a decent partnership in the middle.]

Had to refresh my memory on the Sporting red card but can see he was voted players player of the season that year so can't have done a bad job!

Little harsh to summarise his 5 or 6 years with us in those two mistakes. Also, wasn't the Liverpool mistake after a crap pass from Rodwell?

There would be no interest in him at £25M. Including from us.

What’s your basis, as crap implies crap, from the start to the end of his Everton career.

Every player who’s played football for EFC, has had a crap game.

I agree his mistake in the semi in 2012, but that team he was part of pre 2009, 2012, was the best team of Moyes era.

There’s been far worse players and 8n context of crap CBS for Everton in recent times, Glenn Keeley, and Per Kroldrup, were well and truly crap, CBs, for Everton.

It's interesting reading Burnley fans on Tarkowski. The vast majority seem to think he is/was a notable upgrade on Keane. Let's hope they're right.

Keane does read and anticipate passes very well -- you've seen him step up and make those interceptions.

But he isn't even close to Tarkowski on anticipating and marking runs by opposing players, reacting to them and winning the ball. Not just the eyeball test but the stats show it.

Tark wins 69% of his tackle attempts, Keane 54%.

This season, Tarkowski won a whopping 50% more one-on-one duels overall than Keane, both on the ground (241 to 156) and in the air (153 to 97), despite playing only three more games than Keane.

Tarkowski won 70% of those duels this season. Keane won 62%.

Tarkowski is simply, clearly the better player.

More relevant is we signed Distin when he was in his early 30s, and he went on to play several hundred games for us so was very good value.

I liked Distin, he made a few mistakes, including the one at Wembley versus Liverpool, same as most players make mistakes. But overall, I preferred him to Lescott who was a good centre-back and scored plenty of goals for the Blues.

Those goals increased his popularity with fans but didn't make him a better centre-back than Distin, in my opinion.

Mina is injury-prone and the subject of transfer speculation. Branthwaite is still very much learning his trade. The other three central defenders at our disposal, are at best erratic. So, taking all of these points into consideration, Tarkowski should prove good for us.

Just as important to our defensive set-up is a midfield player capable of providing cover for the back line. Gbamin returns to us a wholly unknown quantity, perhaps this is a role he could fill?

Otherwise, there is nobody who has shown any sort of consistency in that position. Allan, Delph, Gomes, Davies, and Doucouré, have all lacked for one reason or another.

It looks as if Richarlison is set to leave. I sincerely hope Calvert-Lewin dosen't follow suit. At his best, with the correct service, Calvert-Lewin is an excellent striker.

I'm certain to cause mayhem here by saying that Gordon is not the person to provide that service, for the simple reason that he is not alert enough to be on the same wavelength as Calvert-Lewin. I do believe though that Gray is. An injury-free spell could see their double act flourish.

Lampard has much work ahead in pre-season. It is a daunting task to fall on his relatively young managerial shoulders. I hope he is up to the task and that he is given at least three seasons to prove his worth.

We need a high quality DMC and I'd say he is one. Thought he'd be more expensive than that.

Is Lampard seeing an opportunity to reunite a good defensive unit of yore to get more out of Keane. Perhaps Tarkowski could be the making of him? Just a thought and a hope!

After Keane moved to us that summer, Tark and Mee became the starters, and have remained so to this day.

As far Tarkowski, I've nothing against him but he's no better than what we have apart from a better injury record.

And it's not my money, but to think he's now the highest paid player is another's idiotic move that will upset our already unsettled cart.

So far, it's a case of more of the same, overly expensive, mediocre player recruitment on a very expensive and long contract for a soon-to-be 30-year-old.

We clearly don't learn our lessons.

Patterson is also an established(-ish) international. I'm excited by the potential of Patterson too.

Justin, it's been a while since our last overt player purchase screw-up, so why not?

Seriously though, whilst we've yet to see confirmation of the salary, these sign-on bonus and big-wage deals in lieu of transfer fees are not good. Nor the long contracts, as you say. A possible destabilizing effect within the squad and a tendency to trend wages even higher.

It's not so many years ago, I remember Harry Kane wanting £110/120k per week and going at it with Levy. Now, £100k per week-plus is becoming quite common. Nuts.

We can now hopefully move on to rebuilding our awful midfield.

I also hope it's not true Tarkowski is due to make £120,000 a week. That would tie him with Ruben Dias of Man City and just pennies behind Kurt Zouma, in whose company he does not deserve to be in. I guess he gets more salary because he's on a free but he is now tied for 10th in wages in the Premier League for a centre-back. For reference Keane is at £65,000.

This strikes me as a lazy signing: "Hey look, Tarkowski's available. He's out of contract and he's a big boy who can clog up the middle. Let's pay him more than anyone else would and get this done. "Sounds good to me. Now let's get some lunch. I love lunch."

This is the destabilizing effect I mentioned. Keane £65k/wk, Tarkowski £120/wk (if true). What does this mean – Tarkowski is more than 1.8 times the player Keane is? It's approaching double the money Keane is on. Is someone underpaid, or is someone overpaid?

There comes a point when you're all on a few mil a year that it becomes more about principle, whatever the transfer mechanics that led to the salary.

Brian,

I thought similar. One day we might see the tangible, measurable effect of an imaginative DoF, whether at our club or elsewhere.

Our defence last season was absolutely woeful. Beyond belief woeful.

Getting at least one part of this sorted early doors is positive. A player available and willing and proven. He will improve us on set-pieces (17 goals conceded or so last season) and this is key

We can't afford to not improve this area. So that he was readily available and we pounced, good work.

I expect 1 more defender to be signed once Keane and/or Mina are sold

I think we lost 10 games by one goal last season. So an alpha centre half can turn that around significantly in my view. It is the most important position on the pitch, and with an injured Mina we needed one.

Leading a Keane, Godfrey, Holgate, Branthwaite or put in with a Mina doesn't make us look so charitable.

There's no such thing as a free transfer anymore, and this is definitely why footballers benefit from running down their contracts. This is something I think Yerry Mina, and possibly even Richarlison, might also be looking to do, if Everton don't get rid of them this summer?

However, to have an (past?) England international on little over a half of the salary, it's perhaps not conducive to the best team spirit. Bernard was one of our highest earners but no way one of the highest contributors. It's become a scattergun approach, and I wonder how this plays out in the dressing room.

Good point on Mina and Keane by the way. true. I think those better performances had Keane on the left and Mina right whereas Keane usually played right when paired with Holgate.

I understand free transfers getting a premium because of zero transfer fee, no issue with the principle. But they still should fit in the pay structure.

More importantly, wages need restructuring to reflect success. I thought this was the case and maybe it is but it's not often mentioned.

Example: Michael Keane is on £65k then an upgrade / free transfer premium may get £80k.
Plus £10k per clean sheet for defenders. £10k for team win. £1M bonus for winning a cup. £5M for winning the league. £2M for top 4. £1M for Top 6.

A realistic 10 wins and 10 clean sheets are avg £17k per week.

Not far off £100k with potential for more but reflects the teams performance, success and potential earnings.

Is our terrible financial position because we overpay basic salaries and easy bonuses?

We should be very happy with this signing.

Let's ask ourselves why this could be. Is he talented? Well, he must be if he plays in the Premier League right? It could also be that Burnley is 19th in possession and all they did was sit back in two banks of four. Tarkowski was high in some of these stats because he had the most chances to get them.

Also, he was not near one or two in all those stats.

With our defence, let's just hope Tarkowski has such talent... at pace of course.

What absolute nonsense of a post.

"Burnley is 19th in possession and all they did was sit back in two banks of four, Tarkowski was high in some of these stats because he had the most chances to get them."

That's the point! He still had to win those duels, tackles, headers, clearances etc. And won a lot of them!

Burnley's defensive approach may account in part for the number of duels, tackles etc won but less so for how well he does in the % of duels etc that he wins.

You'll also be pleased to know that his stats were arguably even more impressive at Brentford who played a very different style.

He's a real battler and, although I'd prefer us to buy defenders capable of playing a high line, I think he'll prove a fan favourite for his determination, leadership and narkiness!

Tackles - Tarkowski ranks 32nd amongst all defenders in the EPL in percentage of tackles won against the dribble. That is not a recipe for playing a high line as someone else wrote. Yes he has a lot of tackles but the total number does not tell the whole story.

Aerial Duels - Amongst all defenders, Tarkowski ranks 21st in percentage of aerial duels won. Ben Mee is actually 15th. Yes Tarkowski lead the league aerial duels won but he had many. many more chances than everyone else.

Passing Completion % Amongst all defenders - 97th. Yes 96 defenders have a higher passing percentage than Tarkowski. Numbers 1-3 are LaPorte and Dias from Man City and Thiago Silva with Chelsea. Makes sense yes?

I'll let these stand here and editorialize below.

Everton fanny about at the back, and them give it Pickford to punt long. The centre halves get a 100% passing %, but the team has done the same thing (perhaps just taking more risk of coughing it up).

He's not a Beckenbauer obviously, but he will he help reduce the amount of goals we concede and be available for most games. If so, he's an upgrade relative to what we had before hand.

I like Mina, but 14 games played last season is a joke. Top players cope with 60 games, yet our £100k wages and £27m transfer fee gets lest than a quarter of that.

I would point out that Tarkowski won 69% of his tackle attempts and 70% of his overall duels last season, both up near the top of the league, and -- more to the point -- both way better than Michael Keane.

But I think it's obvious to everyone that his signing indicates Frank has no intention of playing a high line this season. Tarkowski lacks both the speed and the passing to make that work.

I wish Michael Keane could simplify his game, because when he plays on the front foot and attacks the ball, he’s not to bad, but when he overthinks, and worries about what’s in behind him, he alienates his best qualities, and often puts himself, and others in no man’s land.

Football is dead easy watching from the stands, I know, but sometimes it’s torture, especially watching players who very rarely go and play to their strengths.

Maybe Godfrey will really improve, playing with someone who takes command, and just goes and attacks the ball, especially because it’ll help him utilize his pace, which is definitely one of his “obvious strengths?”

Lampard’s biggest job, is trying to turn an ordinary squad, with a few good players, into a decent team, where the players work hard and hopefully compensate for each other.

I too wonder where that info is from, and where Keane sits in the passing completion. During a period under Ancelotti, Keane held the highest number of passes in our team (perhaps understandable with all the short stuff around/across the back) but was second in percentage completion behind Rodriguez.

Keane is 29, an England International with plenty of experience. He should be leading this defence. But I've not seen a player so flaky as him, and visiby drain in confidence from errors.

If you're a striker do you fear playing Michael Keane, or do you think yum, yum I am going to destroy this guy? Clue most say yum, yum...

Get rid to someone daft enough to want an English train crash.

Stats' are hugely-detailed and never-ending now (look into some of Opta's stuff) but still don't tell the whole story. I doubt they ever could. Interpretation.

Ironically there was a brief period where Keane did play with some confidence in terms of forward passing/attacking play. Remember that Beckenbauer-esque forward pass?

It's in there but there's not enough of it, it rarely comes out and it doesn't last.

You telling me that the scouts at Everton couldn't get a better centre-back than him?

We are now going to pay over-the-top wages for a player who is coming to the end of his career… £120k per week, for fuck’s sake! If we can’t find a defender under 24, that says a lot about our recruitment team. They need sacking.

I thought Frank was going to be a revolution… he is starting like all previous managers – grab whoever is on a free and pay them over-the-top wages. So much for the revolution – it’s just going to be more of the same.

1) How many goals did Burnley concede vs us?
2) What's his stats like?
3) How much of our zero capex spend should we have assigned to buying an alternative that was guaranteed to improve the back line?
4) Assuming you're okay with 3 being in place of bolstering a non-existent midfield?

Is he that much of an upgrade on Tom Davies or even Andre Gomes? Who'd be motivated enough to pay £15-20M for either of them and additionally give them a long lucrative contract ? He has had five or six years to become part of Tottenham's midfield and has never established himself.

Possibly Frank sees potential in him, and has confidence he can improve himself and make us play better. If so, I hope he's right, as we need a dynamic midfield and can't afford to carry any more ineffective journeymen.

Hopefully our new DoF will change the structure and culture. I keep saying, I don't know why, but I have a gut feeling about him.

On the centre back, I can understand the feeling of being underwhelmed. My son tells me he's a Dyche defender, so not the type of defender I hoped for as it means we are likely to continue to sit deep. That both scares and frustrates me.

But he is welcomed to Everton by me. Hopefully he can solidify our leaky back line. Especially from set pieces. Sometimes you have to apply the plaster and stop the bleeding before you fix the wound properly.

I'm not concerned about age. 30 is a good age for a centre back and will bring experience and a wise head to what is otherwise a young and inexperienced back line.

Michael Keane is a similar age, but unfortunately, he's no leader and needs to be led. He plays like a young centre back, not someone approaching 30 himself.

I'd have preferred Koulibaly but let's be realistic as to where we are.

Welcome to Everton.

Stats are from FBREF.com

From FBREF.COM click "Premier League."

Put Mouse on the "Squad and Player Stats" dropdown and click "Defensive Actions." Scroll down to "Player Defensive Actions."

There are also stats for many more actions.

Not a bad site, very detailed though takes a little navigating. Comparison function is good. As said in the past, the interpretation is what it's all about, how it translates onto the pitch, what matters most in the circumstance, in a particular team, opposition and so on. Not easy...