The James Garner right-back experiment was successful

Everton produced their best performance in a couple of months to secure a 2-0 win over Fulham at Hill Dickinson Stadium on Saturday.

Three points against the Cottagers helped the Toffees to move up to 11th in the league standings. More importantly, though, it brought to an end a three-game winless run for David Moyes’ side.

While goals from Idrissa Gana Gueye and Michael Keane capped off a brilliant performance from the hosts and Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall had his best game in an Everton shirt, it was James Garner’s performance at right-back that caught the eye the most.

Before the clash against Fulham, Moyes made a big call by dropping Jake O’Brien and moving Garner to the right-back slot instead. 

A midfielder by trade, Garner has become something of a Swiss Army knife for the Blues. He was deployed at left-back at the start of the campaign with Vitalii Mykolenko out injured, was moved back to his favourite position in midfield after Mykolenko’s return, and also saw out some games at right-back.

This was, however, his first big test in a new role and Garner came out with flying colours.

For starters, Garner improves Everton’s buildup from the back dramatically as he’s so much more comfortable on the ball compared to O’Brien. Garner’s ability to manipulate spaces, find passing lanes, carry the ball forward with a run or avoid the opposition press with changes in directions enables the backline to avoid becoming predictable and constantly find the free man in midfield.

It is in this aspect of the game where O’Brien often looks boxed in, especially when faced with an opposition press. The Irish international has little solutions to offer in possession besides passing the ball backwards to James Tarkowski or hoofing it forward with the hope that Iliman Ndiaye latches on to it.

How often have we seen the ball shuffle across the backline from Tarkowski to O’Brien and back either to Tarkowski or Pickford only for them to launch it forward towards the striker, leading to possession loss and inviting more pressure?

Needless to say that these deficiencies hinder the side’s ability to progress from the back which is a shame because you want players like Ndiaye, Dewsbury-Hall and Jack Grealish to have as much of the ball as possible.

Garner had an 86% passing accuracy against Fulham while O’Brien has a passing accuracy below 70% so far this season. 

Even in the final third, the 24-year-old is capable of making a bigger impact. He offers more solutions to Ndiaye as he’s capable of making both overlapping and underlapping runs. 

He can make the run outside the full-back and either take the player along with him to open up spaces for his teammates or swing in a deadly cross into the box, a role O’Brien is also decent at. However, Garner brings a natural ease when drifting inside and creating numerical superiority in the central spaces and shooting from distance that O’Brien just can’t match.

Defensively too, Garner looked sound last night and held his own against Kevin besides a couple of instances where the latter seemed to outfox him.

This is the only area of the game where O’Brien has an edge over Garner at the moment. Not to mention that the Irish international has faced some of the best wingers in the league, while Garner is relatively untested in that department. However, the defensive fundamentals are there, and he showed a lot of it when played at left-back. It should also be something he gets better at with time.

At this point, it seems a no-brainer that Moyes should continue to trust Garner at right-back for the foreseeable future. While he sacrifices a little defensive solidity, the team gains a lot in terms of ball progression, ability to build from the back, and stronger balance on the flanks.

Seems like a gamble worth taking.

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