Imagine Liverpool without Virgil van Dijk. Imagine Arsenal without Gabriel Magalhães. Imagine your best defender being missing for over half of a season.
For Everton, that nightmare scenario has been a reality.
Jarrad Branthwaite is Everton’s best defender. He elevates not just the back line, but the team as a whole.
His partnership with James Tarkowski has been one of the best in the Premier League across the past couple of seasons.
Branthwaite has it all. Pace, stature, strength. He is excellent with the ball at his feet, and as a left-footer (albeit, one who is equally as comfortable using his right foot), he provides a natural balance to the defence.
Michael Keane has played relatively well this season, but as has been discussed before, his partnership with Tarkowski is not sustainable. Jake O’Brien, when given the chance to play in his preferred position at centre-back, has done well.
But Branthwaite is a level above them all, and when he came on for the second half against Leeds United, that was clear.
David Moyes did not want to call on the 23-year-old so early on in the game, but given how bad Everton’s first-half display was, he had little choice. Everton needed to match Leeds up, and Branthwaite came in to what was nominally a three-man defence, albeit O’Brien played as a hybrid right-back/centre-back, with Nathan Patterson playing ahead of him as a wing-back/midfielder.
Interestingly, it was a similar system to the one Moyes deployed when he first returned to Everton last year, playing O’Brien between the two roles, and it was a revelation.
With Branthwaite back, and Moyes seemingly so reluctant to use Tyler Dibling from the start — and Dwight McNeil, surely, deserving to be dropped — it is a system Moyes may well fall back on in the weeks to come.
Because Branthwaite has to play. He transforms Everton both in and out of possession.
His pace allows him to act as the covering defender for Tarkowski, who can go and engage in aerial duels and look to intercept aggressively.
Branthwaite only had six defensive involvements against Leeds, but that was all he needed to do. Once he had settled after 15 minutes, he looked incredibly comfortable — you would have been forgiven for forgetting this was his first competitive appearance since May.
But it was in possession that Branthwaite really showed his worth.
Branthwaite attempted 56 passes, completing 49 of those (88%). He played 41 passes in Leeds’ half, completing 35 (85%). Three of his four long balls were accurate (75%). The centre-back also played one key pass.
His pass map, too, tells its own story. Branthwaite was focused on channeling Everton down the left, with vertical, crisp passing. Once Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall — a fellow half-time substitute — cottoned onto this, he was dropping into space as an option.
Perhaps that persistence down Everton’s left, is what stretched Leeds enough to then see the Toffees exploit a gap down the right — Dewsbury-Hall slipping in Idrissa Gueye, whose centre was prodded home by Thierno Barry.
Everton’s form at Hill Dickinson Stadium is a worry, but a huge issue is when they have to chase games. Branthwaite helps with that. First and foremost, the defence is less likely to concede when he is in it, and secondly, when the onus is on Everton, he provides them with a quality ball-playing defender to start attacks and pass through the thirds.
This should suit Dewsbury-Hall especially, given how adept the former Chelsea man is at finding space between the lines. It is a crying shame that Jack Grealish is now injured, because he too, would surely have relished playing on the same side as Branthwaite.
Everton will hopefully improve in one of the full-back areas, and/or in attack, before the close of the window.
Yet the importance of Branthwaite being back in the fold cannot be underestimated. The crucial thing now is for him to stay fit.
Stats via Sofascore
Reader Comments (2)
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2 Posted 29/01/2026 at 17:42:47
If he keeps it up, and he (+ KDH) can just stay fit we should certainly be looking upwards.
Mr Tuchel should also be very interested, though that would mean the 'big guys' with their agents would start sniffing around again, meaning there's a risk of his head being turned. Trying to avoid the risk of that scenario is a big part of the case for us being in Europe next season.
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1 Posted 29/01/2026 at 16:58:54
O'Brien went to the right and, when Patterson came off, he became an out-and-out right-back. With Tarkowski and Branthwaite in the middle, Mykolenko on the left. It was never less than four.
The day our boy Davey goes three at the back is still to dawn...