“Rock solid” proclaimed an Everton tweet – complete with a flexing bicep emoji – to greet the signing of James Tarkowski as the Blues reeled off a series of their new boy’s statistics from last season. But this transfer has echoes of another Goodison Park arrival from over two decades ago.
Tarkowski’s rankings among Premier League defenders in 2021/22 showed that he was ranked number one for aerial duels (153), duels won (242) and blocks (58), while also being second for clearances (183) and headed clearances (101). What does that tell us about centre-back? Well he was clearly kept busy with plenty to do in the thick of Burnley’s relegation battle – with Everton of course one of their main rivals in the fight to remain in the top flight, securing their status in their penultimate fixture before the Clarets finally succumbed to the drop on the final day.
But it also shows that Tarkowski, a player who David Moyes tried to take to West Ham United for £30million as recently as September 2020, is a proactive figure at the back, not afraid of ‘getting stuck in’ and as he outlined in his first interview after signing : “First and foremost, I’m a defender. That part of my game is something I’ve really worked on the past few years to become the best defender possible.”
