Everton must give James Garner chance to shine after England U21 footage emerges
Everton had two representatives play for England Under-21s on Tuesday evening as they came from behind to beat Germany 3-1.
Anthony Gordon was typically influential in attack as Folarin Balogun, Conor Gallagher and Cole Palmer scored the goals but it is the under-appreciated performance of James Garner that needs a mention.
The 21-year-old was replaced on the 70th minute by Tottenham Hotspur’s Oliver Skipp but the 21-year-old was hugely reliable in the middle of the park for Lee Carsley’s side.
There was one 20-second clip shared on Twitter by user NeilA1878 that epitomises everything Garner is about every single time he steps onto the pitch.
At first, he is on the left side of the penalty area, flicking a header onto the bar but he is not content with that, charging across the field to make not one but two vital tackles to prevent a German counter-attack.
This was after more than an hour of play too which shows that he still had plenty of gas in the tank to use had Carsley not brought him off in the interest of rotation.
Frank Lampard will have had an eye firmly on this game and two of his promising young stars of the future and he will find it difficult to ignore Garner if he keeps up that kind of commitment.
Idrissa Gana Gueye and Amadou Onana have made things difficult for him to break into the side at Goodison Park but it will only be a matter of time before he gets his chance if he keeps on showing the right attitude to fight for everything.
Not every game will suit him with Everton sometimes being the team on the front foot but even then, he has the technical ability to pick apart an opposition defence in an instant by controlling the tempo of the game more calmly than Gueye could.