Thomas Frank says what made James Garner's Everton display vs Tottenham so 'exceptional'

Thomas Frank spoke highly of James Garner after his performance in Everton's 0-0 draw away at Tottenham on Saturday.

Everton continued their unbeaten start to the season with the stalemate at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, despite widespread anger about how their summer transfer window panned out.

As for Tottenham, Roberto De Zerbi's team continues their wait for their first win and their first goal thanks to a solid defensive display from the Toffees.

Vitalii Mykolenko picked up the man of the match award for his performance at left-back.

However, it was 25-year-old midfielder Garner who won the plaudits on Match of the Day.

Former Tottenham and Brentford boss Frank was super impressed by what he saw from the ex-Manchester United ace.

What Thomas Frank said about James Garner

Almost the whole of Match of the Day's reaction to the draw was to talk about Garner's display in the midfield.

The Birkenhead-born midfielder seemed to cover every blade of grass as he coped with everything Spurs threw at him and his teammates.

Frank was particularly impressed with how Garner marshalled the midfield.

"Garner was extremely good," Frank said on Match of the Day on Saturday.

"We've found some clips here to highlight his good actions in the game, especially off the ball.

"David Moyes just mentioned the back-four, the keeper and the boys in the middle of the park. Garner has a good position there, winning his duel and then playing it forward after that, which is extremely important.

"Here, he finds his position and you can see he's aware. He's talking, organising and then he's following and tracking the run of Archie Gray and defends that situation very well.

"Then in the middle it's a high-press situation where he needs to do a bit of recovery. It's so exceptional, and so important when you play against a team that's dominating you to have a player like Garner who can track the runners, that can recover, that can win the duels."

What do the stats say about Garner's performance?

According to stats by Sofascore, Garner won 10 out of the 14 duels he was involved with in Saturday's goalless draw.

He also recovered possession eight times, won three tackles, blocked one shot, made one interception and one last-man tackle.

On the ball, he completed 90 per cent of his passes as he recylced possession well once he won the ball back.

He also provided an outlet for Everton, completing 88 per cent of his 24 passes into the Spurs half.