James Garner had shown flickering signs of his potential in previous seasons, but his performances for Everton in 2025-26 should have alerted Thomas Tuchel to his qualities just in time for a potential late World Cup call-up.
Expectations were low for Everton on Sunday when they travelled to play Aston Villa, who were on an eight-game winning streak in the Premier League. It had been 10 years since the Toffees last picked up a league victory at Villa Park.
But against the odds, Everton became just the second team to beat Villa in 29 Premier League home matches, with a disciplined display and thanks to Thierno Barry’s exquisite second-half chipped finish.
Barry might have grabbed the goal, but it was midfielder James Garner who stole the show. Crucially, his man-of-the-match display was in front of a watching Thomas Tuchel, with the England manager still assessing his options ahead of the World Cup this summer.
Garner put in an impressive performance, but that shouldn’t have come as a surprise. It’s his consistency of output this campaign that has raised questions as to whether he could be a challenger for a defensive midfield role in the England squad.
He dictated play in the middle of the pitch for David Moyes’ side, having 26 more touches than any other Everton outfielder and completing nearly double the number of passes compared to anyone else in the side (44).
After the game, Garner explained their success at Villa Park. “We tried to nullify what they are good at, which is playing through the middle. We tried to block off all the passing lanes and force it wide. Then, we waited for our moment and won it back.”
He certainly played a key role in doing just that, with a match-high seven tackles, four interceptions and seven duels won.
Making the World Cup squad would be a surprise considering he’s never received a call-up to the England squad before, but those who have kept a close eye on Garner this season wouldn’t be too shocked.
Garner will turn 25 years old in March, and he is proof that development is non-linear. Based on his performances in 2025-26, there is a feeling the midfielder is coming of age.
After joining Manchester United at seven, he worked his way through the academy before breaking into their first team at 17. His Premier League debut came as a last-minute substitute against Crystal Palace, before playing another eight minutes off the bench eight months later versus Norwich.
A year later, he joined Watford on a season-long loan in the Championship, but a managerial change at Christmas left Garner out of favour and he was sent back early.
Garner’s performances at Watford showed glimpses of his talent, but with the club chasing immediate promotion back to the Premier League, they rooted for experience in the middle of the pitch and Garner’s playing time gradually diminished once Xisco Muñoz took over in December.
With United keen to give Garner senior football and the playing time he wouldn’t get with them, he was immediately sent on loan to Nottingham Forest, where he saw out the remainder of the 2020-21 campaign. He played every game for Forest in the Championship after joining (20), with no player scoring more goals (4) and only two creating more chances than his 26 between his debut on 2 February and the end of the season.
United saw the benefit of Garner’s spell at Forest in his development and he re-signed on loan with the Championship club for the 2021-22 season. After Chris Hughton was sacked following a poor start, Steve Cooper took over, and this helped elevate Garner’s game to the next level.
Cooper’s experience working with young players certainly aided a then-20-year-old Garner. Having previously coached the England Under-17 side to World Cup glory in 2017, Cooper did a brilliant job at Swansea City, where his side – powered in part by youthful loans of players such as Rhian Brewster, Marc Guéhi and Conor Gallagher – secured back-to-back play-off qualifications, only to lose in the semi-final and final to Brentford in 2019-20 and 2020-21.
Under Cooper, Garner was a standout player for Forest as they won promotion to the Premier League that season, playing all but five of their league matches (including play-offs), having a hand in 12 goals from central midfield (four goals, eight assists) and creating more chances than any other player at the club (88). That tally was bettered by four players in the entire division, while only one created more from set-piece situations than he did (46).
This was enough to entice Everton, who signed Garner for £15m in September 2022. With Frank Lampard in charge of the club at the time, he was theoretically the perfect role model for the young central midfielder to learn from, but he would only appear seven times for him, due to a back injury only two months after signing and then Lampard’s dismissal in January 2023.
His replacement was Sean Dyche, and in two years under him, Garner became a reliable part of the Everton side. Only eight players played more Premier League minutes than he did (3,915) during his reign, while only seven collected more appearances (51).
Versatility was a key reason for Dyche’s use of Garner, with the Englishman playing in both central and defensive midfield roles in the Premier League under him, but also 17% of minutes as a right midfielder and 8% of his game time as a right-back.
That versatility has been key for current boss Moyes, too. Three of his first four appearances in the Premier League this season came as a makeshift left-back, and he’s also played 12% of minutes at right-back. His growing maturity as a footballer has enabled him to fill in for absent players in those roles, but it’s also seen him become more of a leader in the Everton team.
He’s already made one appearance and played 380 minutes more of Premier League football this season compared to last, while both his goal (two) and assist (three) tallies are higher than in any previous top-flight season.
Despite Everton only having marginally more of the ball this season (42.5% possession vs just over 40% in the last two campaigns), Garner is having a greater impact. He’s averaging a career-high 68.1 touches and 45.6 passes per 90 – just over 10 touches and six passes more than he did last season in the Premier League.
Garner is an intelligent passer, too. He’s averaging a higher expected assists rate than ever before (0.12 per 90) and leads Everton players for line-breaking passes (146), crucially with over half of these coming in the final third of the pitch (79). In total, 15 of his line-breaking passes have led to an Everton shot within the following 10 seconds, more than double any other player in the Toffees’ squad this season, despite playing over a quarter of his league minutes as a full-back.
Only Jack Grealish (91) has more involvements in open-play shot-ending sequences than Garner (72) for Everton this season, showing how crucial he’s been overall in the creation of chances for his side.
With almost the same number of involvements as the shot-taker (26) and as the player involved in the build-up only (not the chance created or shot), Garner is an all-round midfielder. On a per-90 basis (of players to play 1,000+ minutes), he falls to fourth in the rankings, but it still highlights his importance to Everton’s output.
He’s also busier without the ball, averaging a career-high 4.4 tackles and interceptions per 90, while only three players in the Premier League have covered more ground than him in 2025-26 (240.1km). That impressive work rate is further highlighted by the fact he’s run the furthest for Everton in half of their Premier League matches since the start of October (eight).
Garner is also a key player in Everton’s pressing. A ‘pressure’ can have one of three different intensity levels, which are determined by a combination of factors including the distance, velocity and direction of approach by the pressuring player. High pressures are when players are within 0-2 metres, medium is when players are within 2-4 metres and low is when those are 4+ metres away.
Partly because Everton aren’t a possession-dominant team, they are one of the sides who press the most across the pitch in the Premier League this season. Only Burnley have applied more pressures overall than Everton, while Moyes’ side rank fourth for high pressures applied.
Garner ranks second for total pressures (1,154) behind Barry (1,216) but is top for pressures that qualify as high intensity (836), with the majority of those (69.4%) coming inside the defensive half. Overall, in the Premier League, only Wolves’ João Gomes (682), Nottingham Forest’s Elliot Anderson (677) and Brentford’s Yehor Yarmoliuk (645) have applied more high-intensity pressures in the defensive half of the pitch than Garner (581) among non-defenders.
It’s arguably Anderson that Garner will find as his biggest competition to be named as one of Tuchel’s midfielders in his squad picked for the March internationals versus Uruguay and Japan. Following an impressive summer leading the England U21 side to European Championship glory, where he made the official team of the tournament, Anderson has forced his way into the full national team since his debut in September, making six appearances, of which five were starts.
While Anderson has once again been a strong player for Forest in the Premier League this season, there is an argument Garner has been even more influential and impressive.
With Everton expected to lock down the midfielder to a long-term contract this month, as his existing one ends at the end of 2025-26 much to the reported intrigue of several top European clubs, they might have a player who could quickly develop even further into one of international pedigree.
Subscribe to our football newsletter to receive exclusive weekly content. You should also follow our social accounts over on X, Instagram, TikTok and Facebook.
Garnering Attention: How James Garner Has Turned Into an England World Cup Possible with Everton Opta Analyst.
Hence then, the article about garnering attention how james garner has turned into an england world cup possible with everton was published today ( ) and is available on The Analyst ( Middle East ) The editorial team at PressBee has edited and verified it, and it may have been modified, fully republished, or quoted. You can read and follow the updates of this news or article from its original source.
Read More Details
Finally We wish PressBee provided you with enough information of ( Garnering Attention: How James Garner Has Turned Into an England World Cup Possible with Everton )
Also on site :