Everton missed the chance to secure a third consecutive Premier League win last night as Frank Lampard’s side lost 2-1 to Manchester United at Goodison Park.
The home side got themselves ahead early on as Alex Iwobi opened the scoring with just five minutes on the clock thanks to a stunning strike from outside the box.
Ten minutes later, United equalised through Antony, only then for Cristiano Ronaldo to put the visitors ahead just before half-time.
Despite the disappointing result, the one player that came out of the game with a strong performance that could be seen as Lampard’s hero on the day was James Tarkowski.
In terms of his defensive output, the centre-back made three clearances, blocked two shots and made one interception.
He also won six of the seven duels he was involved in, which is more than any other Everton defender managed to win, giving him a percentage of 85% of duels won.
Tarkowski even managed to complete the one dribble he attempted and have a shot at goal, which was eventually blocked.
This display ultimately earned the defender an overall match rating of 7.1/10 from SofaScore, making him the second-highest rated Everton player on the day, as well as giving him a higher rating than other of United’s two starting centre-backs.
With that in mind, it could be said that his defensive colleagues let him and the team down, especially in terms of their performances compared to Tarkowski’s.
Lauded in the past for his “outstanding” performances by Sean Dyche, Tarkowski may have been lucky to get away with a mistimed challenge that led to Marcus Rashford putting the ball in the net, only for the goal to then be ruled out for handball, but we still feel that his overall performance was a positive one.
Moving forward, the best thing Everton can do now is to put this defeat behind them and hope that the 29-year-old can continue putting in strong defensive performances throughout the remainder of the season.
