James Garner

[Evertonian in NC]

Just don’t think he offers enough for us. Decent cover for CM/RB/RWB maybe.
If we didn’t have a such a massive rebuild this summer he’d be the first out of the door for me.

I definitely wanted to see if he could be a squad player at RB. Agree he doesn't offer enough for a modern CM. Rather see Our Tim and Armstrong get more chances.

[Audrey Horne]

Its grim watching that.

Absolute fucking coward. And a kopite jesus christ.

[Toddacelli]

Haven’t watched it btw - don’t want to - I kinda understand the talking about the fear of losing - losing should hurt, should be painful - but the overriding emotion should surely be the joy of winning. Like I don’t want players to be apathetic about losing, it should hurt deeply enough for you to hate it, learn from it, resolve to be better next time. But if you are not playing for that triumphant joy of a goal and the ecstatic release at a final whistle - what the fuck are you here for?

[Cereal Killer]

Haven’t watched it btw - don’t want to - I kinda understand the talking about the fear of losing - losing should hurt, should be painful - but the overriding emotion should surely be the joy of winning. Like I don’t want players to be apathetic about losing, it should hurt deeply enough for you to hate it, learn from it, resolve to be better next time. But if you are not playing for that triumphant joy of a goal and the ecstatic release at a final whistle - what the fuck are you here for?

£45k a week thanks

[777Kidnappings]

I think the biggest worry is that he played some of the derby in a trance and no one noticed the difference. The problem isn't that he's liverpools biggest fan. The problem is he's crap. His set pieces are awful. He ducks out of 80-20 tackles. He doesn't want to do anything with the ball. He's gonna be a squad filler for us purely because we don't have numbers. Would be delighted to get our money back for him when that changes

[sam of the south]

Some sort of link is usually helpful by this point.

That is some oddball shit.

What a bizarre thing to admit publicly.

[brap2]

I don't want him anywhere near the club for that personally

[Bluedylan1]

I didn't have a massive problem with it, and I'm far from his biggest fan. Just think he's being honest about how it felt playing against the team you supported as a kid. Loads of players will have had the same experience.

Carragher's talked about playing against Everton when he was younger and how he used to celebrate good results for Everton on the Liverpool bus travelling home, until some of the coaches had to sit him down and have a word with him.

I like players being honest and showing they are human beings, rather than being PR trained to within an inch of their lives.

[74Blue]

I didn't have a massive problem with it, and I'm far from his biggest fan. Just think he's being honest about how it felt playing against the team you supported as a kid. Loads of players will have had the same experience.

Carragher's talked about playing against Everton when he was younger and how he used to celebrate good results for Everton on the Liverpool bus travelling home, until some of the coaches had to sit him down and have a word with him.

I like players being honest and showing they are human beings, rather than being PR trained to within an inch of their lives.

If he wasn't a massive shithouse, then it wouldn't really bother me that he's a gobshite. But he is and it does.

[Bluedylan1]

If he wasn't a massive shithouse, then it wouldn't really bother me that he's a gobshite. But he is and it does.

Whether he's good enough or not is a separate issue. I don't think he is. Maybe he can be carried as a squad player for a couple of years at best.

I don't particularly think he's a shithouse. He puts a shift in, and has decent numbers for tackles/interceptions/clearances. He's just a very limited footballer, whose ceiling is probably between a good Championship club and a relegation threatened Prem club.

[Audrey Horne]

Whether he's good enough or not is a separate issue. I don't think he is. Maybe he can be carried as a squad player for a couple of years at best.

I don't particularly think he's a shithouse. He puts a shift in, and has decent numbers for tackles/interceptions/clearances. He's just a very limited footballer, whose ceiling is probably between a good Championship club and a relegation threatened Prem club.

He doesnt go for 50 50s and it really is bad. He always shits out of big tackles.

I dont like him, he is awful player, and I really dont want to be watching a player who is drifting through a game at Anfield in the derby, because he has a hard on for our massive rivals anthem.

Grim.

[Bluedylan1]

He doesnt go for 50 50s and it really is bad. He always shits out of big tackles.

I dont like him, he is awful player, and I really dont want to be watching a player who is drifting through a game at Anfield in the derby, because he has a hard on for our massive rivals anthem.

Grim.

Fair enough. Agree to disagree and all that.

I do completely agree with you that he's not good enough for where we want to go as a club, or even where we are at the moment.

I still think the main issue is him not being a good player. Like if that was an amazing player who said what Garner said about being in a daze for the first 20 minutes at Anfield, because he supported them as a kid, most would forget it pretty quickly. Because people don't rate him anyway, the Anfield thing gives them another reason to dislike him. Which is fair enough.

It just doesn't really bother me. They're human beings. It would be pretty weird playing at Goodison against Everton for the first time, if you were a blue and all your family were blues.

[AjaxAndy]

He's perfectly fine as a sub, think most of the criticism and dislike for him is because he's a first choice when he's not good enough to be so.

[The Doc]

The disdain for him disappears when we have some good centre mids for him to compete with.

He's alright, doesn't have glaringly obvious mistakes or deficiencies in him, but doesn't do anything to stand out and his stats are poor.

An acceptable squad option for a midtable team, if he's first choice again next season I'd be worried.

[kramer]

He's perfectly fine as a sub, think most of the criticism and dislike for him is because he's a first choice when he's not good enough to be so.

Yeah, I see him as a rock solid bench/rotation option. He’s not really good at anything but he’s serviceable enough to be on the pitch without tanking our ability to compete. Look at the results down the stretch, they’re not consistent with a complete liability in the starting midfield pairing.

This is a positive for the squad. In the Moshiri era, we’ve seen so many players not meet this basic criterion, many purchased for bigger fees and on higher wages than Garner. Everyone outside of the wealthiest clubs needs squad players like this.