A tantalising glimpse into future of defence

ALL those glass half empty Evertonians should take a moment to pause and reflect on the fact that the club’s most valuable player Jarrad Branthwaite has not even kicked a ball for the first team all season.

- By CHRIS BEESLEY ECHO Reporter

The potentially generational talent, who could still yet emerge as the most dominant ball-playing defender in the game, demonstrated his commitment to the Blues’ new dawn by penning a five-year deal, but has been left hamstrung throughout 2025/26 to date and is not expected back until the new calendar year.

In his absence, Everton stalwart Michael Keane, now in his ninth season at the club, has gone from being a supposed bit-part player and fourth choice in the role having signed his own one-year extension, to the most consistent member of the side, who, up until this fixture, had started every game. So, taking the 32-year-old out of the side at Bournemouth acted as a double whammy for David Moyes, as it caused two positional changes due to Jake O’Brien switching from right-back to centre-back.

Although the former Olympique Lyonnais man was reverted to his natural role, the truth is that the lion’s share of his time as a Premier League player to date has been at right-back, but here he looked like he’d never been away. Slotting in seamlessly, on the left-hand side of the duo too, he also brought the best out of James Tarkowski, who returned to form despite having yet another partner alongside him.