James Garner and the welcome Everton dilemma Sean Dyche may not have expected

James Garner's form should, in theory, make him one of the first names on the Everton team sheet. But the return to fitness of the club's wingers and Sean Dyche's long-term faith in his central midfield three leaves the Blues boss with a dilemma

Sean Dyche views James Garner as a work in progress but the midfielder has now given the Everton manager a welcome headache over the international break.

Garner is desperate to play in the centre of the Everton midfield, his natural position and his favourite one. Make no mistake, the 22-year-old is happy to perform elsewhere - he moved to Merseyside to play first-team football and his versatility has already proved to be a valuable asset for Dyche.

But the Wirral-born Manchester United academy graduate has his heart set on being a central figure for the Blues and has grasped recent opportunities with both hands.

After a series of encouraging performances - out wide and in the centre - whether or not to disrupt his favoured midfield three to suit Garner is now one of the biggest questions for Dyche to grapple with heading into the next phase of the campaign.

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One of Garner’s biggest strengths has worked against him during the eight months of Dyche’s tenure. His versatility is a boon to any boss and, in a squad hit by so many injuries last season, the England Under-21 international was shifted out wide in both midfield and defence. Having been hit with fitness issues himself after being signed by Frank Lampard, a stress fracture to his back ruling him out for much of last winter, he grew into Dyche’s senior team and his breakthrough Everton performance came at right wing back when Seamus Coleman and Nathan Patterson were both ruled out of the crucial final game against Bournemouth.

For Garner, who was excellent as Everton held on for a survival-clinching win, the match was a watershed moment that added to the building confidence that took him into England's European Under-21 Championship-winning side over the summer. Speaking at Finch Farm recently, he told the ECHO: “I think that game showed supporters what I could do. I played seven or eight games towards the back end of last season and I think that last game, even though I was out of position, let me show them what I was all about, that I will give 100% for the club and I had the quality to go with it… because I had such a good game in the last game of the season and ended up playing right back at the Euros and having a good tournament [the Bournemouth game] gave me massive confidence. For me, personally, when you are playing with confidence there is such a massive difference in your game. If you get a goal or an assist it gives you such a confidence boost and if you ask most players when are they playing at their best it is when they are confident. I feel like when you are playing with confidence it stands you in good stead for the weekend or midweek game coming up.”

Fast forward four months and it took another visit of Bournemouth to Goodison Park for Garner to take another big step forward. Playing with confidence after a run of performances in which he had been pivotal to wins at Brentford and Aston Villa, Garner found himself interrupting Dyche’s preferred three man-midfield of Idrissa Gueye, Amadou Onana and Abdoulaye Doucoure.

At Brentford, Garner had started on the right of midfield. From there he was key to Doucoure’s opening goal and then won the ball and then played it through to Dominic Calvert-Lewin for Everton’s third, his impact in that moment coming while filling in on the left while Dwight McNeil switched sides to take a corner. Days later in the Carabao Cup, Garner played in a central two with Onana and impressed in a hustling, relentless display that saw Everton exact revenge on a side that had humiliated them in the league weeks earlier. Garner smashed in the opening goal - his first for the Blues - at Villa Park that night. Speaking afterwards, Dyche said: “We have been waiting for that because he strikes an unbelievably clean ball, Jimmy, we have been waiting for him to get in the areas because he can finish.”

The displays were not enough to earn him a central berth in the game against Luton Town the following weekend. His growing confidence was on show in a disappointing and frustrating defeat when he ghosted into the box from the right to head against the bar midway through the first half. He should have done better, but the intent was clear.

A week later, Garner found himself in the middle at the expense of Onana. Dyche later dismissed rumours the Belgian international had been dropped for being late to a training session and Onana ended up starting when an injury to Gueye’s heel flared just before kick-off. However Garner got his break, he seized the opportunity - hunting down Illia Zabarnyi, stealing the ball when the defender slipped and placing a confident finish past Neto from the edge of the box.

Dyche has pointed to Garner’s growing impact as one of several positives in danger of being lost amid a tough start to the campaign. It is clear that he wants to maintain perspective on his development though - the Blues boss taking any opportunity to stress how he sees the likes of Garner, Jarrad Branthwaite and Patterson as being players who could be the core of Everton’s future should they be given the patience and space to learn in the present.

Garner’s performances over recent weeks do give him a headache, albeit a nice one, however. The return to fitness and subsequent impact of both McNeil and Jack Harrison, as well as the ability of Arnaut Danjuma, mean the Everton manager now has natural wide options. Garner is in competition with Branthwaite for Everton’s best player of the season so far though, and his display in his preferred position in the most recent game is a compelling argument for him to continue in the middle - at the expense of one of the three players who have been central to Dyche’s regime at Everton.

For Garner, the goal is to cement his place in the middle - which might open up to him next season should Everton choose not to extend the contracts of Doucoure or Gueye. While he is aware of that potential, and more than happy to play wherever he is selected, he is up for the battle for a role in central midfield now. Speaking at Finch Farm ahead of the Villa game in which he built on the momentum started at Brentford, he said: “Ultimately, I want to be playing in the middle of the park. That is my natural position, that is where I have always played. That is the position they signed me for. But at the moment I am happy playing and if I am going to be playing, whether at right-back, right wing, hopefully midfield, I am not too fussed as long I am playing. Hopefully I have shown I can do a job in all three, it is just whatever the manager selects. [In terms of central midfield] I can only do what I can do in terms of the position I am being played in.

“So to show him [Dyche] what I am about in midfield is going to be tough if I am not playing there. So I feel like he knows the qualities I have got. I feel that will be good enough going into next season. But I am not focused on that, I am focused on the present and who knows what could happen.” He has since been given that chance and taken it emphatically. Will that be enough for Dyche though?