James Garner

[Bluedylan1]

For me, he's the type of player you don't notice when he's on the pitch.

20 minutes will go by and you'll think ''has Garner, one of our centre mids who should be involved as much as, if not more than, any other position, touched the ball lately?''

He's in the 8th percentile for pass completion, and the 16th percentile for passes attempted.

It's great that he drops in to cover a full back now and then like, but I wouldn't mind him getting on the ball. Yes, some of it is a function of our tactics and playing more direct, but some of it also has to do with one of our centre mids being largely anonymous on the pitch.

When we're looking at why we're unable to play progressive passes into DCL or one of the wide men, and retain some possession in the opposition half and all our players look isolated, a lot of it has to do with things like Garner not being remotely involved in the game for long stretches.

[Escalator]

What should we expect for £9m ?

[Bob Sacamano]

He’s okay like. I don’t dislike him or anything.

[Bluedylan1]

What should we expect for £9m ?

Yeah, fair point. He's a £9m player.

It's not a personal attack on him or his integrity, it's a critique of his footballing limitations.

I wouldn't say it's really the case on this site, but I'm not sure why so many of our fans seem to have fallen in love with him and think he's great. You hear people talk about him alongside Branthwaite and Onana as great young talents in the team in a similar vein to Stones/Barkley/Lukaku once upon a time, and I think that's so far wide of the mark.

[crackling]

Realistically, he's exactly what I want at the club at this time as a backup centre mid.

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[AjaxAndy]

Yeah, fair point. He's a £9m player.

It's not a personal attack on him or his integrity, it's a critique of his footballing limitations.

I wouldn't say it's really the case on this site, but I'm not sure why so many of our fans seem to have fallen in love with him and think he's great. You hear people talk about him alongside Branthwaite and Onana as great young talents in the team in a similar vein to Stones/Barkley/Lukaku once upon a time, and I think that's so far wide of the mark.

Yeah as much as I don't mind him, and think we are a worse team without him in it, he's not on the same level or even close to Branthwaite.

I think he's almost as important as Onana to us who I also think doesn't do enough with the ball, but their ceilings are clearly very different.

I can't stand it when a podcast eulogises about him because he's not someone who has any stand out attributes or dictates a game. He defends well, he's disciplined and has a good set piece delivery... But he's still very average overall.

[The Doc]

In a decade where our centre midfield has been a constant weakness (a season aside with Allan fit and on form) it's just nice to have a solid dependable 6/7 out of 10 player in there every week, not a liability on the ball and has got an engine.

But we do need to add a versatile player. A CM/ACM.

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[Shogun]

14 passes in the second half.

4 of them from set pieces.

Our CM.

55 passes for Tom Cairney in the second half.

[AjaxAndy]

Been a total ghost lately

[Bluedylan1]

I feel bad criticising him in a way, because he's just a very limited football player who is playing at a higher level than he should be. That's not really his fault.

Worrying thing for me is that Dyche probably loves him, so he's probably in the team for the foreseeable, even when we can bring players in.

[Cereal Killer]

I feel bad criticising him in a way, because he's just a very limited football player who is playing at a higher level than he should be. That's not really his fault.

Worrying thing for me is that Dyche probably loves him, so he's probably in the team for the foreseeable, even when we can bring players in.

Unfortunately be stuck with him for ages, not sure when you envisage this ability to bring actual players in, rather than just more in his mould

[TheRam]

14 passes in the second half.

4 of them from set pieces.

Our CM.

55 passes for Tom Cairney in the second half.

He’s constantly a good few yards off the play.

He’s never in good positions to get the ball. When he does get the ball he looks pained to play it forward.

Off the ball he is properly terrible. Weak in the challenge and just gets walked past constantly.

He’s either really lazy or just out of his depth at this level.

He’s another Sigurdsson and mcarthy for me.

Doesn’t get in the game at all, but thinks running about and putting in half arsed attempts to win the ball is impacting the game.

As others have said, we’ll be stuck with him for years to come.

[AjaxAndy]

When we went on that winning run he was really important for us, he covers fantastically well, gets important blocks in and does a load of good defensive work.

Throughout that run he was a consistent 6-7 out of 10 never dropping below 6 and largely a 7.

I think the issue is that rather than having the potential to kick on from that it appears that was his absolute ceiling. If he's off it at all he quickly drops to a complete ghost.

He's a decent squad player compared to someone like Davies, and when he's on form he's a solid enough defensive premier league midfielder... However he's very limited it seems and when he's bad he's absolutely awful.

[Goaljira]

He’s constantly a good few yards off the play.

He’s never in good positions to get the ball. When he does get the ball he looks pained to play it forward.

Off the ball he is properly terrible. Weak in the challenge and just gets walked past constantly.

He’s either really lazy or just out of his depth at this level.

He’s another Sigurdsson and mcarthy for me.

Doesn’t get in the game at all, but thinks running about and putting in half arsed attempts to win the ball is impacting the game.

As others have said, we’ll be stuck with him for years to come.

Sigurdsson is who he reminded me of a couple of weeks back. Looks like he's working hard, but its all wasted energy.

[Free Agent]

Sigurdsson is who he reminded me of a couple of weeks back. Looks like he's working hard, but its all wasted energy.

Mind you, if Jimmy G had some of the positive attributes that Sig had we wouldn’t be complaining as much