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‘The best’: Tarkowski says £15m Everton teammate was actually the player who impressed him most in pre-season
James Tarkowski has suggested that Neal Maupay was potentially the Everton player who impressed him most in pre-season, insisting that the striker is good enough for the Toffees.
Tarkowski was speaking to following the sickening abuse the striker received on social media after his display against Fulham on the opening day of the new campaign.
Neal Maupay has certainly been an underwhelming signing for Everton. He arrived off the back of a reasonable but unspectacular spell at Brighton. The 27-year-old had scored 26 league goals in 102 games for the Seagulls.
The club would have hoped that he would be able to take some of the pressure off of Dominic Calvert-Lewin. Unfortunately, the French-born forward has been unable to step up to the mark, scoring just one league goal for the Toffees.
Tarkowski praises Everton teammate Neal Maupay
Nevertheless, Tarkowski has defended his teammate and insisted that he does have the quality to come good – noting how good he looked before the start of the new campaign.
“He’s been one of the best players throughout pre-season, the most impressive for me in terms of fitness levels, the demands he has put on himself. He deserves to play for us,” he told .
Maupay scored in the victory over Stade Nyonnais, and the draw with Monza over the summer. So Sean Dyche would have hoped that he could hit the ground running at the start of this season.
Unfortunately, it does appear that Everton have not got a lot of room to manoeuvre in the transfer market as the deadline looms. So Maupay may be in line to get a few more chances with Calvert-Lewin picking up that nasty-looking injury at the weekend.
It is absolutely imperative that he makes the most of his opportunity if he gets one.
Some Everton fans will argue that it is slightly alarming that Tarkowski picked out Maupay as one of the standouts in pre-season.
But it already appears that some within the squad are going to have to surprise plenty of people if they are going to be able to pull off another great escape.