2025/26 Tim Iroegbunam

hetion said:
Yes. He's always been amazing at winning the ball and good at carrying it and bad at passing it, but recently it feels like he's gone up a gear on-ball and is suddenly excellent at carrying it and decent at passing it. That's a frighteningly good profile.

Another thing I noticed is he's started to put all those things together more - win the ball and immediately drive it up the pitch or pass it forwards to someone. It creates an instant counterattack out of nowhere and takes multiple players out very quickly which is insanely valuable for a team that struggles to create good chances usually
Click to expand...

Yes I agree with all of that. He's basically exceptional at winning it back, excellent at carrying and woeful at passing. That woeful has moved to tolerable, which I that context is massive.

We (as in football) seem to have grouped midfielders. So you are 100% correct to say it's a unique profile. You either get stoppers, or dribblers, so to get that combination is quite rare.

Also most teams like to go man to man with a press now, which works until it doesn't. If you have players who can "beat the press", especially from deep you end up getting onto promising positions.

We need to work at being better in transition, and getting bigger quality shots off. I still don't think we make the most of them (see Barry v Forest where we didn't even get a shot off).

But Tim has a unique profile, and has physical and technical abilities that are quite unique. Like Paulinha does the defensive side, but he just doesn't carry it.
 

catcherintherye said:
Yes I agree with all of that. He's basically exceptional at winning it back, excellent at carrying and woeful at passing. That woeful has moved to tolerable, which I that context is massive.

We (as in football) seem to have grouped midfielders. So you are 100% correct to say it's a unique profile. You either get stoppers, or dribblers, so to get that combination is quite rare.

Also most teams like to go man to man with a press now, which works until it doesn't. If you have players who can "beat the press", especially from deep you end up getting onto promising positions.

We need to work at being better in transition, and getting bigger quality shots off. I still don't think we make the most of them (see Barry v Forest where we didn't even get a shot off).

But Tim has a unique profile, and has physical and technical abilities that are quite unique. Like Paulinha does the defensive side, but he just doesn't carry it.
Click to expand...
I agree with both of you about his attributes and whilst it's always good to accentuate the positive we should not lose sight of his deficiencies.

He is poor technically ( particularly his first touch / control) , poor positionally and poor range of passing.

However he has great athleticism ,excellent pressing , good tackling and an ability to drive forwards with the ball.

I see him as a good squad player but there's no doubt that he's made good progress and lots more room to develop.
 
catcherintherye said:
Yes I agree with all of that. He's basically exceptional at winning it back, excellent at carrying and woeful at passing. That woeful has moved to tolerable, which I that context is massive.

We (as in football) seem to have grouped midfielders. So you are 100% correct to say it's a unique profile. You either get stoppers, or dribblers, so to get that combination is quite rare.

Also most teams like to go man to man with a press now, which works until it doesn't. If you have players who can "beat the press", especially from deep you end up getting onto promising positions.

We need to work at being better in transition, and getting bigger quality shots off. I still don't think we make the most of them (see Barry v Forest where we didn't even get a shot off).

But Tim has a unique profile, and has physical and technical abilities that are quite unique. Like Paulinha does the defensive side, but he just doesn't carry it.
Click to expand...
Spot on. One of my favourite non-Everton prem players ever was Spurs' Dembele. You simply could not get it off him, and that was completely gamebreaking to have a player that can take or win the ball under pressure and then just walk past a couple people. His passing was very good too but that's the sort of impact a player like that can have

God knows if Tim can do that consistently but if he can, wow
 
hetion said:
This was exactly why I posted this last season:

View attachment 338760

To be fair there wasn't exactly a lot of competition in the squad at that point, but I totally agree. It's still a big if, and maybe Forest was a one off or a rare performance, but that was the first time I thought oh, he might actually do it. If he puts it all together regularly he can be a player that you simply can't deal with in midfield.
Click to expand...
Fantastic v Forest and one of the worst 45 minutes I've ever seen at home to Newcastle 3 weeks earlier
 

hetion said:
This is the drum I've been beating but it was legit good against Forest. I was shocked and am now delusionally believing it'll be that good every game 😁
Click to expand...

catcherintherye said:
Yes I agree with all of that. He's basically exceptional at winning it back, excellent at carrying and woeful at passing. That woeful has moved to tolerable, which I that context is massive.

We (as in football) seem to have grouped midfielders. So you are 100% correct to say it's a unique profile. You either get stoppers, or dribblers, so to get that combination is quite rare.

Also most teams like to go man to man with a press now, which works until it doesn't. If you have players who can "beat the press", especially from deep you end up getting onto promising positions.

We need to work at being better in transition, and getting bigger quality shots off. I still don't think we make the most of them (see Barry v Forest where we didn't even get a shot off).

But Tim has a unique profile, and has physical and technical abilities that are quite unique. Like Paulinha does the defensive side, but he just doesn't carry it.
Click to expand...

jazzy said:
I agree with both of you about his attributes and whilst it's always good to accentuate the positive we should not lose sight of his deficiencies.

He is poor technically ( particularly his first touch / control) , poor positionally and poor range of passing.

However he has great athleticism ,excellent pressing , good tackling and an ability to drive forwards with the ball.

I see him as a good squad player but there's no doubt that he's made good progress and lots more room to develop.
Click to expand...

The positioning you can probably get away with as he's not being used as a 6. Gana used to have the same issue and we just told him to go and tackle everyone...perhaps thats the secret.

The passing though :o its not the easy 5-10 yard passes im on about. The man is a midfielder and he needs to be able to pass to the flanks.

Win the ball, pass the ball. Until he can do that, he has a ceiling.
 
I like his passing. He can pass with both feet, and not just with his instep. He also puts pace on his passes, so yes there is more margin for error, definitely. At least he doesn't just swing his leg at the ball and roll it towards, and often behind, his target, which has plagued our passing style for years.
He has 14 years less experience than Gana, which is a whole career's worth, so with good coaching and constructive criticism he's bound to develop further. He seems a very humble lad too so I doubt we'll see any petulance or negativity, but equally he might currently lack a bit of self confidence, and certainly stamina.
Anyway, here's hoping that he can knit it all together this year because if he does he will nail down his starting place.
 
Zatara said:
The positioning you can probably get away with as he's not being used as a 6. Gana used to have the same issue and we just told him to go and tackle everyone...perhaps thats the secret.

The passing though :o its not the easy 5-10 yard passes im on about. The man is a midfielder and he needs to be able to pass to the flanks.

Win the ball, pass the ball. Until he can do that, he has a ceiling.
Click to expand...

Exactly, the last piece of his jigsaw has to already be in his locker, because you can't train that..

Not sure on the comparisons with Dembele tho.
 
Zatara said:
KDH, Garner, Armstrong & Iroegbunam would all almost definitely be starting games in 2 years time.

Why wouldnt you want that?
Click to expand...
We'll see. It doesn't matter what I want, it matters what happens on the pitch. This time last year there were lots of Evertonians claiming McNeil was a quality player.

There are still huge question marks over Armstrong and Iroegbunam. I'm not sure we'll finish in european places with the likes of Garner playing central midfield for us every game. I've seen us get destroyed by some very normal teams in the last few months.
 
Last edited:

Drago said:
We'll see. It doesn't matter what I want, it matters what happens on the pitch. This time last year there were lots of Evertonians claiming McNeil was a quality player.

There are still huge question marks over Armstrong and Iroegbunam. I'm not sure we'll finish in european places with Garner playing central midfield for us every game.
Click to expand...

The James Garner who has been one of the best midfielders in the league this season?

Or Iroegbunam who has apparently the best stats for a destroyer in the league...

I'm happy :)
 
Zatara said:
The James Garner who has been one of the best midfielders in the league this season?

Or Iroegbunam who has apparently the best stats for a destroyer in the league...

I'm happy :)
Click to expand...
One of the best midfielders in the league :lol:

Garner has improved this season but some of our fans really need to slow down with these shouts. It wasn't so long ago we got absolutely pumped by Spurs and Newcastle at home. Our midfield, fullbacks and centre forward needs improving tenfold if we're gonna be playing in Europe or winning a cup. So does the manager on the latter.
 
Last edited:

Welcome

Join Grand Old Team to get involved in the Everton discussion. Signing up is quick, easy, and completely free.

Register

Shop

Back
Top