Tarkowski for England ?

Paul Waine · Post by **Paul Waine** » Sat Sep 16, 2017 2:01 pm

Today's Times, Football Notebook: Burnley star holding out for England

James Tarkowski has rejected an approach from the Polish FA to represent their national team because of his desire to play for England. The Burnley defender was never called up for any of England’s junior age-group sides, but has proved his Premier League quality since completing an acrimonious £6 million transfer from Brentford last January and has started every match for Sean Dyche’s side during their impressive start to the season. The Manchester-born player is eligible to play for Poland through his paternal grandfather, who was born in Poland and moved to England after the Second World War, but the 24-year-old has not given up hope of receiving a call-up from Gareth Southgate so wants to keep his options open.

Maybe, James Tarkowski has not only replaced Michael Keane in Burnley's team. Maybe, Tarks will also replace Keane as Burnley's next England CB (though both of them will always be better with Ben Mee alongside them).

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Rowls · Post by **Rowls** » Sat Sep 16, 2017 2:04 pm

Mears for England

what_no_pies · Post by **what_no_pies** » Sat Sep 16, 2017 2:04 pm

Framework. What Dyche consistently gets from players with less perceived ability is proof that England need the players to match a system rather than a system to match the players. Good luck James, would be miles ahead of Keane for selection on form anyway.

Rowls · Post by **Rowls** » Sat Sep 16, 2017 2:12 pm

what_no_pies wrote:Framework. What Dyche consistently gets from players with less perceived ability is proof that England need the players to match a system rather than a system to match the players. Good luck James, would be miles ahead of Keane for selection on form anyway.

I think you can do it either way round if they are well managed and whatever system gets adopted is working. You go with what works. Dyche is a master at that and agree it is making some of our players look better but at the same time it is also making them into better players.

Southgate's teams have all looked the same to me - no idea of any strategy, no pressing, very little movement off the ball and no urgency in getting forward. Whilst he is in charge I fear England will continue to look utterly bereft of ideas.

NRC · Post by **NRC** » Sat Sep 16, 2017 2:16 pm

what_no_pies wrote:Good luck James, would be miles ahead of Keane for selection on form anyway.

that's worthy of a Trumpesque tweet in terms of its exaggeration

Claretto · Post by **Claretto** » Sat Sep 16, 2017 2:21 pm

NRC wrote:that's worthy of a Trumpesque tweet in terms of its exaggeration

Why? On form he is absolutely right. Keane had a rotten few games and tarky in premier league team of the week...

Quicknick · Post by **Quicknick** » Sat Sep 16, 2017 2:28 pm

6 million? More like 3.

Sidney1st · Post by **Sidney1st** » Sat Sep 16, 2017 2:30 pm

Last January?

January last year more like

Sidney1st · Post by **Sidney1st** » Sat Sep 16, 2017 2:32 pm

Rowls wrote:
Southgate's teams have all looked the same to me - no idea of any strategy, no pressing, very little movement off the ball and no urgency in getting forward. Whilst he is in charge I fear England will continue to look utterly bereft of ideas.

Bereft of ideas can be applied to many England teams and managers over the years.

Chester Perry · Post by **Chester Perry** » Sat Sep 16, 2017 2:33 pm

probably not far off with the add on's - promotion and staying up - just appearances and international call up left I would imagine

IanMcL · Post by **IanMcL** » Sat Sep 16, 2017 2:41 pm

Thought it was £0.5m?

piston broke · Post by **piston broke** » Sat Sep 16, 2017 5:14 pm

Claretto wrote:tarky in premier league team of the week...

Last week and this I would hope, after that performance.

Claretto · Post by **Claretto** » Sat Sep 16, 2017 5:15 pm

Huge European 6 pointer against Huddersfield next weekend. Said no Burnley fan ever...

Paul Waine · Post by **Paul Waine** » Sat Sep 16, 2017 7:00 pm

Bump!

Took my granddaughter for a walk this afternoon - so wasn't watching the game.

Based on early player ratings giving Tarks 9 or 10, and MotM, plus the "Tarks Fantastic" thread, thought this was worth bumping so that everyone knows Tarks footballing ambitions.

Great result at Anfield.

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ablueclaret · Post by **ablueclaret** » Sun Sep 17, 2017 8:21 am

In a back three as the attacking dimension he would do a job, always be prone to the odd error but that is what you get for dynamism.

scrambledclaret · Post by **scrambledclaret** » Sun Sep 17, 2017 8:24 am

He got away with one glaring mistake yesterday which I've just seen again on MOTD. Early days still but I like what I see.

ExistentialWanderer · Post by **ExistentialWanderer** » Sun Sep 17, 2017 9:25 am

Was discussing this, this morning with the missus. If he keeps playing as he is an England call up is very much on the cards. Was exemplary again yesterday in the face of quite some pressure. Not suggesting he should walk into the side by any means but at the moment, he's actually offering something other England players aren't in that position. The ability to actually defend! Mee likewise.
Body on the line defending which our current crop seem to not be capable of. It'd benefit him and the England squad IMO. He's still learning and will make mistakes, but I've seen A LOT WORSE actually running around in England shirts recently.

Claretmatt4 · Post by **Claretmatt4** » Sun Sep 17, 2017 10:01 am

ExistentialWanderer wrote:Was discussing this, this morning with the missus. If he keeps playing as he is an England call up is very much on the cards. Was exemplary again yesterday in the face of quite some pressure. Not suggesting he should walk into the side by any means but at the moment, he's actually offering something other England players aren't in that position. The ability to actually defend! Mee likewise.
Body on the line defending which our current crop seem to not be capable of. It'd benefit him and the England squad IMO. He's still learning and will make mistakes, but I've seen A LOT WORSE actually running around in England shirts recently.

did she reply or did her eyes just glaze over?

ExistentialWanderer · Post by **ExistentialWanderer** » Sun Sep 17, 2017 10:07 am

Claretmatt4 wrote:did she reply or did her eyes just glaze over?

Considering it was her who instigated the discussion, no. I could have come up with a more cutting remark to your rather uncalled for remark mind.

timshorts · Post by **timshorts** » Sun Sep 17, 2017 5:22 pm

He'll play for England in January after Liverpool buy him for 60 million.
For now, I'd rather Southgate picked a couple of rovers centre backs. Let them get injured instead.

FactualFrank · Post by **FactualFrank** » Sun Sep 17, 2017 5:27 pm

What the hell is going on?

thatdberight · Post by **thatdberight** » Sun Sep 17, 2017 7:39 pm

Sidney1st wrote:Last January?

January last year more like

That's what "last January" means. Otherwise, it would be indistinguishable from "January" and "last" would be redundant; it would be the same as "this January". Which would be weird. Same as with days of the week; if I ask you on Wednesday when something happened and you say "last Monday", you mean nine days previously, not two.

levraiclaret · Post by **levraiclaret** » Sun Sep 17, 2017 8:33 pm

Rowls wrote: Dyche is a master at that and agree it is making some of our players look better but at the same time it is also making them into better players.

Southgate's teams have all looked the same to me - no idea of any strategy, no pressing, very little movement off the ball and no urgency in getting forward. Whilst he is in charge I fear England will continue to look utterly bereft of ideas.

careless talk costs.

aggi · Post by **aggi** » Sun Sep 17, 2017 8:40 pm

There are a lot of promising young English centre halfs around at the moment. Keane, Stones, Maguire, Gibson, Holding, Chambers, Lacselles off the top of my head. They're not all in form at the moment but all are decent.

Cirrus_Minor · Post by **Cirrus_Minor** » Sun Sep 17, 2017 9:01 pm

As much as I would love to have another Burnley player with an England cap I feel that if it happened some other PL club would be in for him. So happy to keep him out (for the moment).

thatdberight · Post by **thatdberight** » Sun Sep 17, 2017 9:31 pm

Paul Waine wrote:Today's Times, Football Notebook: Burnley star holding out for England

James Tarkowski has rejected an approach from the Polish FA to represent their national team because of his desire to play for England. The Burnley defender was never called up for any of England’s junior age-group sides, but has proved his Premier League quality since completing an acrimonious £6 million transfer from Brentford last January and has started every match for Sean Dyche’s side during their impressive start to the season. The Manchester-born player is eligible to play for Poland through his paternal grandfather, who was born in Poland and moved to England after the Second World War, but the 24-year-old has not given up hope of receiving a call-up from Gareth Southgate so wants to keep his options open.

Maybe, James Tarkowski has not only replaced Michael Keane in Burnley's team. Maybe, Tarks will also replace Keane as Burnley's next England CB (though both of them will always be better with Ben Mee alongside them).

UTC

I hope so for him. I've liked the look of him since minute 1 - he's always looked better than Keane to me but what do I know.

ten bellies · Post by **ten bellies** » Mon Sep 18, 2017 4:36 pm

If I were Tarks I'd take up the Polish offer.

Chester Perry · Post by **Chester Perry** » Mon Sep 18, 2017 4:40 pm

ten bellies wrote:If I were Tarks I'd take up the Polish offer.

If I were Sean I would encourage him - could help with our understanding of some of their more talented players

DCWat · Post by **DCWat** » Mon Sep 18, 2017 4:42 pm

Contract, contract, contract

elwaclaret · Post by **elwaclaret** » Mon Sep 18, 2017 5:00 pm

Think its far too early to be getting so excited, fantastic start to the season mind you.

...and as pointed out why do we want him pushed further into the public eye?

FactualFrank · Post by **FactualFrank** » Mon Sep 18, 2017 5:31 pm

ten bellies wrote:If I were Tarks I'd take up the Polish offer.

Or play sweeper. Either way, he'll clean up any danger.

ten bellies · Post by **ten bellies** » Mon Sep 18, 2017 5:34 pm

FactualFrank wrote:Or play sweeper. Either way, he'll clean up any danger.

Ouch!!

Vegas Claret · Post by **Vegas Claret** » Mon Sep 18, 2017 5:35 pm

Deffo should be playing for England, in midfield, instead of Livermore !

haha

FactualFrank · Post by **FactualFrank** » Mon Sep 18, 2017 5:38 pm

ten bellies wrote:Ouch!!

Vegas Claret · Post by **Vegas Claret** » Tue Sep 19, 2017 11:51 pm

He's got the penalty taking down (sorry Tarks!)

MDWat · Post by **MDWat** » Wed Sep 20, 2017 8:10 am

Interesting one is Tarkowski. Been excellent in the league games so far but you have to say that he looks significantly better when he plays next to Mee. Weirdly though, he looks marginally the better centre half when playing next to Mee but when he plays next to Long they're both garbage.

Spike · Post by **Spike** » Wed Sep 20, 2017 8:15 am

He is obviously still learning and has done very well so far this season
Keane was worth £30m but that was only when playing with Mee!

Ben Mee is the star

aggi · Post by **aggi** » Wed Sep 20, 2017 10:08 am

MDWat wrote:Interesting one is Tarkowski. Been excellent in the league games so far but you have to say that he looks significantly better when he plays next to Mee. Weirdly though, he looks marginally the better centre half when playing next to Mee but when he plays next to Long they're both garbage.

It's hardly surprising though, we saw that last season and Kevin Long hasn't really done much in his career to indicate he's a Premier League (or Championship for that matter) centre half. Admittedly that makes it more bemusing that he is our first (and only) reserve centre half until January.

Spijed · Post by **Spijed** » Wed Sep 20, 2017 10:10 am

With the way Keane is playing like utter garbage at the moment for Everton perhaps Mee makes other defenders look better.

FactualFrank · Post by **FactualFrank** » Wed Sep 20, 2017 10:46 am

Some very mixed views on the board regarding Tark's performance. I think he was solid. I went with my brother in law who's a Leeds fan and he even said, "Your number 5 has won everyting in the air". And he had the confidence to take a penalty in the shoot-out.

Quicknick · Post by **Quicknick** » Wed Sep 20, 2017 10:48 am

He'd be well-suited for England, especially in penalty shootouts.