Everton suffered a hammer injury blow when they lost James Tarkowski during the loss against Manchester City.

David Moyes has explained why Michael Keane was introduced ahead of Nathan Patterson in Everton’s 2-0 loss to Manchester City.

James Tarkowski suffered a shock injury blow in the second half of the Goodison Park encounter when the game was goalless. The Everton captain picked up a suspected hamstring problem and had to be withdrawn.

Moyes opted to bring on Keane rather than move Jake O’Brien, who is a natural centre-back, from right-back and left Nathan Patterson on the substitutes’ bench. The Everton boss explained it was because he didn’t want to change two positions at once. Speaking at his post-match press conference, the Everton manager said: “Jake plays every game in the main, he's a bit of a hybrid right-back. He's doing a great job.

“We could have done it today but we felt they'd been changing two positions instead of one at the time. so we stuck with the right decision or what we believed would be the right decision.”

Moyes did admit his concern about how Everton performed after losing Tarkowski. The defender has started every Premier League game since signing from Burnley in the summer of 2022 - a run of 111 matches. Tarkowski has been part of an excellent defensive unit with fellow centre-half partner Jarrad Branthwaite and goalkeeper Jordan Pickford. Everton have conceded only 40 goals in 33 league games so far this season.

Moyes felt that the Goodison crowd and Man City could feel how Everton missed the impact and leadership of Tarkowski. He added: “It's given me a chance to see what we're like without one of them. So if we had got an injury to Tarky or Jarrad then it gives me a chance to see what we can do and how we're going to play.

“I'll have some options, I'll have some choices and I'll see what it's like. I didn't feel as comfortable. I thought we should have definitely dealt with the first goal better than we did do. But we'd given the ball away terribly in a simple pass in and around their box, which would have maybe made the difference. But I have to say the boys have done a great job and it's amazing that when I first came in here I'm now pretty disappointed that I've lost to Man City.

“I agree, I think you could feel it. I think Man City sensed it as well. So it's something which, as a club, we'll need to consider because if we do lose them, between him and Jarrad and the goalkeeper are an incredibly strong part of the team and when one of them is out, you can see that it can have a big effect.”