There's a better English midfielder than Elliot Anderson: And he's a boyhood Liverpool fan

There’s a better midfield option out there than Elliot Anderson. He's a boyhood Liverpool fan, too.

Manchester City and Nottingham Forest caused a stir this summer as they agreed a deal to send Elliot Anderson to the Etihad. He’s now the most expensive British player in history, eclipsing what Arsenal paid West Ham United for Declan Rice.

It’ll cost £116m, per ESPN, a sensational figure. It’s quite telling that the player Anderson is ‘replacing’ with the record is Rice, too - a somewhat similar talent.

They’re both box-to-box midfielders who are happy to shield a defence but just as willing to get in the box and influence the attack. True all-action English midfielders in the style of Steven Gerrard (even if none of them get close to that level).

But the thing is, there’s actually another one. One arguably better than Anderson last season and on top of that, he’s a boyhood Liverpool fan.

So far, so good, as the Reds are quite desperate for a midfielder who can add some bite and drive to the middle. Anderson would have been a perfect signing, though Liverpool weren’t going to win that race at that price - not when they also need to sign a winger.

Unfortunately, they almost certainly cannot sign this better-than-Anderson boyhood Liverpool fan as it’s James Garner and he plays for Everton. But if there’s any midfielder the Reds should monitor out of blind hope, it’s Garner.

Honestly, the lack of noise around him is bizarre given the Anderson hype. Everton largely have the same player just marginally older (25 to 23).

The pair of them had an almost identical value to their respective defences in terms of workload, too. Raw numbers show that well: Garner made 120 tackles, Anderson made 104. Garner made 60 interceptions, Anderson made 42. Garner won 31 headers, Anderson won 67.

Only, Garner contributed that value to a better defence, while also matching Anderson’s attacking numbers (7 assists vs 4 assists, 2 goals vs 4 goals). Possession wise, Anderson is a better option but it’s again not by much.

So the data suggests Garner is just as good, really, but a bit older. If he was at nearly anyone but Everton, we’d be saying a bid of near £100m should be going in.

Instead, this would depend on Everton being desperate for the money, essentially. Garner is their best player right now, pretty unequivocally, and we imagine they’d rather sell to anyone else in the world, quite honestly.

Still, we can dream.