Ben Godfrey: The Jack of all trades in the Everton defence
This is an image many Everton fans will have engraved into the back of their minds. After the Toffees’ win in the Merseyside Derby, a passionate Ben Godfrey showed off how happy he was to give the Toffees their most important victory in years.
When Godfrey first joined from Norwich for £20m (rising to £25m), some fans believed this could’ve been a panic buy after Everton could not secure the signature of their first target Gabriel, who eventually joined Arsenal. Godfrey has proven everyone who ever doubted him wrong with a fantastic debut campaign for Carlo Ancelotti’s Everton side.
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The first thing that stands out about the former Norwich centre-back is his athleticism; Godfrey is one of the fastest centre-backs I’ve ever seen play in the Premier League, nevermind just for Everton, his recovery speed is towards the top of the league, a great example of that being in a game against Everton while he was playing for Norwich.
Godfrey has proven time and time again this season that he can close down a ridiculous amount of space to make a tackle, and the Englishman’s stamina means he can do this for a majority of the game without slowing down.
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Ben Godfrey is a complete package
He’s also an extremely versatile player, starting his career at Merseyside on the right after Seamus Coleman was injured. He was part of a back three when Alex Iwobi started to impress as a right wing-back, he’s also played at centre-back in a back four, but his most impressive stint as a player for Royal Blues was the way he stepped in at left-back when Lucas Digne was spent a month and a half on the treatment table.
He stepped seamlessly into the left-back position, he couldn’t offer the same attacking output as Digne, but he was an improvement defensively, with Godfrey improving his attacking output in each game he played. He isn’t the greatest in the passing department, but Godfrey can drive the ball up the field very well to start attacks.
This is a development that can only benefit Godfrey as a centre-back. This ability to drive up the field is similar to what we see from Yerry Mina or what Harry Maguire does for Manchester United, but due to Godfrey’s superior athleticism, he can track back much better than both of them.
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Ben Godfrey Centre-Back
Godfrey is currently averaging a 7.01 rating (via SofaScore), very impressive for somebody who’s barely played in his natural position; the Englishman completes around 1.7 tackles, 1.4 interceptions and 3.1 clearances.
These stats aren’t out of this world, but it’s his tackle success rate that’s really impressive. Godfrey completes 1.7 out of his two tackle attempts, giving him an 85% tackle success rate, showing off how impressive Godfrey’s defensive awareness is for somebody who’s still only 23-years old.
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For such a young player, Godfrey is also a fantastic leader, he’s very vocal, and he makes sure that his opinion is well known by the rest of the backline. He has future captain written all over him. If Everton continue to improve under Carlo Ancelotti, it wouldn’t surprise me to see Ben Godfrey become the Everton captain in two to three years.