When the winter transfer window opened at the beginning of January, Everton certainly didn’t waste any time! Sitting dangerously close to the relegation zone in 15th, and not very fancied in the Premier League odds from Betdaq, Rafael Benítez and co. have moved quickly to bring fresh faces to Goodison Park.
They have already recruited 22-year-old left-back Vitaliy Mykolenko from Dynamo Kyiv for around £17 million on New Year’s Day before bringing 20-year-old right-back Nathan Patterson down from the blue half of Glasgow to the blue half of Merseyside.
While both might be relatively unknown to fans of the Toffees and the Premier League in general, it is Patterson we are going to focus on today. A long-time target of Everton, Rangers rejected a £5m bid from the Liverpool-based side back in the summer — an offer then Gers boss Steven Gerrard claimed had ‘definitely come out of a joke book’.
However, six months later and Everton have finally got their man, paying the Scottish champions upwards of £16m when you include potential add-ons — a far cry from the laughable approach made by the club back in August. So, with plenty of people not familiar with Patterson, here are some key things you should know about the young Scot.
Career to date
Patterson signed for Rangers in 2009 when he was just eight years old. He made his debut for the club in January 2020, playing the full 90 minutes as the Ibrox outfit beat Stranraer in the fourth round of the Scottish Cup. It wasn’t until August that he made his Scottish Premiership debut though, coming off the bench in the dying minutes as Rangers led Kilmarnock 2-0 in Glasgow.
The 20-year-old scored his first goal for his boyhood side against Royal Antwerp in the first knockout round of last season’s Europa League, replacing Leon Balogun at half-time and scoring just one minute into the second half as Rangers ran out 5-2 winners.
Having to compete with club captain James Tavernier for a starting place at right-back meant that Patterson’s game time was been limited under both Gerrard and new boss Giovanni van Bronckhorst at Rangers. In total, he made 27 appearances, scoring twice and registering one assist.
International career
Patterson made his debut for Scotland in a World Cup qualifier against Moldova at Hampden Park last April, starting on the right of midfield as Steve Clarke’s men recorded a 1-0 victory in Glasgow. He appeared again in a 1-0 friendly win over Luxembourg, playing just 26 minutes, before being named in the squad for Euro 2020 — where he featured for just six minutes in Scotland’s final group game against Croatia, which ended in a 3-1 defeat. He has earned three more caps for his country since, registering his first goal and assist in a 2-0 win away to Moldova — helping Scotland book their place in the World Cup play-offs later this year.
Style of play
Playing in a 4-3-3 for Rangers, Patterson was expected to add width to the side’s attack — hence how he burst into the box and finished neatly against Antwerp after just 16 seconds. The 20-year-old also has a decent cross, while he rarely gives the ball away — boasting a pass completion rate of 86% in all competitions this season while being dispossessed 0.3 times on average per match.
Defensively, he looks just as solid. With a 6ft frame, he is good aerially and can get stuck into a hard tackle. However, with Rangers often dominating matches from start to finish it is fair to say that he has rarely been tested. He will be asked to defend a lot more at Everton, so it will be interesting to see how he copes. In a back five though with extra help from an additional centre-back, he should be just fine.
It’s very unlikely that Patterson is going to be a regular feature in the Everton side, for the remainder of this season at least. However, with the ability to play both at full back and on the right wing, as demonstrated for club and country already, Benítez has his options!