James Tomkins open to flexible role at Crystal Palace

James Tomkins is happy to play anywhere across the back of Crystal Palace’s defence as he continues to settle in with his new team-mates.

The 27-year-old left West Ham in the summer to join London rivals Palace and has made four Premier League appearances so far this season.

On Friday night he continued to feature in the place of the injured Scott Dann with Palace stretching their unbeaten run to five games with a 1-1 draw at Everton.

And the defender said he was happy to be flexible to maintain his starting spot in Alan Pardew’s defence

“I am enjoying it and obviously have played with two different centre-halves meaning I have been on each side of the middle of defence,” he said.

Photo by Bryn Lennon/Getty Images

“I would like to think I can play on both so it doesn’t really worry me as I am comfortable playing in any of the four positions across the back.

“Everyone has welcomed me into the team and I am hopefully showing what I can do as I aim to go from strength to strength.

“At the moment we have good spirit and momentum within the squad so we would probably have liked our next game to have come sooner but the international break comes round and hopefully we can get injured players back, put in good work on the training ground and be ready for that massive game for myself against my old team, West Ham.”