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Sean Dyche said England boss Gareth Southgate will decide for himself whether James Tarkowski is good enough for the national team. Tarkowski, 25, who signed a new four-and-a-half year deal with Burnley on Thursday, has joined teammate Ben Mee on Southgate's radar having forged an impressive central defensive partnership this season. Only Manchester City, Manchester United and Chelsea have kept more clean sheets than Burnley's 10 in the top flight, while Tarkowski and Mee are in the top four of Premier League players ranked on blocks and headed clearances. "Gareth has been at Burnley a lot more often over the last year-and-a-half or so, which is a good sign,'' said former Chesterfield, Millwall and Watford centre-half Dyche. "Gareth will make his own mind up. "Not every manager fancies all the same players. It's a funny one when you're England manager I imagine because you get a lot of outside noise over who should be in. "But really it's still like a club where there's something in players where you think it will fit with what you want.'' Clarets midfielder Jack Cork was handed his first England cap at Wembley last November and Tarkowski has risen rapidly into contention after comfortably filling the void left by Michael Keane's summer departure to Everton. "If he's in the thoughts then great,'' Dyche added. "I think it's good a number of our players are at least in the thoughts. They won't all make his squads, some might make some and some might not make any. "It's good to think that Burnley Football Club have players who are really clear in Gareth's thoughts and I think that's a really good sign for the whole group.'' Tarkowski, signed for an undisclosed fee from Brentford in early 2016, made only four appearances last season, but played in every game this time round until sitting out a three-game ban for elbowing Glenn Murray during last month's 0-0 draw at Brighton. His contract was due to expire in 2019, but Burnley have moved quickly to bring him in line with other top performers at the club. Dyche puts Tarkowski's improvement down to "game knowledge and experience'' rather than coaching. "Your brain sharpens, you see pictures quicker,'' he added. "I call it smelling danger. A good centre-half can smell the danger early and the best centre-halves have games where you don't notice them much. "Tarky is on his way with that. Ben Mee does it very well I think. He doesn't always get the same plaudits Tarky and Keano have had because he's so efficient so early in the process.''
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