Truth is, O’Brien has already developed a habit of weighing in with important goals.
The 6ft 6in (198cm) defender scored five times in 32 games for French club Lyon last seaJake O’Brien has demonstrated his value to Evertonson, including in the Coupe de France final defeJake O’Brien has demonstrated his value to Evertonat by Paris Saint-Germain. His latest effort was his second equaliser in less than a month, following the diving header that salvaged a point at Brentford.
With the Everton squad short of goals and attacking quality, manager David Moyes has tasked his defenders with getting on the scoresheet more regularly.
“He (O’Brien) is beginning to get a couple of goals, and I’ve been moaning at Tarky (James Tarkowski) and Jarrad (Branthwaite) to start getting more from centre-half,” Moyes said. “But with our delivery from set pieces, there was no chance (during Saturday’s match). They were so poor.
“I’m pleased for big Jake. He’s coming on, improving. A young centre-back making his way as a sort of false right-back in some ways. But he’s doing a good job and I’m pleased he got the goal — he’s capable of it.”
O’Brien’s influence on this Everton team extends beyond his two Premier League goals. With each passing week, he looks less like a centre-half playing out of position on the right and more like a natural full-back.
Having someone of his size rampaging up and down the wing may seem idiosyncratic. These areas are usually home to pint-sized rockets and sprinters. But O’Brien’s temporary conversion to what Moyes calls a “false right-back” is working.
The 23-year-old, a £17million summer signing, does the defensive basics well. He ranks in the top one per cent among his positional peers for clearances and the top two per cent for aerial duels won. O’Brien has also successfully tackled 75 per cent of the dribblers he has faced, putting him in the top seven per cent for that metric, and is in the top nine per cent for the fewest challenges lost.
Bit by bit, his attacking work has improved too. Moyes sometimes uses him as a third central defender to build from the back and help guard against fast counter-attacks. More recently, he has been found at the back post in the opposition penalty area and surging past their full-backs.
O’Brien’s crossing has also got better. He has always been graceful on the ball, but work with Moyes’ coaching staff, which includes the former Everton and England full-back Leighton Baines, is paying off. Drills during the recent training trip to Abu Dhabi and before games saw O’Brien and left-back Vitalii Mykolenko supply a steady stream of crosses from the byline after runs forward.
“We’re doing bits individually after training with the coaches and part of that is about getting into the final third and creating chances,” O’Brien said. “Leighton has been a big part of it, but all the coaches, really. They’ve all had their players attacking and defending. I think it’s shown in glimpses here.
“The more games I play (at right-back), the more comfortable I become. You adapt to it and have good lads and coaches around to help you through.”
O’Brien is treading a familiar path where Moyes is concerned. During the Scot’s first stint as Everton manager between 2002 and 2013, he blooded Phil Jagielka and Joleon Lescott, two central defenders who would go on to play for England, at full-back before moving them inside.
The plan, in time, is to do the same with the Cork-born O’Brien. But for now, he is needed elsewhere. Even with club captain Seamus Coleman and Scotland international Nathan Patterson, two conventional right-backs, fit again, he has done enough to keep his place in the team.
O’Brien has spoken about his “frustration” at not being used by Moyes’ predecessor, Sean Dyche, in the first half of the season. Since the club’s January managerial change, he has seized his chance. Alongside his composure and aerial prowess, he also possesses a burst of pace.
Saturday saw the Crystal Palace academy graduate play higher up the pitch than usual and influence at key moments. There were several dangerous crosses into the West Ham box, while he also saw a fizzing shot from range parried by goalkeeper Alphonse Areola.
“We’ve tried to play him as a sort of hybrid,” Moyes said. “The way West Ham played meant he had to join in and push higher up the pitch, nearly like an attacking full-back. It actually hindered the way we played a bit in the first half. I didn’t think we could damage West Ham enough and we needed to do it better. But we got there in the end.”
The reward for all of this — the patience, the hours in training striving for a chance and the minutes out of position at right-back — is a place in the Ireland squad for a two-leg Nations League promotion/relegation play-off against Bulgaria taking place on Thursday and Sunday.
The national team’s assistant manager John O’Shea was present to see O’Brien in action against Wolves earlier this month and was suitably impressed. “It’s been brilliant to see,” O’Shea told the RTE Soccer podcast.
Everton’s calculation in buying O’Brien last summer was they could not let the opportunity of signing someone with the potential to be a key Premier League defender go to waste.
