One year ago, Jake O’Brien’s Everton career looked completely different.
The Irish central defender, signed from French giants Olympique Lyon, had barely featured in Sean Dyche’s plans and had just 34 minutes of Premier League action under his belt going into Christmas.
The arrival of David Moyes in January, though, changed things completely. O’Brien came off the bench for the first game of Moyes’ second stint before starting against Tottenham Hotspur the same week.
The tradeoff, however, was being played out of position at right-back instead. Described by Moyes as a as a “hybrid” full-back, “sometimes playing as a full-back and sometimes playing a bit further in [centrally]”, O’Brien has since become integral to the boss’ plans.
“It’s very different now from where I was 12 months ago,” reflects O’Brien, who featured in 18 of the 19 matches last term following Moyes’ arrival, starting 17 and missing only one through injury.
“I’m happy to be part of the team. When you’re not playing, it’s difficult to enjoy it because you don’t feel part of it.
“As long as you’re playing and for me, even if that’s at right-back, then you’re still going to get up to speed with it and keep improving because you’re out on the pitch.
“Of course, eventually I’d love to go back to play centre-back week-in, week-out, but as long as I’m playing, I’m going to be happy.”
The Irish international has had to put in a lot of hard yards to get accustomed to his new role over the last year. He has had long individual sessions with Moyes as well as Everton’s new Head of Sports Science/Performance, Nick Davies, who joined from Spurs this summer.
The 6ft 6in defender, with his giant frame, has had to work a lot on his positioning and agility to hold his own against the league’s wingers, many of whom are much faster and smaller than O’Brien.
“At the start it was more about learning exactly where to be on the pitch because it is different to centre-back,” the 24-year-old added.
“Then, with Nick [Davies], who has come in, I’ve been doing work on my footwork and having fast feet.
“A lot of that we do in training anyway but then, when we don’t have midweek games, we’ll do our one-to-one sessions as well and that’s been a focus for me.
“Everyone knows my size and I’m coming up against small, tricky wingers, so having fast feet is important, then putting everything together and lots of one-v-one stuff in those scenarios you get in a match.”
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