'Brilliant to see' - Jake O'Brien's Everton rise catches eye of Champions League winner
Jake O'Brien's surge in form under returning Everton manager David Moyes has been noted by the Republic of Ireland setup. The centre-back was in danger of drifting to the periphery of the national squad as he struggled to earn minutes under previous Blues boss Sean Dyche.
espite a big money summer move to Merseyside from Lyon, the 23-year-old did not start a single Premier League game under Dyche - who even started injured defenders ahead of him.
That changed with the arrival of Moyes in January. O'Brien has become a mainstay of the first team over the past two months and has started the last nine matches in all competitions, albeit at right-back.
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His national bosses have been watching. Ireland's assistant coach John O'Shea, a Premier League and Champions League winner at Manchester United, was at Molineux on Saturday as O'Brien completed another match with Everton securing a draw against Wolverhampton Wanderers.
It was a result that extended the club's unbeaten league run to eight games - a streak that started with O'Brien's introduction to the starting XI.
Of O'Brien's form, O'Shea, who made his career out of being a centre-back capable of playing elsewhere, told the RTE Soccer Podcast: 'It's just been brilliant to see because you know the type of kid that Jake is, how dedicated he obviously remained in training at Everton in terms of when the frustration would have been building for him in terms of not playing and not getting game-time.
"But the dedication he's shown to knuckle down, keep training hard and then whatever happens, clubs change their managers and he's got the chance to be ready.
"But that's down to his dedication and professionalism that he was ready to take that chance and has not looked back since.'
O'Brien spoke to the ECHO of his determination to fight for a starting spot in Blues line-up even after the opening six months of his Blues career did not go as he hoped. For all that he struggled to win the trust of Dyche, at no point did he question his decision to join the club.
He said in January days before his first league start against Tottenham Hotspur: 'I just thought in terms of just coming here, just for the family and everything, it's close to home. It's just a great club. I know there's a lack of game time, but I don't regret coming here. There's still a lot of time to show what I'm about.'
O'Brien has started to show that, his blossoming relationship with Jesper Lindstrom adding greater resilience down Everton's right. He is growing in confidence from an attacking perspective too and grabbed his first competitive goal for the club with a late diving header to help the Blues earn a point at Brentford last month.
O'Shea continued: "He's in a fantastic position at his club now where he's nailed that spot for himself. Obviously he'll have someone coming back fairly soon I think to fight for that position [club captain and Republic of Ireland international Seamus Coleman returned from injury at Wolves].
"But it's brilliant to see and the more players we have playing week in week out, ideally at the highest level they can possibly play at, I think that will make a difference for us mentally and physically to win those tight games."
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