Jake O’Brien: Everton’s Latest Irish Gem
Jake O’Brien is Everton’s towering Irish centre-half, but what makes the 23-year-old such a threat to the Premier League? Let’s take a look at the numbers and find out!
A strong pre-season from Michael Keane has led to a rough start for Jake O’Brien in the Premier League, the Irish international has played just once for Everton in the league so far, racking up just 33 minutes, despite signing for almost £20m in the summer.
Ahead of Everton’s Premier League clash with Ipswich Town, which saw Everton prevail 2-0, and following a woeful start to the season, Sean Dyche addressed O’Brien’s absence stating that for the Toffee’s new signing “his time will come.” O’Brien started his professional career at Cork City making 9 appearances before moving to Crystal Palace.
The towering defender failed to find his place in London, however, he developed well thanks to loan stints in Swindon and Brussels. In 2023, O’Brien signed for Lyon becoming the first Irishman since Tony Cascarino in 2000 to play in Ligue 1. He racked up over 2500 minutes for Lyon in the 2023/24 season playing primarily as a right sided centre half – during this season he racked up some impressive numbers earning himself his move to Merseyside.
Player Profile – Jake O’Brien
Nationality: Irish
Age: 23
Date of birth: 15/5/2001
Club: Everton
Position: CB
Preferred foot: Right
Height: 198cm
Weight: 80kg
Contract Expires: 30/06/2028
Current Value: £15m
Jake O’Brien – Player Analysis
In Everton’s current system, there is a clear space for O’Brien coming in for James Tarkowski on the right-hand side of the back four, this would accommodate Michael Keane continuing to play on the left of the centre-back pairing until Jarrad Branthwaite returns from injury. O’Brien played under three separate head coaches during his single season in France with Laurent Blanc, Fabio Grosso and Pierre Sage all at the helm through the 23/24 season.
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The majority of O’Brien’s minutes came as the right centre in a back four in Sage’s 4-3-3, 4-1-4-1 or 4-2-3-1 setups. He did produce a handful of minutes as part of a back five against teams such as PSG, Monaco and Marseille, during these games O’Brien played as the right-sided centre-back also. Everton have conceded 15 goals in the Premier League so far this season averaging 2.14 per game- only Wolves (3/90) have conceded more.
But, is O’Brien the answer to Everton’s calamitous defence? Let’s dig a bit deeper into his spells in Belgium and France and find out.
Underlying Numbers
The underlying components of a Sean Dyche player are well documented at this point in time – a rigid coach who wants a well-structured, physical and defence first set up looking to great a team that is difficult to break down with threats coming from set pieces and in the transition.
Everton have often set up in a 4-1-4-1 or a 4-2-3-1 through the season so far but look to do most of their pressing and off-the-ball work inside a more rigid 4-4-2, however, contrary to what Dyche achieved with a similar set up at Burnley, he has failed to create a structured defence this season so far with the club conceding 90 shots in just seven league games.
Going forward, Everton are not flying high either with the club producing just seven goals so far this season from an average xG of 1.03/90. Keane and Tarkowski have been the primary centre-back pairing for Everton this season with Tarkowski based on the right of the two – occupying the space that O’Brien would look to fill.
So far this season Tarkowski is averaging 5.29 defensive duels per 90 with a 68% success rate. This is a marked improvement on Keane who sits with a lackluster 3.74 duels per 90 with a poor 56% success rate. Tarkowski is winning 63% of his 4.9 aerial duels per 90 whilst producing 6.91 PAdj interceptions per 90.
The 31-year-old is producing 13 forward passes per 90 with a 66% completion rate alongside 5.67 long balls with a 45% success rate. But how does O’Brien compare? Well, with just 33 minutes of Premier League football to gauge the Irish international on we need to turn to his performances in Ligue 1 in order to understand how he could fit in.
During the 23/24 Ligue 1 season O’Brien averaged 4.48 defensive duels per 90 (with a 64% duel success rate) in a Lyon side that averaged 52% possession across the season – a huge 15% more than Everton’s current 37% average in the Premier League this season.
O’Brien produced just 2.85 aerial duels per 90 with a 56.1% success rate, ranking lower than both Keane and Tarkowski both for volume (which can be attributed to the increased volume of defending in Everton’s current set-up) but also in success rate indicating that despite his tall stature O’Brien fails to dominate in the air as one may expect.
Everton’s most similar defender, Branthwaite, won 60% of his aerial duels whilst producing a larger volume of aerial duels per 90 indicating he is a stronger defender in the air – something Dyche clearly values.
In possession is where O’Brien clearly stands out from Everton’s current centre-back pairing. During the 23/24 Ligue 1 season, O’Brien produced 47 passes per 90 with a 91% pass accuracy whilst producing 17 forward passes with an 82% completion rate. A marked improvement on Tarkowski’s 66% forward pass accuracy.
Unsurprisingly, given the difference in tactical setups, O’Brien produced a smaller volume of long balls per 90 (3.86) and maintained a higher completion rate than Tarkowski with 60% (vs the Englishman’s 45%). Let’s take a closer look at O’Brien’s defending out of possession as this would be most relevant to his role should he slot in at RCB for Everton in the coming weeks.
O’Brien’s physical attributes are naturally his standout, his recovery pace is very solid and his off-the-ball movement and reading of play is strong allowing him to react quickly to the movement of the attack breaking the lines (if you’ll pardon the pun) with confidence and aggression to clear danger and win the ball higher up the pitch.
He is composed in his challenges and does not rush to the ground, looking to use his body and positioning, alongside a well-timed standing challenge, to recover possession.
One of his biggest areas of concern is his penalty box defending, aerially he is fine, he can clear a cross well and if partnered with JB would be an imposing pairing for any team looking to whip balls into a target man. However, his man marketing and concentration in the area leave a lot to be desired and may be part of the reason Dyche, a stickler for defending the box and defensive discipline, has been hesitant to bring him into the starting XI.
Generally, a lot of what makes O’Brien stand out are his attributes more suited to a more attacking side holding more of the ball and looking for a defender who can feed the simple passes well but also unpick the midfield battle with a well-executed long diagonal to high wide players.
His general defending is solid, much to the standard of Keane for definite, but it is not what makes him such a valuable asset. This feels very much like a case of the right defender, for the wrong club and that Dyche or the Everton recruitment team got caught up on his physical stature and did not look past this.
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Although on paper he and JB are Everton’s strongest CB pairing and the one I feel many fans hoped/expected to see, I would have concerns over the overly aggressive nature of the pairing with both looking to drive out the line to attack possession and win the ball which can easily lead to huge gaps in the defence when you have both central defenders doing so.
So is Jake O’Brien the answer to all of Everton’s defensive woes? Well, no…
But when looking at the start to the season, Keane has been a clear weakness for Everton and it’s hard not to think that despite some of his defensive fragilities O’Brien would be a marked improvement and bring an additional element with a stronger passing range and a greater physical presence.
Obviously, the clear issue here has been Keane occupying the left side of centre back pairing, however, O’Brien, although right footed, would be capable playing on the left (as he did on a number of occasions for Lyon) particularly if focusing on this role in training alongside some additional focus on his defensive structure and discipline.
Many Everton fans believe Dyche’s team selection and refusal to adjust to a poor start to the season may spell the end of his Everton career and depending on how their upcoming clash against Ipswich goes it may be red lights in the future for the former Burnley manager.
By: Liam Stewart / @LiamAStewart
Featured Image: @GabFoligno / James Gill – Danehouse / Getty Images