Ah very good. You got me. He was directly responsible for a number of the goals that Everton conceded early in the 2024/25 season with fans calling for him to be dropped. It was only after this that Branthwaite was brought in by Dyche. He has scored a few thunderb@stards to make up for it though. And he has actually been quite a bit better this season when he has played but, as CTP pointed out, made a few howlers yesterday. Which led me to make the comment that i made which was, a small part of the point I was making overall which was about the O'Brien and Dyche dynamic. Congratulations on the post though and taking the thread into an irrelevant space.
I like high energy football. A little bit rock and roll. Many finishes instead of waiting for the perfect one.
O'Brien's situation is related to that of Keane who is 32 and leaving soon. So Dyche brought in another CB. Quelle surprise. Your analysis that it was a direct result of Dyche reacting to boo-boys is silly. O'Brien's fate is with Moyes now.
You branding Keane with the howler trademark is unfair. It joins other classic green tinting. Dunk denying Duffy, Sergeant and Pukki blocking Idah, Romero with Doherty, McCarthy with Bazuno, that awful Wellbeck frustrating our Evan etc. It's a disease.
Taking the thread into "irrelevant space" is nonsense. Such a mindset is taking this forum into irrelevant space.
Go Coillte Mach rachad / ní stopfaidh me choíche /
Go seasfaidh mé síos / i lár Chondae Mhaigh Eo.
Had myself an aul Google of Michael Keane & the words error prone there & I'm inclined to agree with Stu after it. His propensity toward calamity is clear & present. Well established in fact you could reasonably argue.
Other players in our players way as they broke through has nothing to do with whether Calamity Keane ( as one article put it ) is error prone or not.
Which he is, both. In the way & error prone.
I actually just affirmed Craftys point about Keane making errors and that it’s not out of character. It was innocuous and I didn’t infer that Jake was signed to replace Keane. I think I’m on record saying that I thought he was signed to eventually cover/replace Branthwaite if/when he left and I fancied him to eventually (and somewhat quickly) replace Keane as #3 based on how he performed in Ligue 1 and that Keane was poison last season. I watch a lot of Everton. It’s not that big a deal to have that opinion but you’re trying to make it a big deal and are connecting dots that just aren’t there related to commentary on other Irish players. You have this weird obsession with calling me out.
Distancing your O'Brien/Keane green-tint from examples I provided is laughable. Same for CTP. If memory serves, you're usually the caller outer. In fact, you once dedicated nearly a full page to having a go. The weird obsession is yours - about English-born Keanes. Own it.
Go Coillte Mach rachad / ní stopfaidh me choíche /
Go seasfaidh mé síos / i lár Chondae Mhaigh Eo.
Lads, less venom please.
You can't spell failure without FAI
Jake keeps his spot at right back against Brighton. Up against Mitoma so should be another good test for him.
Sounds like he had another solid outing. Hopefully will get a decent run of games now.
Seems to have been involved in a bit of an altercation with Brighton players at full time.
He was really solid and the Everton fans online are really positive about him.
From the sky commentary
"The local radio commentators behind me have just described 'that No 15' as a 'big bruiser'. Jake O'Brien, they are referring to. Yes, he is, and he is doing a mighty fine job of keeping Mitoma quiet so far.
"It's the major change to the Dyche era, Moyes bringing in the Republic of Ireland defender, and he is standing tall out there."
The experience at playing right back and switching to a back 5 later in the game can only be good for us as well.
If he stays at right back it will give us a few options for March. Do we play him there too, and put O'Shea back in the centre alongside Collins. Or do we leave O'Shea where he is and play O'Brien alongside Collins?
Obviously Omobamidele and others could come into this conversation as well, but Collins and O'Shea didn't really work well as a partnership the last time it was tried, so maybe you would play both but in opposite roles to their club positions, with O'Shea staying on the right and O'Brien coming in at centre back.
Rated second highest for their fans MOTM and getting a load of plaudits….
https://www.grandoldteam.com/forum/t...120134/page-70
Great to see.
I think someone sums up my thoughts in that thread on him going into this season from having seen him for Ireland and a couple times for Lyon. He's big. He's fast. He's good on the ball. A defender is off to a good start with those attributes.
And I think I said here before that I hadn't seen him for a window of a year or so between his Ireland under 21 caps and mid/end of last season and his ability on the ball was night and day. He looked cumbersome beside Mark McGuinness and McGuinness looked to have the highest ceiling from that pair at 21s.
O'Brien has developed a lot. Moyes will surely fancy a lot more development and maybe the right back exposure is the first step towards him becoming a regular at centre back beside Branthwaite.
Seamus Coleman is such a legend too. They'll battle for that spot but you'd imagine that Coleman will spur O'Brien on and further support the coaching and improvement.
He's in a great position right now.
After all the right backs Everton signed down the years to compete with Coleman it would be funny if it was an Irish centre back who was the one who finally fully took the jersey off him. Coleman seems to struggle to stay match fit for any length of time now and may be restricted to the odd sub appearance from here on. It seems unlikely that Everton could justify retaining him in a playing capacity beyond this season.
Would expect him to get a coaching job there next season alright. A shame he probably won't get a season playing in the new stadium. I don't think he'll stunt O'Brien much because he'll probably only sub on for him when he's fit. They have Nathan Patterson in that position as well but he doesn't seem to be too highly rated at the club.
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