Jake O’Brien has been speaking ahead of today’s game with Tottenham Hotspur at Goodison Park this afternoon: “I think I need to start playing more. I knew it wouldn’t be easy to play games, but I thought I would have played a lot more than I did.
“But I suppose it’s only been half a season and there is another half of the season to go and I think I could play my part in this half the season and start getting more game time. It’s been a frustrating 6 months, but I think the next half of the season is important for me to start getting games.
“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.”
There was a small sign from David Moyes last week that O’Brien could see more game time than he did under Sean Dyche, who overlooked the young Irish giant in favour of his established defenders — even when they were struggling with their fitness.
Under Dyche, O’Brien spent every single Premier League game in the first half of the season on the substitutes bench – except for short spells on the field in the second half of games at Aston Villa in September, and Man Utd in December. Moyes at least brought him on in his first game last week.
“I’ve played for a lot of managers and they have all been different and they have looked for different things in players, so I hope David Moyes will see what kind of player I am, and hopefully it is the player he wants to play.
“I think a lot of people just see my size and think, ‘he is just a no-nonsense centre half’. It is probably the opposite, I like to play good football and I like to play possession football, to start attacks from the back, but then chipping in and scoring – defending as well, which is the main part of my game.
“It’s been very positive [the arrival of Moyes]. I think he just wants to start playing more, get a bit more possession. It’s all been positive and there’s not been a whole lot of change because he’s only been here a week, but you can see his ideas in training that he’s trying to implement.
“I just can’t see us going down. Last season we were in this kind of situation, but I think it’s more about us looking up the table and knowing we have the squad to get points. I think we’re better than a lot of teams around us, so I think it’s just about getting a few points on the board and pushing up.”