Jake O’Brien: Everton's Centre-Back Stuck at Right-Back
Jake O’Brien stands at a crossroads at Everton, and this time it feels final.
The Ireland defender, signed as a commanding centre-half, has spent two seasons shunted out to right-back. Now, as his patience thins and the club’s Irish core fades, he is edging towards the exit.
A centre-half stuck at right-back
Everton paid £17m (€19.9m) to prise O’Brien from Lyon in the summer of 2024 after a breakout year in Ligue 1. Thirty-two games at centre-back, five goals, and a December player-of-the-month award won ahead of Vitinha, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, Alexandre Lacazette and Kylian Mbappé – he arrived on Merseyside with serious pedigree.
He expected to anchor the defence. Instead, he ended up plugging a gap.
In his first season, O’Brien had to fight his way into the side. When the chance finally came, it was on the right, covering for an ageing and increasingly injury-hit Seamus Coleman. He adapted, learned the lane, and kept his place.
Last season, the pattern hardened. David Moyes leaned on him again at right-back, valuing his height, his reading of the game and his reliability without the ball. O’Brien responded with 40 appearances, a picture of consistency and commitment.
At six foot six, he dominates in the air, defends first, and can still explode into a sprint when needed. Those qualities scream centre-back. Out wide, they look slightly out of place.
He did the job. He just never quite looked at home.
The limits of compromise
Modern full-backs are expected to surge forward, overload midfield, and whip in chance after chance. O’Brien offered something very different: stability, strength at set pieces, and a constant aerial threat in the opposition box. What he did not bring was the kind of attacking thrust that now defines the position at the top level.
For a while, his willingness to sacrifice his preferred role for the team made sense. Now, at 25 and entering his prime, the compromise seems to have run its course.
On the opening day of the Premier League season, he watched from the bench as Everton beat Crystal Palace and kept a clean sheet. James Tarkowski and Jarrad Branthwaite locked down the centre. O’Brien never left his seat.
The defensive options around him told their own story. Michael Keane and Nathan Patterson joined him among the substitutes. On the pitch, new signing Merlin Röhl – billed as a versatile midfielder and likened in style to Leon Goretzka – started at right-back.
For a natural centre-half who has already spent two years out of position, that decision cut deep. It looked like a clear signal.
Clubs across the league noticed.
Interest grows as deadline looms
With the transfer window ticking towards an 11pm Tuesday deadline, Premier League sides have started circling. Sunderland, Leeds and former club Crystal Palace are all reported to be keen, with interest also coming from Italy and France.
Any late move would leave Everton light at right-back. Coleman, who has been back training with his old GAA club Killybegs, is still weighing up his next step after leaving Merseyside last year. He has not retired, and his last Ireland cap came as recently as June, but his future remains unresolved.
Replacing Coleman the player is one thing. Replacing Coleman the captain, the voice in the dressing room, is something else entirely.
Signed from Sligo Rovers for under £100,000, he went on to make 434 appearances in all competitions. Many inside and outside the club argue he ranks among the greatest value-for-money signings in Premier League history. Everton offered him a coaching role. He turned it down, clearly intent on squeezing a little more from his playing career.
Some at the club hoped Coleman might guide O’Brien through that right-back role, pass on the tricks of a lifetime out wide. Instead, the Corkman appears set on a different path: a move that restores him to the centre of defence.
The Irish thread frays
If O’Brien goes, Everton’s long and proud Irish line thins to a single thread.
Mark Travers, the Ireland international goalkeeper, will be the only Irish player left in the squad. Yet his role is a world away from those of Kevin Kilbane, Lee Carsley, Kevin Sheedy, James McCarthy and Coleman, all of whom made over 100 appearances for the club.
Travers did not feature once in the Premier League or FA Cup last season. He played only twice in the Carabao Cup and is set for another year behind Jordan Pickford. The Irish presence will remain, but only on the periphery.
Everton’s gamble at right-back
Inside Goodison, there is an acceptance that the right side of defence has needed surgery for some time.
Everton CEO Angus Kinnear did not hide from that reality when he spoke to BBC Radio Merseyside.
“I’m confident that we’ll bring a right back in,” he said. “It’s a position we’ve needed. I think Jake has done a sterling job for us in that position.
“It was something that we were trying to do last summer and didn’t feel that we could get the quality in.
“A right-back was top priority in the window, we would have liked to have got it done earlier.
“I understand the fans’ frustrations; I understand how they see it as being critical.
“So, we are working hard to bring one in and I’m sure we will. I’m sure it will be an improvement, and it will round off the squad nicely.”
Those words cut both ways. On one hand, they underline how highly the club rates O’Brien’s contribution. On the other, they confirm that Everton see him as a stopgap in a role they want to upgrade.
For a player who left Lyon as a rising centre-back and has already proved he can handle top-flight football in that position, the message is stark: his long-term future at right-back lies elsewhere.
A defining choice
Had Everton secured a new right-back earlier in the window, O’Brien might have been freed to compete directly with Tarkowski and Branthwaite in the middle. Instead, with days left and interest mounting, he faces a different decision.
Stay, fight, and hope the door opens at centre-half. Or walk away now, in search of a club willing to build its defence around him.
Everton, meanwhile, must juggle two problems at once: replacing the intangible presence of Coleman and potentially losing the man who has held his position together for two seasons.
For Jake O’Brien, this is not just another move. It is the call that will shape the prime years of his career – and leave Everton scrambling to fix a position they have known for some time they could no longer ignore.
