2025/26 Jake O'Brien

[DualityNSNO]

I remember being laughed at for suggesting that last summer is a failure because we well and clearly failed to sign a RB, as "JOB is great at it", when he clearly wasn't. The champagne was out cuz of Grealish at the time though, makes sense.

Criminal we've not even used any of the other "jack of all trade" players we have - Rohl looked decent enough at RB himself for a bit and he's probably at least a bit more attack oriented, but we can't be having that now can we?

 

[Rob17896]

Never in my life seen a player purposely played desperately out of position when it was so obvious he's, unsurprisingly, miles out of his depth and there were two transfer windows to rectify the situation. It's like playing Beto at left wing. Moyes has an awful lot to answer for this season, starting with this pathetic, completely unnecessary decision.

it is often like playing Barry as centre forward.

 

[DualityNSNO]

Problem is we don't have any good specialist full backs at the club. Garner is the best full back at the club, but if you agree we need him in midfield then, as absolutely horrible as it is seeing him there, O'Brien is probably the best other right back option we have.

If we don't sign an actual right back (actually, ideally two given Patterson and Coleman will both presumably be leaving), then heads should roll.

I have no doubt at all that we will be at least talking to Trippier btw as a potential 2nd Right Back, my real fear is that he'd end up the only one coming in and Moyes would be ok with that because he likes O'Brien there.

Yeah, would be a great addition - a 35 year old who's well past it. Might as well get Ashley Young back out of retirement at this rate.

OBrien is the only one who's been tried at it consistently, and Garner is very much not the best RB we have at the club as well - they're both clearly out of position and this needs to stop honestly. The mistakes Garner made in his stint at RB would leave anyone else slaughtered, but he's got the good will going for him currently.

JG played as a right back for the U21 national team and did well enough, in the same tournament Anthony Gordon was the England #9 - both aren't those positions, it's a youth tournament FFS.

We need two right backs at any rate though, but none of them have to be geriatrics, unless of course we also keep David Moyes as head of transfers, in which case it's Trippier and maybe no one else, as "we have JOB doing a decent job".

 

[toffeeblue9]

Yeah, would be a great addition - a 35 year old who's well past it. Might as well get Ashley Young back out of retirement at this rate.

OBrien is the only one who's been tried at it consistently, and Garner is very much not the best RB we have at the club as well - they're both clearly out of position and this needs to stop honestly. The mistakes Garner made in his stint at RB would leave anyone else slaughtered, but he's got the good will going for him currently.

JG played as a right back for the U21 national team and did well enough, in the same tournament Anthony Gordon was the England #9 - both aren't those positions, it's a youth tournament FFS.

We need two right backs at any rate though, but none of them have to be geriatrics, unless of course we also keep David Moyes as head of transfers, in which case it's Trippier and maybe no one else, as "we have JOB doing a decent job".

It's been a hard watch, but I think I can understand Moyes's thinking about wanting JOB to get game time, while at the same time preferring Tarkowski and Branthwaite as a pair in the middle.

The last 7 games make this a tough argument, but Michael Keane has probably had his best ever season here, so even when Branthwaite was out earlier in the season, I could probably forgive Moyes for the thinking.

He did the same with Lescott back in the day, but that didn't last as long because we had a genuinely great left back in Baines who was pushing for a spot.

I don't agree that we should have kept that back 4 together over the last half dozen games or so as it was failing, but I think you can at least understand Moyes's thinking this season on JOB even if you don't agree with it. It isn't nonsensical, it's just contentious.

That being said, it is evident to every man and his dog that our full back positions are dramatically lacking in quality on the ball and they are a huge dertiment to how we play. The new mooted Mykolenko deal already fills me with dread along with the Boyland "cover" comment, so now it's a case of all eyes on right back - 2 going out should mean at the very least one coming in, but all eyes on the profile of who that is.

 

[DualityNSNO]

It's been a hard watch, but I think I can understand Moyes's thinking about wanting JOB to get game time, while at the same time preferring Tarkowski and Branthwaite as a pair in the middle.

The last 7 games make this a tough argument, but Michael Keane has probably had his best ever season here l, so even when Branthwaite was out earlier in the season, I could probably forgive Moyes for the thinking.

He did the same with Lescott back in the day, but that didn't last as long because we had a genuinely great left back in Baines who was pushing for a spot.

I don't agree that we should have kept that back 4 together over the last half dozen games or so as it was failing, but I think you can at least understand Moyes's thinking this season on JOB even if you don't agree with it. It isn't nonsensical, it's just contentious.

That being said, it is evident to every man and his dog that our full back positions are dramatically lacking in quality on the ball and they are a huge dertiment to how we play. The new mooted Mykolenko deal already fills me with dread along with the Boyland "cover" comment, so now it's a case of all eyes on right back - 2 going out should mean at the very least one coming in, but all eyes on the profile of who that is.

I can see why we started off with JOB there, but the persistence when it's clearly not working and offering nothing (and he's had a fair few stinkers) should've opened the door to try something different without destroying our midfield in putting Garner there. I know he's a hot topic for some pure hatred on the weekly, but Patterson could've played there at least a few times, and did, and was decent enough, certainly no worse than JOB. Rohl played there for a bit and he's got pace and is decent at filling a gap, no reason to not try him at all even for a half or anything, etc.

All eyes on RB was how it should've been last year, but I fear we'll dilly-dally as usual and leave it for the last few days of the transfer window and panic, as always, bringing in pure mediocrity at best, or no one decent at all at worst (Trippier links currently are abysmal, hope they're wrong).

Another problem we will 100% face is that no young and upcoming player with ambition will have the desire to come here - people like to pretend it's because of Europe, but it's not, or at least not as much as the emphasis being placed on it - it's because they won't play at all. Imagine for a hot second being an upcoming 19-20 year old playing almost an entire full season at your current team and we come in with an offer, as do any other team from the Prem currently - one glance at how our young players didn't play at all last year will stop you in your tracks. Same glance towards most other teams who are regularly playing a teenager and they're starting games and here you have it, why join the Dino squad? We can also pretend it's only Brighton doing it, but it's really not - Bournemouth signed one of the potential best players in Brazil, and he was starting games a week later, playing full 90s. Both of those things aren't happening here for us, currently, so 26+ with no chance to recoup the money and "PL experience" is where we'll shop.

 

[pfim]

It's been a hard watch, but I think I can understand Moyes's thinking about wanting JOB to get game time, while at the same time preferring Tarkowski and Branthwaite as a pair in the middle.

The last 7 games make this a tough argument, but Michael Keane has probably had his best ever season here, so even when Branthwaite was out earlier in the season, I could probably forgive Moyes for the thinking.

He did the same with Lescott back in the day, but that didn't last as long because we had a genuinely great left back in Baines who was pushing for a spot.

I don't agree that we should have kept that back 4 together over the last half dozen games or so as it was failing, but I think you can at least understand Moyes's thinking this season on JOB even if you don't agree with it. It isn't nonsensical, it's just contentious.

That being said, it is evident to every man and his dog that our full back positions are dramatically lacking in quality on the ball and they are a huge dertiment to how we play. The new mooted Mykolenko deal already fills me with dread along with the Boyland "cover" comment, so now it's a case of all eyes on right back - 2 going out should mean at the very least one coming in, but all eyes on the profile of who that is.

Moyes didn't start Keane in 29 matches because he wanted to be sure that O'Brien got game time at RB. He thought he could legitimately be the RB, and he was wrong.

When other RBs were "healthy" they were not played. He made a tremendous error, had the opportunity to fix it in January, and still did nothing.

 

[toffeeblue9]

Moyes didn't start Keane in 29 matches because he wanted to be sure that O'Brien got game time at RB. He thought he could legitimately be the RB, and he was wrong.

When other RBs were "healthy" they were not played. He made a tremendous error, had the opportunity to fix it in January, and still did nothing.

No, you're misunderstanding me slightly. I'm saying he wanted JOB to get game time and right back was the easiest way to give it to him because we didn't/don't have any other right back options which are good enough to hang your hat on as being significantly better.

I also agree that we should have signed a right back in January, but then I think we should have signed a left back as well and I think that's been the case more or less every window for the last few years.

 

[pfim]

No, you're misunderstanding me slightly. I'm saying he wanted JOB to get game time and right back was the easiest way to give it to him because we didn't/don't have any other right back options which are good enough to hang your hat on as being significantly better.

I also agree that we should have signed a right back in January, but then I think we should have signed a left back as well and I think that's been the case more or less every window for the last few years.

I think the easiest way of getting him game time was to give the 29 starts Keane got at CB to O'Brien (or replace Tarkowski in those matches, either way).

 

[davek]

I would agree he's the best full back at the club, but he's also the best number 6 and joint best number 8.

I don't think there's a good option as we would have missed his ball-winning and engine in midfield if he'd played all season at full back - the stats tell you how important he was/is, but he's also the only one who showed any quality at all on the ball when playing at full back.

I think we'd have been better served all told with him putting in solid attacking games at RB every week and playing Rohl or Armstrong + Iroegbunam in m/f.

 

[pfim]

I think we'd have been better served all told with him putting in solid attacking games at RB every week and playing Rohl or Armstrong + Iroegbunam in m/f.

I think we would have been better served buying a RB and keeping the good players at the important positions (CM and CB) where they should be.

 

[riddick]

From Paddy Boyland's latest piece in The Athletic:

Moyes remains unconvinced that potential targets or replacements from within his squad would be better than Jake O’Brien in a makeshift right-back role. He places high value on the Republic of Ireland’s pace and physicality.

That's it ladies and gents, might as well pack it in. In the ENTIRETY of world football, there isn't ONE RB that could better than a CB being played out of position.

The absolute masterclass that is.... DAVID MOYES


Moyes remains unconvinced that any potential targets or replacements from within his squad would be better than John Stones as a 10. He places high value on the English Internationals experience and height

I mean we are going to do this ad nauseum aren't we?

 

[DualityNSNO]

That's it ladies and gents, might as well pack it in. In the ENTIRETY of world football, there isn't ONE RB that could better than a CB being played out of position.

The absolute masterclass that is.... DAVID MOYES


Moyes remains unconvinced that any potential targets or replacements from within his squad would be better than John Stones as a 10. He places high value on the English Internationals experience and height

I mean we are going to do this ad nauseum aren't we?

Stinks of "no one in world football could do better".

 

[dublinbluenose]

I'd hand in a transfer request if Moyes continued to play me at RB if I was Jake.

 

[Toffeepot]

From Paddy Boyland's latest piece in The Athletic:

Moyes remains unconvinced that potential targets or replacements from within his squad would be better than Jake O’Brien in a makeshift right-back role. He places high value on the Republic of Ireland’s pace and physicality.

Amazing he doesn’t think that pace would be useful at CB when we finished the season with a pair of snails there

 

[MikeH72]

Moyes is the sort of manager that will dig his heels in out of stubbornness the more his decisions are criticised. I wouldn’t at all be surprised if we start the season with O’Brien at right back, in fact I think he’s probably planning to bring Soucek or a similar profile in and play Dewsbury-Hall and Rohl out wide if we sell Ndiaye, he trialled it on Sunday.