2025/26 Jake O'Brien

[ToffeeTim]

He's really not very good as a right back. Not sustainable playing him there week in week out.

 

[Joey66]

We desperately needed a striker too. If we’d have spent a few quid on a RB instead of a striker there’d be uproar.

Barry though has turned out to be a massive gamble and whilst he’s young he’s certainly showing he’s nowhere near ready to lead the line of a top half team.

 

[Joey66]

He had enough to buy both...

 

[OzarkBlue]

68 touches and 44 passes today (from FotMob). Feel like Chelsea and other clubs are content to let him be so involved. No output.

 

[jceverton]

We needed two good fullbacks last June - yet we blew it all on Barry ?

Plus a right winger, a defensive mid and a forward. We wasted £12 million on Grealish, which should have gone on a starting right winger not Dibling. The Barry deal doesn't look great at the minute either, but still too early to fully judge, we'll see at the end of the season.

 

[Joey66]

Plus a right winger, a defensive mid and a forward. We wasted £12 million on Grealish, which should have gone on a starting right winger not Dibling. The Barry deal doesn't look great at the minute either, but still too early to fully judge, we'll see at the end of the season.

Barry will never step up ..

 

[EGWToffee]

He had enough to buy both...

Enough of the Barry fee to buy a RB and a goal scoring striker? I don’t think we did or it would have been done.

A big chunk went on Dibbling which I’m confident will become a very good signing.

 

[riddick]

Not for nothing but if he doesn't try for a backheel he almost certainly has a tap in. The ball dropped literally next to him from that cross before they went 90s later and scored.

 

[toffeeblue9]

He isn't a right back. When you remember that, it's hard to be critical at all. Would we be critical at all if Grealish was playing as a number 8?

 

[Lanolin]

He isn't a right back. When you remember that, it's hard to be critical at all. Would we be critical at all if Grealish was playing as a number 8?

I think that works if you’re just filling in for a game or whatever, but he has effectively been our first choice back for 12 months and has played 99% of his PL games there so you sort of have to treat him the same as anyone else. Obviously it’s not his fault that he’s not very good there, but it wasn’t Brett angell’s fault he was crap either, you just have to call it as you see it in that sense.

 

[SJB]

I think that works if you’re just filling in for a game or whatever, but he has effectively been our first choice back for 12 months and has played 99% of his PL games there so you sort of have to treat him the same as anyone else. Obviously it’s not his fault that he’s not very good there, but it wasn’t Brett angell’s fault he was crap either, you just have to call it as you see it in that sense.

So in order to preserve his reputation as a CB he should refuse to play at RB then?

 

[Swartzy]

He isn't a right back. When you remember that, it's hard to be critical at all. Would we be critical at all if Grealish was playing as a number 8?

Some of his worst play has been in the box.

 

[Lanolin]

So in order to preserve his reputation as a CB he should refuse to play at RB then?

Thats a very strange take away from what I said. I’m just saying going along the lines of ‘you can’t criticise him because he’d rather not be playing there’ is a bit of a stretch when he’s playing right back every week. Like I said, nobody WANTS to be crap do they? So if it’s alright to criticise the others it has to be alright to criticise him too, they’re all doing their best but we comment on what they actually produce.

 

[SJB]

Thats a very strange take away from what I said. I’m just saying going along the lines of ‘you can’t criticise him because he’d rather not be playing there’ is a bit of a stretch when he’s playing right back every week. Like I said, nobody WANTS to be crap do they? So if it’s alright to criticise the others it has to be alright to criticise him too, they’re all doing their best but we comment on what they actually produce.

He's not a right back, he never asked to play there and aside from a spell last season where he looked OK he's looked like a fish out of water - the blame lies squarely at the feet of the recruitment team not JOB.

 

[Lanolin]

He's not a right back, he never asked to play there and aside from a spell last season where he looked OK he's looked like a fish out of water - the blame lies squarely at the feet of the recruitment team not JOB.

I’ve not said otherwise? Like I’ve said - twice - I don’t ‘blame’ Beto for poor performances, or Keane, or mykolenko etc etc. None of them try to play poorly, I don’t see O’Brien any differently. He does his best at right back, it’s very possible that he would do better if he was a centre half, I don’t doubt it at all. But we can’t all just sit here and not pass comment on performances for the next couple of years if we keep playing him at right back can we?