David Moyes hints at new role for Jake O’Brien due to injury as Everton boss admits ‘plan was to do it in pre-season’

EVERTON manager David Moyes has hinted at a positional change for Jake O’Brien.

The Republic of Ireland defender has become a mainstay under the Scot since he returned to Goodison Park back in January.

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However, while he was signed by Moyes‘ predecessor Sean Dyche after impressing as a centre-half for Lyon, he has been deployed as a right-back.

But the ex-Manchester United gaffer has suggested the Corkman could return to his familiar role to fill in for the injured James Tarkowski.

Speaking ahead of Everton‘s clash against Chelsea, he said: “Well, I think Jake is a centre-half.

“I’m not worried about doing it, that’s for sure.

“It’s trying to get the right balance for the team, which we think he’s done a brilliant job playing at full-back, so sometimes you’ve got the decision to make – do I change two positions or do I change one position?

“We’ve got Michael Keane available as well, so we’ve got options and we’ll look to play the options between now and the end of the season and find out which one works best for us.”

Despite being made into a right-back, O’Brien has flourished in the second-half of the season in the Premier League.

He has made 16 appearances as the Blues easily staved off relegation and climbed to 13th place.

And Moyes revealed that O’Brien has not been playing as the most traditional full-back amid his resurgence.

And while his original plan was to test the 23-year-old in the centre in pre-season, circumstances may necessitate that being moved up.

He said: “We think we’ve done a pretty good job in getting Jake to go and play there and I call it more of a hybrid role.

“We actually wanted him to tuck in quite a lot and give us a chance to build at times with three defenders not four,.

“We’ve not really asked him to go and be joining in and be overlapping like maybe I would hope from a full back.

“So we’ve asked him to play a slightly different role.

“I think he’s done it well, it’s helped the team.

“I wouldn’t say it’s made us more solid but it’s not made us any more open and the team’s had good performances as well.

“So to then move him can be a problem. But you rightly say we probably need to see how he plays at centre-half.

“My plan was probably to wait and do that in pre-season but it looks as if somewhere along the line, I’ll get the opportunity to have a look at him in the coming weeks playing at centre-half.”