Everton defender Jake O’Brien has been a huge winner of the David Moyes appointment by The Friedkin Group.
The Republic of Ireland international has found a new lease of life at Goodison Park following a very tough start after his £17 million transfer from Lyon.
O’Brien has admitted he wasn’t happy under Sean Dyche, who was reluctant to use the star.
Dyche started the season by playing James Tarkowski and Michael Keane together, with Jarrad Branthwaite struggling with injury.
Keane then dropped out for Branthwaite, and O’Brien continued to warm the bench.
But Dyche then left the club at the start of January – and this would prove to be his catalyst. And now, three brilliant statistics have emerged that may leave Dyche with his head in his hands.
Jake O’Brien has become a defensive tank at Everton under David Moyes
O’Brien is now firmly established in Everton’s starting XI.
He has been playing out of position at right-back, but O’Brien has been getting better by the week.
Occasionally he tucks in to form a back three, with Jesper Lindstrom then operating as a wing-back.
But O’Brien has impressed regardless, and now some impressive data has emerged about him in a new report from The Athletic.
According to them, O’Brien ‘ranks in the top one percent among his positional peers for clearances’ and in ‘the top two percent for aerial duels won’.
Futhermore, O’Brien ‘has also successfully tackled 75 percent of the dribblers he has faced, putting him in the top seven percent for that metric’. And, he is ‘in the top nine percent for the fewest challenges lost’.
Look away now Sean Dyche
While it can be argued that Everton were decent defensively under Dyche, these statistics about O’Brien do not reflect well on the former manager.
The vast majority of O’Brien’s minutes this season have 1209 minutes this season have come under Moyes, meaning Dyche cannot really take any credit for how solid the Irishman has been defensively.
To be so high up in multiple defensive metrics is really impressive, and Moyes is due a lot of credit for the work he has done with the player.
O’Brien is also proving himself to be an attacking threat, which is another reason Dyche made a mistake with him.
The three Jake O’Brien statistics that are embarrassing for former Everton boss Sean Dyche
