‘He came through quite well’ – Moyes pleased with Irish defender as Jake O’Brien comes in from the cold
David Moyes praised the impact made by Ireland defender Jake O’Brien as he made the most of his full Premier League debut for Everton.
After a frustrating spell, which saw their summer signing from Lyon denied regular game time, O’Brien was pitched into the starting XI by Moyes for Everton’s game at home to Tottenham as he played a role in a 3-2 win.
“We wanted to have a look at Jake. We’ve not really had a chance to see him,” Moyes said after the win.
“The big thing, the strongest point of the team has always been defensively, but I thought Jake would maybe give us a chance to build a little bit better when we’ve got the ball, which might free us up a little bit if we can work it.
“I think for long periods it did quite well. For Jake it was about getting as much of a 90 minutes as we could out of him because he’s not played so much but I thought he came through quite well and did a lot of things,” added the Everton boss.
Clearly pleased with the win, he also saw aspects of Everton’s game that have to be worked on.
“I’m looking forward to getting some more work into the players. I’ve been feeding bits in and maybe it’s been quite difficult but, as I said, I think the team didn’t do that bad against Aston Villa but we just didn’t have enough and missed a couple of chances,” Moyes said.
“If it’d been a draw, I don’t think anyone would have said anything at all of that. I thought today, again, we were playing against a really offensive team, attacking, always liable to score goals. For us to get three goals ahead was a great thrill for us because it shows that we can score and we can play forward, do the right things and we made some good passes – but I still thought we gave the ball away an awful lot in the second half which could have led to more good chances but it’s just a start.”
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