Credit: Imago

James Barker

Fri 29 May 2026 10:10, UK

Jake O’Brien played the full 90 minutes in Ireland’s friendly against Qatar on Thursday, put his performance summed up his hot and cold Everton problem.

The 25-year-old was Everton’s primary starting right-back in 2025-26, being in from the off 35 times from his 37 Premier League appearances.

However, the Irishman endured a largely inconsistent campaign, routinely struggling to put an extended run of strong performances together.

Because of this, he looks a difficult player for David Moyes to trust moving forward, and there are question marks over whether the Toffees boss sees him as part of his thinking for 2026-27.

O’Brien was in action for his country this week, as the Toffees star is made to wait before jetting off for any summer holiday plans he’s got.

How did Jake O’Brien fare in Ireland vs Qatar?

O’Brien’s best position is the topic of much debate, with the former Lyon man being a centre-back by trade, but has largely been pushed to full-back during his time on Merseyside.

As such, he’s probably due more credit than he perhaps receives for how he’s been able to keep hold of the starting right-back role, despite it being clear that his size and profile would have him better suited to central defence.

Indeed, when he plays for his national team, Ireland, O’Brien does tend to operate as a centre-back, and that’s again where he was deployed for them against Qatar on Thursday night.

Heimir Hallgrimsson’s side beat the 2022 FIFA World Cup hosts 1-0 at the Aviva Stadium in Dublin, with Brentford’s Nathan Collins scoring the winning goal after just five minutes.

O’Brien would play the entire game, which saw both teams have a player sent off, but his underlying numbers from his performance were an extension of his consistency issue seen with Everton.

As per FotMob, he completed 92 per cent of his passes accurately, whilst also creating two chances, playing four passes into the final third and being dispossessed on zero occasions respectively.

Your Ireland starting XI to face Qatar 🇮🇪

A strong selection from Heimir Hallgrímsson with Nathan Collins captaining the side©️

Kick-off at the Aviva is 7:45pm 🏟️☘️ pic.twitter.com/RDT3BKFyMk

— Ireland Football ⚽️🇮🇪 (@IrelandFootball) May 28, 2026

However, he also made just the one tackle, was dribbled past once, won just one of his four ground duels and conceded two fouls respectively.

O’Brien may not get centre-back opportunity at Everton

It does feel like if O’Brien is going to stick around at Everton and be a Toffees success story, then it will have to coincide with him moving back into central defence on a full-time basis.

However, there’s a big sticking point in that regard, and that lies in the fact that James Tarkowski, Michael Keane and Jarrad Branthwaite respectively don’t look much for budging.

Tarkowski is contracted at Hill Dickinson until the summer of 2028, Keane the summer of 2027 and Branthwaite 2030 respectively, and the former two were one of the best centre-back partnerships in the Premier League last season.

Keane and Tarkowski are both 33 though, and so it’s not out of the question that either or potentially even both of them taking a notable step backwards next term.

That does appear unlikely given how well they both played in 2025-26, and so with Moyes surely looking for better than O’Brien at right-back, the Irishman may not find himself lost for a meaningful role on Merseyside.

Updated 24/7 with expert analysis from the heart of Goodison Park.