Irish player tracker: David Moyes leaves Jake O’Brien in no doubt about pecking-order fall

Trust the sting of a backhanded compliment to not only sharpen the mind but drain the joy from a step in the right direction.

Jake O’Brien went from being a regular starter at Everton last season to scrapping for recognition this season. And having stayed at the club amid summer transfer speculation, he only made his first Premier League start of the campaign on Saturday.

The Republic of Ireland defender got a rare opportunity to play in his preferred position of centre back for the trip to champions Arsenal. That was facilitated by Jarrad Branthwaite’s unavailability as he follows concussion protocols. Manager David Moyes opted for O’Brien ahead of Michael Keane, a player previously favoured in that position by Moyes.

The towering Cork man lost sight of Gabriel at the back post in the 68th minute, allowing the Arsenal defender to head in the Gunners’ second goal all too easily. In that moment, O’Brien looked every inch an out-of-favour player with just 29 minutes of Premier League action under his belt going into the game.

It’s no wonder Moyes’s post-match assessment was delivered with a sting in the tail that will serve as a sobering warning to O’Brien.

“Jake did well, he did a lot of good things,” said Moyes. “He’s got pretty big competition as Jarrad Branthwaite is an excellent player and Tarky [James Tarkowski] is a bit of a leader for us and trains every day like a beast and gets himself ready for all the games and prepares himself.

“There’s competition there. He didn’t do himself any harm today in some of it, [but] he’s got lots of things he has to improve on for him to step up.”

Ouch.

While O’Brien fights for every minute he can get, Nathan Collins is hoping it’s only a matter of time before he is back playing regularly. Injured since early September – and ruled out of all four of Ireland’s recent Nations League games – he warmed the Brentford bench for the second game running in Sunday’s 1-1 draw away to John Egan’s Hull City.

Over in Spain, Troy Parrott was also a substitute for Real Betis, who drew 0-0 away to Celta Vigo. It’s been a tough week for Parrott following a break-in at his Seville home the previous weekend. He squandered a fine injury-time chance to win it, but it might irk him more that Betis started without a recognised striker.

With Cucho Hernández out injured, Parrott may have expected to get more than 30 minutes, even if it was off the back of a 79-minute Champions League outing in midweek. Instead, Betis started with midfielder Nelson Deossa – who has never scored for the club – as a false nine before his withdrawal on the hour.

Owen Elding will hope to one day create some Parrott-like memories of his own in an Ireland shirt. The 20-year-old did his reputation no harm by scoring his fourth goal of the season for Hibernian in a 2-1 loss to Celtic at Easter Road on Sunday. Elding capitalised on a quick free kick in the third minute to finish low and hard into the corner. Jamie McGrath and Liam Scales also started the game for Hibs and Celtic respectively.

Ireland defender Jimmy Dunne scored twice in QPR’s 5-0 rout of Swansea City, heading home a cross by his international colleague Harvey Vale to score the fourth goal, before adding the fifth from another set piece.

The win saw QPR climb to eighth in the Championship, just three points behind second-placed Swansea – who had Adam Idah in their starting lineup – and five off leaders Middlesbrough.

Jack Moylan played in a deeper midfield role than of late in Cardiff’s 1-0 win over Birmingham. There was no room in the Bluebirds squad once again for Callum Robinson, who fell foul of manager Brian Barry-Murphy before Cardiff’s previous game against Middlesbrough.

“We have certain standards that all the players have to adhere to before they’re considered for selection,” said Barry-Murphy of Robinson, who is the forgotten man of the Republic of Ireland squad having last featured two years ago.

“Callum missed out on some of those before [Middlesbrough], so he wasn’t available. The standards we expect in the dressingroom are internal. We’re always judged in public and that’s fine, but the dressingroom and how we work day by day are private.”

While Robinson is out in the cold, fit-again Bosun Lawal has been putting his best foot forward for Stoke City. He started his second game in succession as the Potters were held scoreless at home by Jason Knight’s Bristol City.

Josh Cullen has missed all of Ireland’s games this year due to the ACL injury he sustained last December, but the midfielder was finally back in action last Friday night with a 45-minute run-out for Burnley’s under-21s in a defeat at West Ham.

“In the early days after the operation you’re kind of wondering how you’re going to walk again, never mind playing a game of football again. To be back playing football after 300 days was an amazing feeling,” he said.

Once Cullen is up to speed, he will have a new first-team manager to win over as the Clarets sacked Nicky Hayen on Saturday having blown a 1-0 lead in a 4-1 defeat to Lincoln City. The Belgian was in charge for just 14 games but Burnley are third-from-bottom in the Championship and felt compelled to act.