Dara O'Shea has gone from strength to strength at West Brom this season. The 21-year-old Ireland underage international made his season debut for the club late last year and has now made 12 appearances this season.
Usually a centre-back, the Dubliner has mostly filled in at right-back. He was superb in the weekend's 4-2 victory over Hull.
"Dara is clever – he thinks about the game, nothing surprises him," West Brom manager Slaven Bilic told the Express and Star.
He has a good touch but he still keeps things simple. But he does have that good touch, he could complicate things but he doesn’t.
He is very mature for his age. But, to be fair, I expect it from him. As a young player you can have your ups and downs but he is very mature.
He has got a plan no matter where he is – whether with or without the ball. For both phases of the game he has got a plan. He thinks, 'I’m going to do this because of that' or 'I am going to do that because of this'. And that’s easy to say but for a player to have that – not every player has that but Dara has.
The other things like motivation, focus, that little of self-confidence that you need – I saw that with Dara in the first week of training. He wanted to impress us straight away.
Bilic believes that O'Shea will continue to play at both right-back and centre-back for West Brom.
"I said ages ago Dara is the reason we only bought in one centre-half in the summer," said Bilic.
"We lost three centre-backs, but we brought in only Semi (Ajayi). Why? Because of Dara. Then we put him at right-back for the West Ham and Charlton games – the cup games.
"We talked to him, we showed him a few things – but with Dara everything is no problem.
"He is the present and future of West Brom."
Picture credits: Sportsfile
