The Barkley/Naismith conundrum

[meagher94]

Of course, when Ross Barkley comes back and is fully fit, he goes straight back into the team. No brainer. So what happens to our current top scorer then?

He's in the goalscoring form of his career at the moment and you can't really take him out of the side for me. So how do we accommodate both of them?

Could we see 3-5-2 experimented with? We know Martinez likes that formation. I'm sure the defensive vulnerability involved with it will irk some people, and not surprisingly with how our defence has performed this season with four of them.

Howard
Stones Jagielka Alcaraz
Coleman --------------------------- Baines
McCarthy Barry
Barkley
Lukaku Naismith
​

Just an example there.

Can we accommodate the both of them with the 4-2-3-1 we use now, or maybe a 4-3-3? This would see one of Naismith or Lukaku pushed out wide which is wasting one of them in my opinion.

Thoughts?

 

[Boss_Blue]

Play one or the other dependent on the opposition.

 

[Stifler]

A think a squad rotation is a good idea this season Ok we are out of league cup, but UEFA cup looks promising............ then we have the F.A cup starting soon.

 

[Tramps_mate]

Why does BArkley walk back in? Id keep Naismith in over him currently..

 

[toffee matt]

Play Barkley

Bench Naismith

Easy

 

[toffeestillidie]

Naismith plays til he's out of form, then Barkley plays til he's out of form, repeat until we win the league or something.

 

[Del]

Naismith over Barkley ffs

Jesus

 

[Goat]

Play Barkley

Bench Naismith

Easy

Hard to disagree with this.

I know The Nais has been superb, but hes not Ross Barkley.

 

[Furey1878]

Diamond yo!

-----Barry
Besic--McCarthy
----Barkley
Lukaku Naismith

 

[KopitesAreGobshi+es22]

Barkley won't play 90min the moment he's fit. Likely gonna be 20min here 30min there for a couple matches imo. So a transition... But when he is fully fit he starts. You don't keep the Ferrari in the garage. Naismith has been the best player, hands down, through the start of the season so you don't just drop him either. If Bobby can find a way to keep Naisy, Rom and Barkley on the pitch there should be loads of goals.

 

[blue61]

Naismith may be scoring but hardly anyone else is. The spark Barkley can provide would hopefully pull the team out of first gear and provide more goals across the team.

 

[LinekersLegs]

It took Barkley about a month to reach full fitness after his broken toe and even last season his form was erratic (as young players often are).

With the number of matches we have coming up, don't think we'll have a problem giving them both lots of games in the AM position even without any further injuries that might see Naismith as striker or Ross in a midfield 3.

 

[Eric Djemba-Djemba]

Barkley walks back in to the team easily when he's back.

That's not to say that Naismith hasn't done a good job filling in but Barkley's ability to run at pace with the ball gives us so much more.

 

[Mogwai]

Rukaku out right.... Raismith up front.... Rarkely in the hole.... That's a Bingo...

 

[Dithering Dougie]

3 at the back doesn't work for us we don't have enough creative players for it.

The only way Barkley and Naismith can work in tandem is to set up like we did against Arsenal last season with Mirallas out wide on one side, Lukaku out wide on the other and Naismith and Barkley drifting through the middle.