Ross Barkley

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I dont think he is good enough to play midfield.

Nowhere near dynamic enough and although he is "good on the ball for a defender" he is hardly brilliant at it either.

Fair comment.I respect your opinion. But if you look at clips of Hoddle in his prime, Stones is only a short leap from being a Hoddle-type. His midfield dynamism has not yet been tested to the full,if at all.
 

Ossie was a top midfielder who knew the score which is why after helping el Fraudo out on his quest to 5th he was then shafted along with Pienaar and basically anyone else who wasn't a mute crab. He knows the score with Barkley and I've no doubt that once he's over this bump he'll be a far better player under Koeman. Martibez's reign of terror devestated Ross and set him back years. He really would have been better under Moyes, absolute no coincidence in my mind that Ross' good form in 13/14 so gleefully attributed to Martinez was just the continuation of his good performances back end of 12/13. What we saw under the rest of Martinez was the systematic destruction of a number of players Ross included. That overhang is still there now but Koeman is the man to nurse him to good form again.
 
Ossie was a top midfielder who knew the score which is why after helping el Fraudo out on his quest to 5th he was then shafted along with Pienaar and basically anyone else who wasn't a mute crab. He knows the score with Barkley and I've no doubt that once he's over this bump he'll be a far better player under Koeman. Martibez's reign of terror devestated Ross and set him back years. He really would have been better under Moyes, absolute no coincidence in my mind that Ross' good form in 13/14 so gleefully attributed to Martinez was just the continuation of his good performances back end of 12/13. What we saw under the rest of Martinez was the systematic destruction of a number of players Ross included. That overhang is still there now but Koeman is the man to nurse him to good form again.

Barkley's form was great for the first half of last season, then he just seemed to hit a brick wall, his confidence looked shot after the crowd started getting on his case when he made a mistake, it got to the point for me where as soon as the ball came to him he just wanted to get shut of it.

Barkley is deffo a confidence player, and with Koeman taking no prisoners, and he wouldn't think twice about dropping Ross, Barkley IMO will be no different under Koeman than he was under Martinez, where Ross played some fantastic football at times, and it will be the same under Koeman.

The one huge point under Koeman is, Ross is looking so much fitter.
 
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Fair comment.I respect your opinion. But if you look at clips of Hoddle in his prime, Stones is only a short leap from being a Hoddle-type. His midfield dynamism has not yet been tested to the full,if at all.

He could be. He could also be a David Luiz playing in midfield.

He is a good footballer for a defender. Whether he is a good footballer regardless of position remains to be seen.
 
Ossie was a top midfielder who knew the score which is why after helping el Fraudo out on his quest to 5th he was then shafted along with Pienaar and basically anyone else who wasn't a mute crab. He knows the score with Barkley and I've no doubt that once he's over this bump he'll be a far better player under Koeman. Martibez's reign of terror devestated Ross and set him back years. He really would have been better under Moyes, absolute no coincidence in my mind that Ross' good form in 13/14 so gleefully attributed to Martinez was just the continuation of his good performances back end of 12/13. What we saw under the rest of Martinez was the systematic destruction of a number of players Ross included. That overhang is still there now but Koeman is the man to nurse him to good form again.
RM did untold damage during his tenure but I think it's too easy to blame everything on him just because we can. Ross certainly picked up some bad influences under his management and his fitness was allowed to deteriorate alarmingly. But it wasn't all negative. His form in the first 2/3 of last season put him up there with the leagues best attacking midfielders and he rightly became a regular starter in the England team.

His early form this season has been a bit up and down but, apart from the 45 mins against Sunderland, I don't think it's been quite as bad as people are making out. It's just that we're always going to judge him against what we know he's capable of, which is natural. But if we're going to have a good season, we need Ross at his best, and I just hope Koeman can deliver that.

I do think it's unfair of us to put so much pressure and expectation on him for all of our creativity. We should have brought in a proper midfield playmaker to support Ross and I'm still hoping that's on our shopping list for January.
 
I can see Guardiola trying to turn Stones into playing a Busquet's type role.

Guardiola's kind of moved on from that in a way now. His two centre halves are pushed either side of Fernandinho, who plays as an auxiliary sweeper more than anything else. It means that pretty much any of those three players will take turns as the deep-lying midfielder.

When it works (first half in their game vs West Ham is a perfect example) it's a joy to watch, I've got to say.
 

I hope Ross is watching this.

Because there are players who are about ten million times less gifted than him wearing white shirts tonight. And it should be him there. If that doesn't fire him up then I dunno what will.
Yes and each of the England players lost possession, gave the ball away more times than Ross did in an England game, hmmmm I doubt they'll be slaughtered as he was.
 
I hope Ross is watching this.

Because there are players who are about ten million times less gifted than him wearing white shirts tonight. And it should be him there. If that doesn't fire him up then I dunno what will.
I don't think England lack for players that can run the ball twenty yards in a straight line, and then draw a blank when faced with an organised defence to unlock.
 

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