Ross Barkley

[kenada_blue]

Stop comparing him to Gerrard. That is part of the problem.

Not comparing him as a player, comparing the environment which seems to be the issue.

 

[Eggsyblueskin]

A gobby gob..it's telling Everton fans how to act and some are lapping it up. Let's remind ourselves this particular faecal deposit despises us. Sad.

 

[banno]

He needs to realise hes the best player on the pitch every time he plays, he should be owning games, he should slow down when on the ball and ask the opposition players more questions, i dont think hes a ten i would have him at 8 myself, but he needs to learn control in his game.

It would be a crime if he didnt fulfil his talent or rather realise his talent at Everton.

He does slow down when on the ball and you can here the groans from all corners. He should be owning games and can do but when all options for the pass are closed then what is he to do. He will dwell on the ball and lose possession or is forced sideways or backwards to more groans. I think he wants first and foremost to pass forward but if the players ahead cannot create space then most of his forward balls are to the feet of a player facing the wrong way with a grock up there backside which to all intent and purposes is nullifying Barkleys strengths. Barkley has also now lost the willingness to run at players in case he loses possession. He is being prevented to shine by the players around him. They have to work for him to blossom or he becomes the player we see now with minimum outlet.

 

[banno]

LoL Gerrard giving Everton fans sh!t and some even believe it.

He has it spot on so why deny it

 

[Mozza1987]

How are some people blaming the fans here? The lad hasn't been performing for ages now and isn't a kid anymore. We all want him to be the player we hoped, bossing games but he has been going backwards recently. If he was from somewhere else and not a blue lots more people would be criticising him.

 

[Neiler]

He does slow down when on the ball and you can here the groans from all corners. He should be owning games and can do but when all options for the pass are closed then what is he to do. He will dwell on the ball and lose possession or is forced sideways or backwards to more groans. I think he wants first and foremost to pass forward but if the players ahead cannot create space then most of his forward balls are to the feet of a player facing the wrong way with a grock up there backside which to all intent and purposes is nullifying Barkleys strengths. Barkley has also now lost the willingness to run at players in case he loses possession. He is being prevented to shine by the players around him. They have to work for him to blossom or he becomes the player we see now with minimum outlet.

Good post mate and i agree to an extent, the players in front of him making the right runs is a very great point. I would say though i think he still plays instinctively there is a fear there when he get the ball and his natural inclination is to run with it. He fears contact or rather being caught in possession, i believe he thinks to himself if he is challenged while in possession he wont keep it and then reverts to bad decision making. Like you think he needs to be a general he needs to welcome being challenged in the knowledge that he is Ross Barkley and realise if an opposition player commits he has the talent to still find the right out as a playmaker. I hate to say it but he should model his game of Stevie Mee he is equal in talent if not temperament.

 

[LouReedwalkonthewildside]

LoL Gerrard giving Everton fans sh!t and some even believe it.

The horrible snide does make a good point though.

 

[Simon baker]

'Been inconsistent of late'

When has he ever been consistent? Some people have some kind of false memory syndrome with this kid.

Turn it in he got in the sky half season team last year so he must have been consistent for at least half a season

 

[ChrisBlue]

Gerrard speaking more sense than 90% of blues

Sad to see

 

[TraffordBlue]

Gerrard is spot on, Ross is getting more support from ex red players than some blues.

Treated terribly by Blues, and he may actually need to leave for himself.

We would have destroyed Rooney too, had he stayed.

I don't agree that he's spot on. The way a significant section of our support have treated him has been wrong, but it's not all on our fans. Barkley needs to take some responsibility.

Forgetting the mistakes he makes on the ball for a minute, it's his lack of effort that does him no favours with the fans and his managers. I don't even expect him to be getting "stuck in" like a McCarthy or Gueye, but the least he can do is make attempts to win the ball back which he very rarely does.

Until he sorts that attitude out he will always face criticism and deservedly so.

Moving on to his weaknesses on the ball. I put some blame on the managers he's had that they can't teach him to play steady games where he keeps possession while things aren't coming off for him. He can do that with ease and it's frustrating to see him play in to the hands of the critics where he constantly loses the ball because he won't learn to keep it simple instead of trying stupid things when he is having a poor game.

Barkley isn't a kid any more, he needs to become a man and take responsibility. Of course if he was in a better team with better players I think he would benefit from that but he's at Everton so needs to accept that and work on his weaker areas.

 

[bignev23]

He has it spot on so why deny it

Honestly mate I don't think he has it spot on at all. There is no toxic atmosphere surrounding Ross, the lad has almost everything he needs in place including his own talent for him to become a massively successful midfielder. I see it as an excuse used by others for him because he seems to be struggling slightly stepping up a gear and becoming the player we need him to become... one who takes a game by the scruff of the neck and wins games for us regularly.

 

[Lowste]

Stop comparing him to Gerrard. That is part of the problem.

I think it is more the way Gerrard was treated and what he had around him

 

[AndyC]

He does slow down when on the ball and you can here the groans from all corners. He should be owning games and can do but when all options for the pass are closed then what is he to do. He will dwell on the ball and lose possession or is forced sideways or backwards to more groans. I think he wants first and foremost to pass forward but if the players ahead cannot create space then most of his forward balls are to the feet of a player facing the wrong way with a grock up there backside which to all intent and purposes is nullifying Barkleys strengths. Barkley has also now lost the willingness to run at players in case he loses possession. He is being prevented to shine by the players around him. They have to work for him to blossom or he becomes the player we see now with minimum outlet.

Irrespective of whether by Ross or whoever, this is an alarming trait of our footie the past two seasons.

Far, far too often, our passes are behind the intended recipient forcing them to check their run and invariably leading to them being closed down and thus passing sideways or backwards, and therefore slowing our forward momentum.

How hard can it be to play a pass a yard in front of a team mate so as to give him something to run straight onto, preferably at pace to immediately set the opposition a poser of whether to dive into the tackle or risk being skinned by a flying winger/fullback.

We have to play 'forward' and at a greater pace, tempo and with much, much more intensity.

Hate to say it, but 'they' are so much better at this aspect of the game than we are currently.

 

[bignev23]

Some of you would make good Kopites with your 'Victim' mentality.

 

[Rook]

Maybe its just he's just not all-around midfielder and more of a midfielder that can just get you goals (this isn't really a bad thing, see Cahill, Tim). Go back to his breakout year. We lived in the attacking 3rd so Ross never had to defend, pass or tackle, McCarthy/Barry controlled everything in the middle + Jags/Dustbin/Howard had career years. He just had to concentrate on scoring, not to mention we had so many goal scorers that year so you couldn't really gameplan to stop him.