From 14/15 he was for us. As soon as McCarthy got injured Barry was just exposed for legs in midfield and because he knew that he got deeper and deeper until he was holding hands with the centrebacks most games. Maybe not his fault as Martinez’s system left him massively exposed, but again, it’s managers having to design teams around players without any pace, we saw it last season when James’s lack of pace on the flank meant that Coleman was exposed so we had to change system again.
A premier league squad has to have the basic level of mobility to at least compete with the opposition before we even get into the question of player talent. People on here like to moan otherwise but you watch eve dry single team coming to Goodison now and they just don’t carry slow players at all unless they’re exceptional, but they definitely don’t carry multiple slow players right through the spine of the team. We just can’t expect to be a decent team when we start every game with a massive disadvantage.
The weekend was a prime example. You can’t wrestle games away from premier league opposition when your players are too slow to continuously keep possession and win it back. We got back into the game because we imposed ourself on Southampton, started to see more possession and then chances came. You can’t do that when you’re chasing shadows agaisnt any decent prem team already a goal up. Hence that silly stat going back 5 years,
