James McCarthy

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MoutsGoat said:
Not sure you understand what sarcasm is mate.

But no, I wasnt totally serious, but we have ourselves shifted away from 2 holding midfielders to a degree, El Fraudo has to play Barry and McCarthy, which means McCarthy is tasked with playing as a number 8, which means he doesnt impress as much as he would by being the holding midfielder.
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hes not playing particularly as a number 8 though, how many times does he actually go forward. not many.
 

He is not good enough to play centre mid as he doesn't want to take the responsibility to get on the ball and pick a forward pass, not asking for him to become Glenn Hoddle but knocking to another blue shirt ahead of him and not behind him. We were crying out for someone to retain the ball yesterday and the only player available to do so was Ossie and he stayed on the bench.
 

Bluechew said:
He is not good enough to play centre mid as he doesn't want to take the responsibility to get on the ball and pick a forward pass, not asking for him to become Glenn Hoddle but knocking to another blue shirt ahead of him and not behind him. We were crying out for someone to retain the ball yesterday and the only player available to do so was Ossie and he stayed on the bench.
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Was with you until you mentioned the bit about Ossie
 
He's just not very good at the basics of football if we are honest. He's been here 2 and a half seasons now and his passing, shooting, vision etc have not improved one bit, he' very limited which is why he should be given a dedicated grinding role infront of back four where he can utilise his best assets (grinding, running, getting stuck in, looking angry all the time)
 
Smudge1985 said:
The biggest problem with the Barry/ McCarthy thing these days is the way we are using them now. Although the personnel hasnt changed much since 2 seasons ago, the style has. They were perfect in Martinez' first season, because they mainly stayed deep, and would slot back if the full backs bombed on. Meaning the rest of our midfield, Barkley, Mirallas, Deulofeu etc. were free to just bomb on and get on with attacking instead of having to worry about what was going on behind them.

Im not sure whats happened, but Martinez' is just overly cautious now. Okay, I know Baines is injured and Galloway is doing a good job covering, but our full backs just arent getting forward the way they used to, and so Barry and McCarthy are staying central, and we are playing negative wide players like Naismith and Lennon, because they will cover the full backs. I said in the Howard thread that I think this is because he doesnt trust Howard and the defence, so is basically employing more negative wide players, but how many defensive players can we have? No Kone, Deulofeu or Mirallas, and the only players joining in attacks from open play are Lukaku and Barkley, and they are so easily outnumbered. We are trying to play the same system as we did 2 seasons ago, but using it completely differently and it doesnt work. Either change the way we're playing, or go back to using it the same way we did 2 seasons ago.
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Very good point there but we have been unfortunate with the injuries. Even Oviedo and Garbutt are naturally more gifted attacking fullbacks than Galloway. Galloway has done well but he's not that comfortable going forward, and Browning is even more reserved.

We need Coleman and Baines back playing regularly in order to get the best our of the whole team.
 
EFC78 said:
Very good point there but we have been unfortunate with the injuries. Even Oviedo and Garbutt are naturally more gifted attacking fullbacks than Galloway. Galloway has done well but he's not that comfortable going forward, and Browning is even more reserved.

We need Coleman and Baines back playing regularly in order to get the best our of the whole team.
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Galloway has done okay I think going forward. But because he obviously isnt a natural full back, he needs that support ahead of him. But because we are playing our wingers so negatively, half the time, he has nobody ahead of him, so isnt getting forward. Even Oviedo like you say, hasnt played much, but even when he did, didnt seem keen to get forward the way he used to. And Coleman hasnt got forward much this season either. Yet attacking full backs have been one of the biggest reasons for any success we have had in the last 5 years or so.
 

McCarthy is class. He was leggy from the internationals, but in the derby and against West Brom he'd played brilliantly. He is what he is. He's a holding midfielder/destroyer, but he's being employed as a No.8, which isn't his best position. Barry has played well this season, but hopefully, by the end of it, Barkley will be playing next to McCarthy and the side will have a much better balance to it.
 
BlueToff said:
McCarthy is class. He was leggy from the internationals, but in the derby and against West Brom he'd played brilliantly. He is what he is. He's a holding midfielder/destroyer, but he's being employed as a No.8, which isn't his best position. Barry has played well this season, but hopefully, by the end of it, Barkley will be playing next to McCarthy and the side will have a much better balance to it.
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He really didn't. He's been poor for 90% of the season. His trademark moves being standing in space covering no one, pointing to others to get a man and running full balls at an opposing defender that causally passes the ball away leaving him miles up the field on his backside.

Here's the ratings from multiple sources:

Untitled.webp
 

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