Ross Barkley

[Chang Elephant]

Time to get off this thread; the blind adulation for a limited CM does my head in. Ross Barkley is the most overratedf footballer in English football today.

I remember when WUM's used to be good but even their form seems to be in some sort of slump.

 

[marty mcfly]

Other than Stones and Coleman none of the back 5 have any ability on the ball this season.

Add in a slow paced barry and the system doesnt work...then have the opposition double mark mirallas and theres no threat from wide.

Barkley needs to be in the centre and martinez needs to recycle a lot of players in the market.

Both wings are being doubled because we don't any creative players in the middle with Naismith, Barry, McCarthy or Besic there. If it goes into the center we always give then time to get back although Barry was better yesterday.

 

[marty mcfly]

Delusion? The reason he looked good against QPR is because he was allowed time on the ball; same with the Villa match. Let's see him do the same week in week out against opponents who press harder...a skillful bull in a china shop, thats Ross. A world class CM he will never be however much people want him to be...

He's actually better when he's pressed because his quick feet and pace allows him to get away. His weakness lies when they drop off him and he finds himself faced with a lot of defenders in front all in a congested space in the box. He then always takes the easy option of passing back or sideways.

 

[EverBlue86]

Vision?? I think not...how many assists has he made since becoming a first team regular? Overrated in the extreme and is a luxury that Martinez cannot indulge with the club's current precarious form.

Hi Max how's RAWK?

 

[bignev23]

Shown some glimpses of brilliance since being in the first team but needs to improve massively if he's going to have any kind of Impact with us that most were expecting. So far overall impact on the team 6/10 bearing in mind the expectation and his age.

 

[EverBlue86]

Him getting injured meant Naismiths little purple patch in front of goal clouded martinez's judgement and now has moved him out of his central position and with it removed all chemistry with lukaku to accomodate Naismith.

Disgraceful how that partnership has been broken up to squeeze a 29 year old SPL player into the side.

 

[Klaas]

I remember when WUM's used to be good but even their form seems to be in some sort of slump.

OMG, thought I was on GOT...didnt realize I stumbled onto Toffeeweb MKII

 

[Christiffa25]

Him getting injured meant Naismiths little purple patch in front of goal clouded martinez's judgement and now has moved him out of his central position and with it removed all chemistry with lukaku to accomodate Naismith.

Disgraceful how that partnership has been broken up to squeeze a 29 year old SPL player into the side.

Absolutely spot on that!!!

Naismith was absolute turd. But then proved his worth as a very good squad option. But that's what he is a squad option...yet he's one of the first names on the team sheet!! And it has been at the expense of barkley.

 

[jazzy]

Play him in central midfield or as No.10 or don't play him

 

[Carlito]

.....everything is too fleeting for me. Fleeting glimpses of real talent, fleeting performances where he literally runs a game, fleeting examples of great goals.

Accepting that he shouldn't play wide, he was still very poor yesterday. Sluggish, ran around like he had a bag of spanners down the back of his shorts, running off at every chance for treatment on his sore nose. RM said he doesn't want him to have responsibility, I understand that but he still needs to do some tracking back and blocking.

Fleeting examples of brilliance need to become more frequent.

Agreed.

I'm a fan of Barkley but I don't really buy the potential 'world class' tag. People seem to forget how good actual world class players usually are at 21.

 

[evertony]

So who's fault is it all? Read four different threads and it's all down to Barkley, Naismith, Jagielka and McGeady depending on which thread you read. Can we have a Scapegoat of the Week thread?

 

[ijjysmith]

Play him in central midfield or as No.10 or don't play him

Pretty much.

 

[ianefc]

He looked knackered yesterday, the amount of times he just didn't chase back was criminal, as was the amount of times he had to chase back, but that is another issue

 

[deipnosophist]

Barkley plainly has a lot of talent...but he is over-hyped, and ironically, this may well play large part in his performing underwhelmingly.

 

[Walken]

he is in no way overhyped, he has more potential than any english player since rooney, just that people seem to think every player coming through should be an immediate consistant performer like rooney, he was the exception, ronaldo, zidane, ballack, robben, pirlo, nedved and pretty much 99% of the world class talent that has played the game didn't become consistant world class performers till their mid 20's, thats the game. Bigger problem is he is being handled dreadfully right now, and his confidence is draining and the team is playing tosh, we had a glimpse against QPR, then roberto played it 'safe' again with his faves