Since this is the Barkley thread I don't want to go too far off track. All I say is it's a bit hypocritical to praise Martinez's brilliant attacking style when Koeman had better results on that front last year. It's also unfair to say Koeman simply inherited Rom and Ross when Martinez had them both as well and we got back to back 11th places... Just as Martinez did with Moyes, both managers inherited some good things and some bad things from their predecessor. Both failed, end of.
But when it comes to Ross, I don't put it on Koeman- we can go back and look at match day threads from Martinez era and find plenty of fans who think he plays passenger way too often.
And whoever brought up Del back a few pages ago- he was dropped by 3 separate managers, absolutely ridiculous people are still barking up that tree.
It's not hypocritical and I wasn't praising his attacking style. But both first seasons for either manager gave us 61 goals and 62 goals respectively. So you can't say Koeman out did him on selective stats because if that's the case, Martinez finished higher with more points in his first season.
But Koeman did inherit a more mature set of key players in attack and a weak defence. He fixed the defence.
As for Barkley. Of course, his problem is not having a whole consistent season.
BUT just like when we got Lukaku for a relative bargin, finding another player on Barkleys level we have to spend big or get lucky with our scouting.
Anyone saying we don't just has to look at the mess we're in now
