Our first choice CB is likely to be club captain and England international CB Phil Jagielka.
And I agree Gareth Barry is a quality DM, however it's not just a case of like for like as was shown on Saturday (which you have seem to have forgotten).
Barkley was utterly superb in a more withdrawn CM role on Saturday, even sitting more withdrawn to allow McCarthy to go further. So therefore by playing Barry at LB against Stoke would give us the opportunity to give Deulofeu a start.
Re: distin, he performed the job of lb well when baines was injured last, including a decent performance against man utd.
These points may be lost on you, or you may simply disagree, but there's no need to have a Wendy just because my opinion differs from yours!