Im actually suffering from illness since the weekend so wont go to deep here.....
Barry is basically a central "pivot", mirroring the Busquets position fo Barca. He's in a unique position there and of the current squad i think only Besic could have the various abilities to perform that role.
We dont know about Besic positional ability but in every interview he talks about "learning". We either need to use Besic in that role OR find another player who can be the "new Barry" or better still, the "new Busquets".
So, lets look beyond Barry --who would compete with Besic for the position? Right now no-one.
So for me lets say we went out and signed a single player for central midfield who "could" develop into this player. You have Tielemans in belgium who is still very young and enormous potential yet is available for the right price....then Neves as Porto who is also very young but now club captain which shows not only leadership but discipline.
Both of these players can be signed to play CM or even DM and it will mean game time for them as part of a young team and squad. If signed in the summer we could have Barry mentor them for a season (and maybe beyond as a coach) to become the new "Pivot".
Its such a specialist position, the other optioj which i would be amazed if we pulled off would be Saul Niguez from Atletico. He for me is the closest to Busquests in Spain BUT i should temper all this by saying ive not watched all of these guys 50+ times each and only dare i say 5-10 times for the kids and Jiguez maybe 15-20 times i took an interest.
If Barry goes we will probably just change our style like martinez has commented before and others have posted quotes on the topic.....but now with tv and moshiri we could replace him and those Tielemans links in Jan may not be so far fetched as the Niguez links for several years
Good post mate, can't argue with any of that.
My point is that without European football to offer then getting in another player (making it 5/6 options to play in two positions), will be very difficult.
McCarthy is key to us winning games. Even when he has off-days we win more with him in the side than we do when he's out, which is why I don't personally see it as that much of an issue just yet...
I may not agree with your opinions on a lot Zat but I won't ever fault the thought of it. We can just agree to disagree and for what it's worth you do often raise some very good points. I think you just see it differently to how a few others do which is no bad thing.
Hope you're fully fighting fit soon