Ross Barkley

[Kiwi]

See I think you are basing a lot of that on Martinez hyperbole. 'Unique as a footballer' ..'best in his generation'. It's just not what I see when I watch him.

I'm basing this on what I've seen in my years as a football fan and an Everton supporter. I have as I said not seen someone with the same pace and power and drive and technical ability all in one for many many years if ever. The lad can do it all. Needs more consistency and better decision making, but there is no question that his ability is there and has been demonstrated regularly if inconsistently.
The Newcastle goal demonstrates his power, and drive with the ball, the Norwich goal demonstrates his two footedness, the Swansea and City goals demonstrate his wonderful technique.
He ran games for us last season. Not all by any means, but some.
I can pull more examples of things he does, but I can see you have it stuck in your mind that he is overrated so that would be rather pointless.

 

[Seamus Colemole]

If Raheem Sterling is Shaun Wright Phillips then Ross Barkley is Jack Wilshire.

Ross Wilshire is his new name.

 

[PhilM]

I can pull more examples of things he does, but I can see you have it stuck in your mind that he is overrated so that would be rather pointless.

All of the above you mentioned are perfectly valid. Technically he has the ability and he has shown that in a number of games.

However, he has also had a relatively fair share of poor games and his decision making needs improvement if he wants to progress further.

That's not being critical or believing he is overrated, it is just an honest assessment of a younger player who is still developing.

Ross Barkley WILL be a good player, I doubt anyone will argue otherwise. He COULD be a great world class player, but it isn't a certainty.

Hopefully it's the latter (and I am swaying more towards this), however we shouldn't count our chicken before they've hatched.

That's not suggesting someone is overrated - it is saying it isn't fair to rate the lad yet on what he may or may not become.

 

[moosed]

i know he played a bit wider yesterday but generally he keeps getting played too far back in midfield, he's too good to be wasted doing short passes in and around the central midfield.

 

[PhilM]

i know he played a bit wider yesterday but generally he keeps getting played too far back in midfield, he's too good to be wasted doing short passes in and around the central midfield.

Talking about the width: you could say the same about Eto'o being pushed out wide yesterday, or Lukaku earlier in the season on the right.

Some may even mentioned Leon playing out wide at Burnley...

Far too often we lack discipline or shape when it comes to who is out on the left or right, using square pegs or round holes you may say.

I like Martinez, but it is somewhere which I believe he's either being naive about or simply covering his eyes and believing it doesn't exist.

 

[Chang Elephant]

I'm not discussing Naismith, if you think that was a good performance fine, we must have different expectation levels.

Expectation levels, differing appreciation of the game, eyesight, intellect. Could be any of them.

 

[EverBlue86]

Typical, player gets pushed out wide by manger in uncomfortable position yet is the one blamed and not the manager for playing in the wrong position.

Want to see how good the lad is? Watch the villa game where he is playing at CAM

 

[matty1878]

Typical, player gets pushed out wide by manger in uncomfortable position yet is the one blamed and not the manager for playing in the wrong position.

Want to see how good the lad is? Watch the villa game where he is playing at CAM

He's completley wasted out on the wing and he keeps coming Inside why? As he's an atm better behind the striker. The game was crying out for him to be in the middle from the start of kick of.

 

[streeky]

Expectation levels, differing appreciation of the game, eyesight, intellect. Could be any of them.

or you could just be a massive tool

 

[Chang Elephant]

or you could just be a massive tool

Agreed, one of us could be.

 

[Duncan Disordely]

Was marooned on the wing yesterday, and was still one of the very few who actually tried to drive us on and make things happen.

 

[streeky]

He's completley wasted out on the wing and he keeps coming Inside why? As he's an atm better behind the striker. The game was crying out for him to be in the middle from the start of kick of.

problem we have got is that we have about 4/5 players all want to play the no10 role because you get some space /time to play. We don't have any striker that want's to go and engage the oppo's centre half's and go to war with them. Eto'o was playing up top yesterday, spent the whole of the 1st half pulling wide so we had 0 players in the box. Lukaku is the nearest we have to a traditional no9 but he looses 75% of his headers, this could be why RM is moving people around because we need a physical presence who can win headers.

 

[Dithering Dougie]

problem we have got is that we have about 4/5 players all want to play the no10 role because you get some space /time to play. We don't have any striker that want's to go and engage the oppo's centre half's and go to war with them. Eto'o was playing up top yesterday, spent the whole of the 1st half pulling wide so we had 0 players in the box. Lukaku is the nearest we have to a traditional no9 but he looses 75% of his headers, this could be why RM is moving people around because we need a physical presence who can win headers.

How often have you seen us hitting the ball up for a striker to head on under Martinez?

 

[Eggs]

...the old adage about only being as good as your last game is so true in football. Barkley sprays some magic and we win next week and all will be well again. Let's hope so.

 

[streeky]

How often have you seen us hitting the ball up for a striker to head on under Martinez?[/QUOTE
Do you think we might have created a few more openings if we did have that in our armoury. Teams have worked out our slow possession based style and they looked comfortable until rom nearly got on the end of one in the last 10 seconds