Ross Barkley

[Prevenger17]

Barkley was his own worst enemy to tonight.

Never seen someone give the ball away so much

But that could very well be down to a lack of clarity in what positions he's supposed to be taking up. I think your Naismith goggles are clouding your judgement a bit here, but I do agree he was incredibly wasteful and had a relatively poor night.

 

[maccavennie]

RM rotates his 3 quite regularly, so they always switch, in my eyes its wrong because he's not a wide player. When he was thorugh the middle tonight and he picked up the ball he drove at defenders, switch the wingers by all means, leave Barkley to do what he does best.

Yes he'll make mistakes, but that decision making will improve with age. A player like Barkley gives the opposition something to think about.

Totally agree with the pressing, drastically needs to be improved all round the park

I won't disagree with any of that. I know Martinez likes the players to rotate but whilst we are knee deep in the brown stuff I would prefer it if he told players to stick to a certain role and be a bit more disciplined in it. I remember an article where McGeady said he found it weird that the management told him to never track back. If your a right back or left back and your teammate is sitting on his arse in front of you that's going to wind you up a bit and I think when we are winning it's great but when we aren't and on a crap streak our fullbacks are too scared to bomb forward. Not too sure if Colemans head has been turned because he's been super gash lately but he didn't look on it tonight imo. Best fullbacks in the league playing super turd has a massive impact on everything because we rely on them so much.

 

[marty mcfly]

Another so so game with driving runs, belter of a shot, bad decision making, dodling on the ball but he did play a lovely through ball to Rom and looked for him every time even when Mirallas was the better option but I think the whole team had been given that order so perhaps that can explain it.

There are times when there's no pass on though I would just love him to shoot when on the edge of the box.

 

[Joey66]

TBH. Who was playing where tonight in midfield for us RB was one of many who looked complexed on his role tonight- we defended to deep , and gave W Ham too much room all night- Also no width until our goal!

 

[Chang Elephant]

The midfield can't press with Barry The Snail in it. Once it's upped by having McCarthy next to Besic, Barkley will do better

 

[marty mcfly]

Barkley is young and needs to add stuff to his game before being dropped back into midfield. Let him play behind Rom, use his raw pace and power to put teams on the back foot and acept that sometimes he will do silly things until he matures.

His main attributes his is direct approach and it gives the defenders something to worry about.

Balls to all this putting him out on the wings

Totally agree but if we use him like that we need a No10/Winger Pienaar like player. Shaqiri would have been perfect, or Tadic. Which is why I fear he doesn't play Geads and Mirallas and we've been stuck with the crappy balance all season. The worst part is that it has been obvious since before the end of last season and we still haven't bought someone.

 

[4737carlin]

£60m I'm all for giving the lad a chance and hope he goes on to be the best footballer England ever produces, but he is no way worth that. If City came up with that money, we would need to sell IMO.

To be honest there is no chance anyone would pay that for Barkley, they might once he becomes the player we think he can be but we would need to see a lot more from him before them type of prices are on the table. That is why i'm not worried about losing him, our valuation of him is based on how we see him in 18 months time but he might never make it. Just like others haven't lived up to what we expected.

 

[Carlito]

I'm convinced he's some sort of autistic football savant.

 

[Bedfordshiretoffee]

Apparently big Nev says we should flog him!!!

 

[MartSlinger]

For a man who blabs on about 'ambition', selling Barkley is the most unambitious thing we could do. The mans a legend but he chats absolute wham.

 

[Eric Djemba-Djemba]

Big Nev's wrong then

 

[Paulie]

Some of the passes Barkley received didn't help. Knee high drilled at him, three players around him or Besic passing two yard balls to him.

I think the lad is class personally and the poisonous atmosphere the melts who support us create have shattered his confidence.

That said I'd like to see him work a lot harder off the ball.

Drop Naismith and give Barkley a run behind Lukaku and we'll see the best of him.

 

[Jags..class]

Martinez been saying teams are putting two players on him

 

[SimonB]

Everton FC great Neville Southall says club may have to consider selling Ross Barkley...for £50m

Everton FC legend Neville Southall says the Blues might have to think about sellingRoss Barkley - but for nothing less than £50m.

The club’s record appearance holder, writing a blog for Paddy Power, says the sale of England international Barkley could be a “game-changer” in their hopes of becoming a regular Champions League side.

Southall says it would be ideal if Everton could keep players of Barkley’s calibre as well as investing in “proven, quality” players.

But the Goodison great reckons there may come a point when Everton have to discuss cashing on the 21-year-old Academy graduate.

“I won’t win many friends for saying this – but Everton may have to consider selling Ross Barkley,” Southall wrote.

“It all comes down to money. Is the club really going to improve that much if we sell Seamus Coleman or Leighton Baines and get £20 million max?

“I don’t think so. The only real game-changer we have is Ross Barkley.

“But that doesn’t mean we just sell off the crown jewels and bring in stop-gap players that work in the short term.

“For the type of money we should demand for one of the brightest English talents in the game – we should get two or three quality players who join Everton for the long haul.

“Not Joey Barton on a short-term deal.”

Southall went on to say: “Don’t get me wrong. I don’t want to see any of our quality players leaving the club. But sometimes you have to lose one to get three in so that the club continues to progress.

“But I wouldn’t be letting Barkley go for anything less than £45-£50m and only then if we’ve identified another top-class midfielder, centre-half and possibly goalkeeper to replace him.

“Mediocre is not what it says on our motto. Nils satis nisi optimum means ‘Nothing but the best is good enough.’

“Ideally, I want the club to say we’re keeping them all AND we’re investing more to get us where we want to be. We sold Wayne Rooney (below) and survived.

“But let’s make sure we bring in proven, quality players if we sell to get the club back to where it belongs.”

http://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/sport/everton-fc-great-neville-southall-8405235

 

[carolinablue232]

Some of the passes Barkley received didn't help. Knee high drilled at him, three players around him or Besic passing two yard balls to him.

I think the lad is class personally and the poisonous atmosphere the melts who support us create have shattered his confidence.

That said I'd like to see him work a lot harder off the ball.

Drop Naismith and give Barkley a run behind Lukaku and we'll see the best of him.

Would probably help Rom as well. I'm a fan of Naismith, but I'm also a fine with him coming in and making an impact from the bench.