Chelsea and Man City target Ross Barkley's growing pains need not stymie his development
THE FIRST thing to say about Ross Barkley is that if Everton decided to put him up for sale today, the stampede for his signature would make Black Friday feel akin to a quiet afternoon of window shopping.
His status as young, English and talented guarantees his attractiveness and the jostling for position between Manchester City and Chelsea, to name two suitors, would serve as a reflection of quality.
This may raise eyebrows among some affiliated with Everton who saw Barkley’s substitution after 67 anaemic minutes of Tuesday’s FA Cup defeat to West Ham as more evidence of a player struggling to match Roberto Martinez’s hyperbole.
Yet Barkley’s growing pains, fuelled by niggling injuries and a crisis of confidence, need not stymie his development. Goodison’s great hope will find his second wind.
For a midfielder capable one week of smashing a 25-yard shot with his left foot into the top corner, and then another week lashing home a right-footed effort from similar distance, the lack of belief currently slowing his stride cannot be anything but temporary.
It might necessitate he drops out of the starting line-up and onto the bench for next Monday’s must-win game over West Bromwich Albion when the stakes are high for Martinez, though that is not a long-term solution.
Barkley’s physique meant that coming through the ranks he naturally dominated games.
Now he finds himself in the best league in the world with sometimes two markers for company as a result of his exploits in last season’s breakthrough campaign and unable to find the pockets of space in which he needs to thrive.
“Last season he was just a young man enjoying his football,” said Everton manager Martinez before the shoot-out defeat at Upton Park which means Everton have fallen at the first hurdle in both domestic cup competitions this season.
“Now he's Ross Barkley and the opposition pay him extra attention.
“I'm not concerned about him getting that attention. I'm concerned with what we do with the extra space that should be created when he is marked by two men.
“It is a bit of a learning curve for us as a team, how to utilise that, and for him because I have been playing him in different positions, bombarding him with information to grow quickly.”
Martinez invariably breaks into a smile whenever Barkley becomes the topic of conversation and has compared him to the likes of Michael Ballack, Ronald Koeman and Paul Gascoigne in the past.
Normal managerial protocol would be to downplay the parallels and it is interesting that it is Barkley’s club-mates who have taken it upon themselves to seek to ease the pressure on him during interviews.
But the breadth of talent Martinez has referenced, spotting parallels with different qualities displayed by a series of elite established talents, highlights how part of the debate over Barkley revolves around where his best position is.
Barkley excelled in a deep-lying midfield role against QPR when scoring a blockbusting strike – his only goal of the campaign – in December, but has been deployed on the left and as a No10 since.
It was noticeable against Harry Redknapp’s side that Barkley scarcely wasted a pass when the frustration with him when the frustration with him so often boils down to an inability to retain possession when deployed further forward.
Martinez, a man who can see sunshine when it is raining, counters the argument.
“I'm smiling, because he's a player who will maybe lose the ball three times, and he'll want it again. That's a sign of a player who'll find a way,” he said.
“He's got the top personality. You get a player who loses the ball a couple of times and they hide. That's when you've got a real issue.
“I see Ross where he was last season and now, and he's a better player than he was last season. He is someone who has taken things on board and in different areas of the pitch I see huge improvement every day.
“You can't measure Ross on making one or two bad decisions. You can measure him on what he is doing every day on the pitch. I find it a period of his career that excites me because he never hides from the responsibility.
“The more focus, the attention he gets, the more he is himself, and that is impressive.”
Given that David Moyes before Martinez expressed concerns over Barkley’s distribution, and England coach Roy Hodgson was apoplectic on the touchline when the youngster gave the ball away shortly after being introduced in the friendly with Scotland in November, it has to be an area he works on.
But where the considered view is Barkley must pursue perfection, Martinez seems happy to embrace the flaws.
“That's not a problem, when you lose the ball three times and then want to hide, that's when you've got a problem,” said Martinez. “With Ross on the fourth time he'll go past three players and give you an assist or a goal.
“That's the great thing about Ross, that personality. He doesn't need to be having a great game to give you something, and I will never have a problem with someone like that.
“You need to understand why he is giving away possession. Maybe he's trying things too risky when he's already got two players on him. If there are two players there, then we will have a player somewhere else sitting on his own.
“That is where we need to learn to use it to our advantage. I will never have a problem with a player who takes responsibility.
“He makes mistakes, but he never hides. The problem is when someone makes mistakes and starts hiding, and doesn't want to fight for the team.
“With Ross Barkley, in assessing his performance I don't look at what is wrong or what is missing, I see the opposite and at what he can bring, what action he can produce that is unexpected.
“As a team we need to be prepared for that. I don't see it as a negative at all."
