Damn, such an obvious reply as well.
Errrrrr it was bale
Thing is with that Tottenham side even with Bale in world class mode they found it difficult to win if Lennon wasn't on the other side. It was impossible for teams to defend against both, they stretched teams creating space for each other. Add to this that they had one of Europe's top creative mids (remember that when managers used to play footballers in midfield and not crab passing robots?) in Modric pulling the strings from deep and a classy ten behind the syriker then it all worked properly. A balanced side allowed Bale to show his best and allowed Tottenham to play well.
We are not seeing the best of Barkley because the team is not balanced. We often play with one sometimes no natural widemen. None of our deep lying midfielders have any creativity, and we don't have a natural number 10. There's no space, no rhythm to the passing, no give and gos, no momentum to our play. Put Barkley in the middle deep with one of McCarthy or Besic next to him, two proper wide men ahead of him and a real footballer like Osman or Pienaar, maybe Kone, at ten, and watch him turn into the player we know he can be. There were glimpsss against QPR when he played there, then Roberto put h back on the grave yard shift.
Robles is proof of my mantra that both Moyes and Martinez seem drtermined to ignore. Give players an extended run in their rightful position. John Stones is a centeeback, Coleman is a right back, Osman and Barkley are deep lying centre mids, Naismith is a striker, yet for large parts of their career they are being played woefully out of position getting the wrath of the fans. Mind boggling.
