23 Sep 2016 07:50:55
Ed025 stated that Barkley was a hairy arsed adult now. Some people also think he should have "blossomed" by now. I have 2 points. Firstly he missed a long time of his development through a critical stage of his development due to a horendous injury. So although he is a young man, he is playing catch up with regards to positional sense and spacial awareness. Secondly, Martinez then literally threw him into the first team without any allowance for my comment in poit one.
I believe this combination of factors mean his development was at first postponed. and then rushed laterly. These factors have resulted in a very talented player having too much exposure and the expectations of our fans wanting another "Rooney" have resulted in the player that flatters to deceive. But if you look at his statistics, he is well on course to be a top player. If he was 20 years old now and had just come into the first team for his debut, then we would all be raving about him. If you consider my points above. then in an ideal world, that would have happened. In reaality, he has had a stop start career and then toomuch responsibility put on him, so is a couple of years behind. If he stays injury free and continues his development, he will be a fine player. But another Rooney? No way.
23 Sep 2016 08:54:32
The enigma that is Ross Barkley will continue to split camps. I agree with ed025 in so much as he is now 22 an England international and a premier league regular! he's a big lad that should dominate the midfield, he has ability but at times does not use it, his worse problem to me is his decision making, that will improve with coaching and experience, perhaps its the most unnatural part of his make up.
I don't think he needs to leave but he does need to step up and make it happen this season. I think Koeman also needs to prioritise an option to make him push for that place, perhaps Gabbiadini was that option?
In the end its the club that comes first, I'm sure Ross loves the club as Rooney does but we need top performers each week, its not a training centre that's with the development squad!
23 Sep 2016 08:58:12
Degsy. . If RK tells the world Barckley needs to grow up and realise that from here on in, he has to wipe his own nose type of thing, then that tells me I have to look at the experience of Mr Koeman and respect his assessment of a young professional! An assessment which I personally would trust in terms of giving Ross a pass if it were plausible to do so.
The fans verbal abuse is wrong however RK and his comments are most likely to be Right!
23 Sep 2016 09:07:11
Good post Degsy, spot on there mate. It's not really about how old he is, but where he's at development-wise.
I would argue that in Bobby's first season, Ross was fantastic, because he played with no fear and the team were playing well, masking his deficiencies.
Throughout the three years in my opinion Martinez made no effort to develop Barkley apart from "playing him and letting him make mistakes" It appears he never once gave Barkley a kick up the arse, or any criticism.
The only people who did criticise him, were all of the pundits and his own fans. Couple that with snubs from the former and present England bosses, and it's no wonder his confidence is down the toilet.
I feel that Martinez has hampered his development that it's like Koeman has to start again, but with an older, first teamer who has massive expectations. For me, the problem is that we can't really leave Ross out, as we have no real option to replace him since Naismith left, and I don't feel that we can leave out a potential matchwinner.
It's a pity we didn't buy someone like Mata in the Summer, as he would not only be a great alternative, but could teach Ross a few things too.
23 Sep 2016 09:42:51
We could leave Ross out and play a different formation but its up to RK to decide. If RK thinks Ross is good enough he will remain with us if not he will be sold.
23 Sep 2016 10:11:01
SA. . Exactly mate!
23 Sep 2016 11:03:31
Changing the formation just to cut Ross out is a) drastic and b) will further destroy his confidence.
Besides, I don't understand what magic formation you are on about sa90? We can't play 2 up front as we don't have 2 quality strikers. And if we replace Ross with McCarthy or Cleverly then we would be too defensive. You also can't put too much responsibility on Tom Davies at his age in CM.
{Ed025's Note - i agree about the macca and clevs bit tommy, maybe if we paired rom and enner together could be a shout, and have ross to start but with tom coming on at half time if ross is not producing the goods?, im sure RK will have his own solutions though mate and i certainly trust him more than i do me.. :)
23 Sep 2016 11:42:17
Good post Ed, Rom and Enner could be worth trying but would represent a risk in itself as Enner is a bit of an unknown quantity, but if we are struggling then it's worth a try. Similarly to Davies coming on if Ross isn't playing well. I just think that we can persist with how it's going for now as we are on a run of good form (Norwich excepted) and as you said, we can trust Koeman to make the decisions as he sees fit.
23 Sep 2016 15:10:15
I am not saying cut Ross out what I am saying is its RK's choice. We played Kev in the hole when Ross was subbed at half time, I was surprised as I thought its was a close call between him and Kev who was playing worse but it looks like RK made the correct decision. RK can play any formation he sees fit to with the personnel he thinks will do the job. If Ross gets picked he gets picked if he doesn't he doesn't. I think Ross will learn more under the current management than he would ever under the previous and hopefully he will now reach his full potential.
{Ed025's Note - i hope so sa..