toffee-in-peace said:
hi guys, genuine Toffee fan here (very much in peace!), just wondering what you guys think now Barry has left? Are you upset or pleased to see him go, do you think he will be a success at Goodsison? Also what do you think of Felliani going to United? Personally, whilst a good player for us, fee was very high and i'm not sure how well he will do overall.
I think you'll find City fans pretty split on Barry, who is a player with genuine strengths and weaknesses. I don't know how well he fits into Everton, but on the whole he's a very smart player with a tremendous willingness to show for the ball. If I will miss anything about him, it's how hard he works to ensure his teammates always have an outlet pass, which goes a long way toward allowing his team to maintain possession and makes his teammates really enjoy playing with him. He's generally pretty tidy with the ball and he can break up play relatively well. there are a lot of positives.
But there are also negatives. He's always been slow, but he's getting really slow. This was less of a problem in the PL, but really caused a lot of issues in the CL. Nonetheless, he really lacks for pace, which can be a problem if he's too isolated in the midfield. His passing tends to be simple, which is not a bad thing, but he's not overly likely to split the defense with a long ball.
In reality, he's just a really, really, really solid player. He's getting older and slower and probably wasn't at the level we aspire to be at anymore. I'm personally sad to see him go, as he really can tick the team over and provide a steadying influence in the midfield, but I recognize that we probably needed a bit more out of our midfielders at this point in our team's maturation. How he'll fare with Everton I can't really say, depends on the formation you guys play him in, but I could see him really excelling in a 4-5-1 with lots of midfield support.