Gareth Barry

[Forzacitizens]

he's only got one foot and consistently the play breaks down through him

 

[bluestown]

i think he needs a snood to improve,then he will be brilliant.

 

[Revolver]

There wasn't exactly a load of options for him to pass to especially in the second half. Like a lot of our players he looked tired.

that only applies when the player can make a simple 5 yd pass which barry seems unable to do

I would like to see the opta stats thingy for the player who makes the most mis placed passes

my guess would be that barry is head and shoulders above anyone else in the league he is ponderous and gives away some of the most ludicrous fouls Whilst I am a big mancini fan I fail to see why he persists in playing this clown barry

It's all about opinons but I think to call Barry a clown is harsh. I don't think he's as bad as some make out and beside the king of the daft fouls has to be Ballotelli (and I wouldn't call him a clown).

 

[Blue Elmo]

Sometimes he can give the ball away but when he is fit and not playing eveyr three days for 90 minutes every game , he is the master of ball retention. He may not be the quickest, and he may not pick out the killer ball, or score goals, and I will admit it does annoy me when he gives it away but he is good at what he is played to do. He is played by Mancini to break up the play and distribute the ball and help it on it's way. Will he be here in the summer ? I don't know. Could he be replaced ? Yes as there are better players out there who could add more to the team but he is still a very good player to have around and a very good player to have in the team. He is a good player and he has done well this season and it is stupid how one performance where he was very much like the rest of the team , average , people ignore the good side to him and focus upon the negatives. If he puts in a good performance against Dynamo or Reading then he will get praise again . It is pathetic of how quickly people can change their opinion of a player.

 

[Bill]

Has been very good lately but poor today.

Vieira on the other hand was sheer class

a sensible account of what actually happend.

 

[2sheikhs]

To compare the amount of times Barry gives the ball away to attacking players is really misleading.Barry seems to give the ball away very cheaply and in much more dangerous areas.

 

[Damocles]

longg post anyways as you can tell i dont rate him he isn't good enough and he will be gone soon i hope
but thats my opinion

What exactly "isn't he good at"? The things that he's needs to do, he's excellent at. He doesn't need pace, he doesn't need to be able to shoot, he doesn't need to be great in the air. He needs to be able to pass a ball, control a ball and read the game. Barry is usually excellent at all three, these are his main strengths.

Why "don't you rate him"?

Do you know why we play crab players? That whole slow tempo thing is quite purposeful; it's because we use them to shift the ball around as a link point for the movement of others. This allows everybody in front/side of Barry to test the defence of the opponent using their off the ball movement.

For example, think of Barry stood exactly on the centre spot, with play in front of him. Silva with the ball on the left wing has a bit of a go running at a defender or maybe Balo makes a bit of movement. If it works, Silva passes his man or gets the ball to Balo. If it doesn't work, he passes it back to Barry, who then has a look around the pitch and decides that Richards on the right wing can have a go. If Richards' movement doesn't work, it goes back to Barry who then thinks that maybe Yaya can have a go, etc.
The idea is that we keep possession through each phase of play - we can attack an opening, and if unsuccessful we don't lose the ball. This is why we look slow on the buildup, we are literally probing the opposition defence for weaknesses. This is another reason why Waddle is a fucking idiot; he cannot understand that charging all guns blazing through the centre gets you absolutely nowhere in this game and hasn't done since about 1935. He also like to say we play "Italian", which we don't. Turn on ESPN now, Milan and Juve are playing, Italian football is closer to what United play than what city play. We play closer to Dutch, for anybody who cares.

The above is a very simplified example but it makes the point; Barry is the conductor of the whole orchestra. This is why him and NDJ are such a fantastic pair to have in the centre. One conducts the orchestra, the other stops the other orchestra from playing.

Finally, Barry is paramount against teams like Wigan who come to park the bus. Because he shifts the play from one side to the other, the defensive organisation of teams has to change (as you attack from a different angle), and as soon as they slip, we exploit it.

As I say, Barry is very good at what he does and I'm not sure exactly what you think he's paid to do on the pitch.

 

[JoeMercer'sWay]

decent player, grafter, bad day at the office, not gonna complain because he's normally reliable and puts his heart into it.

 

[Chippy_boy]

I'd hate to see Barry's match stats. I thought he was on his Wigan debut the number of times he passed to a Wigan player. Absolutely woeful performance.

 

[Ntini77]

He's a good solid player, but he'll need to be replaced next season if we have serious title ambitions.

I didn't think anyone was particularly poor today, or good for that matter.