Haven't been on in a while, but thought this might be of interest. Was having a long debate with a United-supporting friend of mine regarding the merits of Gareth Barry. The lack of appreciation for what he does got under my skin enough to do the research and write a blog post about it. It can be found at: http://thesearchforanawaygoal.wordpress.com/ if you are interested.
OR: "The 'Hidden Genius of Gareth Barry"
When judging the quality of players, observers of the game have shown a distinct attraction for its more flashy, dynamic aspects, which has lead to a culture in football commentary systematically undervaluing defensive performance across the field. This is not only noticable in the awarding of individual player awards (both domestically and on the continental and world stages), but in the way highlight packages are edited and diffused, with the possible exception of particularly athletic saves by goaltenders. While this is understandable from a marketing standpoint, this culture misrepresents what football is and only encourages ridiculously harsh judgements of players who form the foundation of a viable team performance. Football is emphatically a team effort, wherein elements of attack, defense and transition must be intimately entwined and coordinated to produce a favorable balance of chances to make victory a real possibility, rather than an effect of luck.
Crucial to this coordination is the linking players in midfield, not only the playmakers, but also those who shield the pure defenders by trying to either win the ball and move it forward or to destroy the flow of the game entirely. The essence of the position, over and above the requisite ball skills and core athletic form, is the mental agility to view the situation from multiple angles: judging ability to win the ball from attackers; canvassing space to find distribution paths to those with less responsibility; sensing the balance of play allowing for a mischevious forward movement; and, assessing the positioning of those behind to decide on whether to commit the tactical foul. This effort is of its nature muffled, unimposing and only jarring when a wrong judgment compresses the pitch to their bodily range of movement. Less an artist than a pharmacist, the position miniaturizes its holder: executed faithfully it draws but faint praise, while every error bares the risk of annihilating all the work that went before it.
A telling example of this is the treatment frequently accorded to Manchester City midfielder and England regular Gareth Barry. Frequently seen as an invisible player, amusingly enough given the role of the 'Invisible Man' in City fan culture, the perception has only been echoed by his superior goal tally at his previous club Aston Villa and the perceived lack of success England has had as a national side. While neither point are entirely fair to Barry, it is not as if he is entirely blameless for what I judge to be a serious misperception. Barry distinctly suffers from a lack of pace in a particularly dynamic league and has a dangerous habit of handling the ball, frequently missed by referees and even commentators. Whether his handling and the number of fouls he commits are consequences of his lack of pace is difficult to judge, as a crucial factor in the decision made by the player would be the quality and position of the defence behind him. As such, it must remain an open possibility. It is worthwhile noting, however, that the number of fouls noted by the official statistics for last season and this combined in the Premiership (70 in 42 appearances, or 1.67 per game) is well within the range of fouls committed by players playing similar roles, lower than Alex Song (90/39 or 2.56) and Lucas (84/43 or 1.95), but appreciably higher than Phil Neville (43/38 or 1.13), Jon Obi Mikel (46/38 or 1.21) and Stilyan Petrov (49/38 or 1.29). It is worthwhile also remembering that in this position, while it is preferable to avoid commiting the foul, depending on the balance of players in various parts of the pitch, a foul may well be an outright positive intervention by a holding player, allowing for a defensive reorganization.
As for Barry's Aston Villa tenure, while it is true that his games to goals ratio was almost double his production for Manchester City (52 in 441 or 0.12 per game versus 6 in 93 or 0.06), the bulk of his goals came in the final five years of his career in claret and blue, when he was used in a less defensive function. That being said, it is useful to notice that even in his more defensive posture in the same period, Barry attempted 32 shots, eleven of which were on target, for a 34.83% accuracy rate, and scored 3 goals. Should the change in position be viewed as an inherent negative, this would simply be a repetition of the observational prejudice noted earlier. A similar observational prejudice can likewise be seen in the use of Barry as a scapegoat in the judgement of the English national side. Primarily, it must be remembered that England's 'failure' is only in terms of how the national team matches up with sides who are admittedly superior in overall ball skills and adaptation to the state of continental tactics and strategy. Against equivalent or weaker nations, England has been a success, as their record in qualifying has proven rather consistently. Even the failure to qualify for Euro 2008 conforms to this pattern, as the poor fortune to be drawn with both Russia and Croatia was crucial to their undoing. Is there anything in Barry's individual performances for England that merits the depth of criticism that he has received? Apart from not being the dynamic attacking midfielder England supporters may have wanted him to be, his record for England has been solid for his position, collecting only 5 yellows in 49 appearances and scoring twice for the Three Lions. Looking only at competitive fixtures since he joined Manchester City for England, Barry has a slightly lower average of fouls (18 in 12 appearances or 1.5 per game), two cautions and seven shots on target from eleven attempted (63.64%).
While it may be well and good to dispell negative impressions of what Gareth Barry does on the pitch, it is much more interesting to look at what he positively contributes from the centre of midfield. Using last season and what has been played so far of this season in the Premiership as our sample size, a look at the cumulative statistics very quickly justifies why Barry has only missed six games in that period. Over those fixtures, Barry had a pass completion rate of 85.99%, completing 2,050 of 2,384 attempted passes in the course of 42 matches. What makes this more remarkable is that these passes were not simply square, unambitious movements or balls dropped for safety deeper into defensive positions, but rather, as even casual observation of chalkboard analyses of the games in question will show, were very diverse in both direction and length. In so doing, Barry not only actively assisted in retaining possession but also moved very effectively. Another crucial statistic to keep in mind in this context, is that Barry proved to be a very successful tackler as well, successfully completing 84 of 109 tackles over the matches surveyed. This leaves us with a successful tackling percentage of 77.06%. The subtext of that number, however, gives a compelling view of Barry's skill in 'that which is also football', to use Jose Mourinho's wonderful phrasing. Of the twenty five tackles which were unsuccessful, only twelve lead to a caution for him and he did not collect a second caution leading to a sending off in the entire period in question.
More simply put, Gareth Barry is a quality example of the kind of player for which I cannot help but have a deep respect. Vital to the flow and transitions of the game, his workmanlike efforts are often lost in the storylines and the rampant highlight-lust which dominates viewership of modern football. Whether his role will remain viable in the future manifestations of the game of football is really anyone's guess, but it is difficult to conceive of the game without some variant of the hidden genius of the defensive midfielder.
*Please note: all statistical accumulations are mine, drawn from the excellent public resources made available by ESPN Soccernet and Manchester City Football Club's individual match statistics. Should more and better statistics become available to me, this blog will be suitably updated. Any potential calculation errors are mine and mine alone.
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