Gareth Barry

[Ted Hughes]

This passing thing with Barry IS ANOTHER LOAD OF FUCKING BOLLOKS perpetuated by people who don't like him, gaining an IMPRESSION because they don't like him & has NO BASIS IN FACT.

I repeat: IT'S NOT FUCKING TRUE.

His normal pass success rate is perfectly acceptable & there is no signinficant loss of possession due to Gareth Barry. IT IS NOT TRUE.

And before anyone slips any bollocks in about it being because he only passes sideways, his long pass success rate is 77.78 percent. The 12th best in the Premier League. Lampard has 75.21 with a similar no of long passes.

If people are going to slag him off, at least be honest about it.

When did I say he is shit passer of football? He is nowhere near one of the best but his passing is acceptable. It's his pace, or rather lack of it, that's the problem. And the fact that he takes too much time on the ball before delivering passes meaning our attacks break up because of it. Those are his main weaknesses.

And he could still do perfectly fine job for team competing for Europa league spot or something. But if we are talking about team that aims to challenge for league title and Champion's League, it has become painfully apparent that he isn't good enough anymore to be a starter. I'm sure he has 12th best completion rate in his long balls but we need our central midfielders to be in top 5. Top 12 is not good enough.

But our other midfielders apart from Yaya, aren't, so seeing as Barry is essentially a defender, why are we not sacking Silva & Nasri instead ?

Some people are suggesting that City's passing game breaks down because of Barry. It's not true.

If people want to criticise his pace etc then fine, but he is not someone who causes our passing game to break down. He is also no slower than Javi Martinez, who we wanted to sign, & has a much harder job to do, playing next to players who don't cover.

And it certainly isn't painfully obvious to me that Barry needs replacing. if I had to choose the midfield player who has done his job best this season it would be Barry. Silva, Yaya, Nasri have been well below par.

If Pellegrini can organise a team that doesn't need Barry, then great. But Mancini couldn't.

[Hazy2]

For where we want to be I sadly do not see Gareth Barry, Premier League I would say runner up to Zabba, Away at Bayern or many top teams the pace kills him once twice a game atthat Level as with Alonso you get bypassed by the likes of Dortmund. Xavi was overun by Bayern and Gareth is never that level, I rate him highly not sure he has a future with the management change.

[john@staustell]

For where we want to be I sadly do not see Gareth Barry, Premier League I would say runner up to Zabba, Away at Bayern or many top teams the pace kills him once twice a game atthat Level as with Alonso you get bypassed by the likes of Dortmund. Xavi was overun by Bayern and Gareth is never that level, I rate him highly not sure he has a future with the management change.

I think he's too good a player to put out to grass yet. Ideal for bringing on to hold the ball when we are 2, 3 or 4 up and give some bugger else a rest.

But you are exactly right about the Bayern level - mind you they ARE the best - and also he should never be allowed to travel to Southampton again! :-)

[Ted Hughes]

For where we want to be I sadly do not see Gareth Barry, Premier League I would say runner up to Zabba, Away at Bayern or many top teams the pace kills him once twice a game atthat Level as with Alonso you get bypassed by the likes of Dortmund. Xavi was overun by Bayern and Gareth is never that level, I rate him highly not sure he has a future with the management change.

We got bypassed by Dortmund Barry wasn't playing. Perhaps if he & Milner had been in centre midfield with Yaya , we may have done better ?

Dortmund are athletes & you can't just send out a wide open midfield against them, you need to organise. Mancini didn't.

When they scored at our place, Vinny came out doing the impersonation of a 'ball playing' cb & dangerously played the ball back inside to Yaya Toure who could have run forward, but would have had to push himself, , so he gave it inside to Rodwell who was where Vinny should have been & got robbed. It was shite. They are two of our fastest players but it made no difference. Barry would have got rid of the fucker, most likely passed it long to a City player.

Mancini had the rest of our team pushed right up towards Dortmund's back 4 leaving a great big fucking hole in the middle full of Dortmund players. Neither Yaya or Rodwell had an out ball in their area except to a defender, just five Dortmund players running towards them. We were tactically arse fucked.

Gareth Barry had fuck all to do with it.

[Bridge'srightfoot]

Pace for a holding midfielder is not important.
It's better to have great anticipation and know where the ball is going (which Barry does) rather than having to rely on pace to get there due to poor positioning/anticipation. Being able to read the game well is far, far more important.
At OT there was a great example of this when he pickpocketed Giggs and set up our first goal.
He's easily been our most consistent midfielder since we signed him.

[Hazy2]

For where we want to be I sadly do not see Gareth Barry, Premier League I would say runner up to Zabba, Away at Bayern or many top teams the pace kills him once twice a game atthat Level as with Alonso you get bypassed by the likes of Dortmund. Xavi was overun by Bayern and Gareth is never that level, I rate him highly not sure he has a future with the management change.

We got bypassed by Dortmund Barry wasn't playing. Perhaps if he & Milner had been in centre midfield with Yaya , we may have done better ?

Dortmund are athletes & you can't just send out a wide open midfield against them, you need to organise. Mancini didn't.

When they scored at our place, Vinny came out doing the impersonation of a 'ball playing' cb & dangerously played the ball back inside to Yaya Toure who could have run forward, but would have had to push himself, , so he gave it inside to Rodwell who was where Vinny should have been & got robbed. It was shite. They are two of our fastest players but it made no difference. Barry would have got rid of the fucker, most likely passed it long to a City player.

Mancini had the rest of our team pushed right up towards Dortmund's back 4 leaving a great big fucking hole in the middle full of Dortmund players. Neither Yaya or Rodwell had an out ball in their area except to a defender, just five Dortmund players running towards them. We were tactically arse fucked.

Gareth Barry had fuck all to do with it.

I am not saying Barry played, I am saying at his age time has come for thinking before you expose him to better quality players that you get in Europe, Dortmund are the example I am using nobody saw that coming,, Wigan were clever last Saturday closed us downmaking the pass into MF hard, players not at it, left Barry as I suspect will happen at the top level more an more wide open to being done like Alonso was, head down pass gone. I am talking about better teams not just Bayern Dortmund, Liverpool out played us at our place, Wigan out passed us twice in a fortnight, Souhampton set a fast pace did us QPR set up to not get beat hung on, Spurs for an hour crap, they up the tempo and it was like the Alamo, Barry is a top player when we have a rythm and at Home we are on it, when we are like a drain he is surplus when we are against top draw he is not for me particlarly away from home. He will be gone under Pelligrini sadly.

[Ted Hughes]

For where we want to be I sadly do not see Gareth Barry, Premier League I would say runner up to Zabba, Away at Bayern or many top teams the pace kills him once twice a game atthat Level as with Alonso you get bypassed by the likes of Dortmund. Xavi was overun by Bayern and Gareth is never that level, I rate him highly not sure he has a future with the management change.

We got bypassed by Dortmund Barry wasn't playing. Perhaps if he & Milner had been in centre midfield with Yaya , we may have done better ?

Dortmund are athletes & you can't just send out a wide open midfield against them, you need to organise. Mancini didn't.

When they scored at our place, Vinny came out doing the impersonation of a 'ball playing' cb & dangerously played the ball back inside to Yaya Toure who could have run forward, but would have had to push himself, , so he gave it inside to Rodwell who was where Vinny should have been & got robbed. It was shite. They are two of our fastest players but it made no difference. Barry would have got rid of the fucker, most likely passed it long to a City player.

Mancini had the rest of our team pushed right up towards Dortmund's back 4 leaving a great big fucking hole in the middle full of Dortmund players. Neither Yaya or Rodwell had an out ball in their area except to a defender, just five Dortmund players running towards them. We were tactically arse fucked.

Gareth Barry had fuck all to do with it.

I am not saying Barry played, I am saying at his age time has come for thinking before you expose him to better quality players that you get in Europe, Dortmund are the example I am using nobody saw that coming,, Wigan were clever last Saturday closed us downmaking the pass into MF hard, players not at it, left Barry as I suspect will happen at the top level more an more wide open to being done like Alonso was, head down pass gone. I am talking about better teams not just Bayern Dortmund, Liverpool out played us at our place, Wigan out passed us twice in a fortnight, Souhampton set a fast pace did us QPR set up to not get beat hung on, Spurs for an hour crap, they up the tempo and it was like the Alamo, Barry is a top player when we have a rythm and at Home we are on it, when we are like a drain he is surplus when we are against top draw he is not for me particlarly away from home. He will be gone under Pelligrini sadly.

The point I'm making is: without Barry we are WORSE against such teams not better.

If you can find someone who can cover for Yaya Toure against sides like Dortmund, then by all means fuck Barry off. I recon you've got no chance in hell of finding such a player.

I don't think I've ever seen a player who could play next to Yaya Toure against an athletic midfield. You need two three four of them, & Barry as part of an organised unit, who all work for each other, is as good as there is available. He could do the job in Bayern's team with a cigar on.

If Pellegrini can find a way of getting Silva, Nasri Yaya etc all pegging it around covering like Robben, Ribery & Muller did for Bayern, then Barry can go. Mancini got nowhere near it.

[Rag_hater]

If people refuse to see that Gareth has been going backwards all season we are gonna get over run in midfield again.For me the fact that Yaya Toure makes on average 80 passes per game, behind only Arteta in the Premier League, and Pirlo and Xavi in Europe. For a player who is apparently in ‘indifferent’ form according to some people, he still has a dominant effect on City’s games, and they don’t look the same without him. Vital.Same with Silva.
I think Gareth has been the weakest link this year along with some of the stuff Bobby did.
We need to lighten the load on Gareth A.S.A.P.

[Hazy2]

For where we want to be I sadly do not see Gareth Barry, Premier League I would say runner up to Zabba, Away at Bayern or many top teams the pace kills him once twice a game atthat Level as with Alonso you get bypassed by the likes of Dortmund. Xavi was overun by Bayern and Gareth is never that level, I rate him highly not sure he has a future with the management change.

We got bypassed by Dortmund Barry wasn't playing. Perhaps if he & Milner had been in centre midfield with Yaya , we may have done better ?

Dortmund are athletes & you can't just send out a wide open midfield against them, you need to organise. Mancini didn't.

When they scored at our place, Vinny came out doing the impersonation of a 'ball playing' cb & dangerously played the ball back inside to Yaya Toure who could have run forward, but would have had to push himself, , so he gave it inside to Rodwell who was where Vinny should have been & got robbed. It was shite. They are two of our fastest players but it made no difference. Barry would have got rid of the fucker, most likely passed it long to a City player.

Mancini had the rest of our team pushed right up towards Dortmund's back 4 leaving a great big fucking hole in the middle full of Dortmund players. Neither Yaya or Rodwell had an out ball in their area except to a defender, just five Dortmund players running towards them. We were tactically arse fucked.

Gareth Barry had fuck all to do with it.

I am not saying Barry played, I am saying at his age time has come for thinking before you expose him to better quality players that you get in Europe, Dortmund are the example I am using nobody saw that coming,, Wigan were clever last Saturday closed us downmaking the pass into MF hard, players not at it, left Barry as I suspect will happen at the top level more an more wide open to being done like Alonso was, head down pass gone. I am talking about better teams not just Bayern Dortmund, Liverpool out played us at our place, Wigan out passed us twice in a fortnight, Souhampton set a fast pace did us QPR set up to not get beat hung on, Spurs for an hour crap, they up the tempo and it was like the Alamo, Barry is a top player when we have a rythm and at Home we are on it, when we are like a drain he is surplus when we are against top draw he is not for me particlarly away from home. He will be gone under Pelligrini sadly.

The point I'm making is: without Barry we are WORSE against such teams not better.

If you can find someone who can cover for Yaya Toure against sides like Dortmund, then by all means fuck Barry off. I recon you've got no chance in hell of finding such a player.

I don't think I've ever seen a player who could play next to Yaya Toure against an athletic midfield. You need two three four of them, & Barry as part of an organised unit, who all work for each other, is as good as there is available. He could do the job in Bayern's team with a cigar on.

If Pellegrini can find a way of getting Silva, Nasri Yaya etc all pegging it around covering like Robben, Ribery & Muller did for Bayern, then Barry can go. Mancini got nowhere near it.

Sad as it is Yaya is Benny big Spuds and Barry is Engish and underated. I think the B4 have a lot to do with the setup needed, watching Bayern our topic for debate Martinez is a player with a true understanding of his screening role others are safe he is there, De Jong did it and was happy fro club and Country to latch onto Vinny 20 yards in front and stop stuff at Source De Jong was Gerrards worse nightmare he read him and shut him down . Found time to score a screamer, De Jong scared Yaya into towing the line for the team IMHO

[MilnersJaw]

If people refuse to see that Gareth has been going backwards all season we are gonna get over run in midfield again.For me the fact that Yaya Toure makes on average 80 passes per game, behind only Arteta in the Premier League, and Pirlo and Xavi in Europe. For a player who is apparently in ‘indifferent’ form according to some people, he still has a dominant effect on City’s games, and they don’t look the same without him. Vital.Same with Silva.
I think Gareth has been the weakest link this year along with some of the stuff Bobby did.
We need to lighten the load on Gareth A.S.A.P.

Barry is past it. All the balls go through him and he slows everything down. Has nobody notice that this season we were probably the worse team in the league on the break or in any counter attack?

[Twobob]

Defensivly he's very good, possitioning is great and generally reads the game very well. Most times he's steady and calm on the ball and although his passes arent ground breaking in terms of creativity that isnt and has never been his game, and not really what you want a def mid to do too many times - Rodwell has come a cropper of this and tried the fancy stuff in dangerous possitions and we lost games due to it.

I do agree that his pace has left him wanting and our counter attack seems to have been the worst and slowest in the league at times, apart from a couple of players the rest, Barry included, have looked like geriatrics when coming out from defence - so i dont think you can pin our sluggish counter's on one player.

[Elvistheblue]

Barry was not the worse player on the pitch in the cup final....if that is what you are referring to. In my opinion, he was one of the better performers, if not the only one that could hold his head up high after it.

Are you being serious or joking? It's hard to tell on here sometimes.

I'm being serious mate.

[Hazy2]

The keeper and the B4 are nothing more than average on the ball. Great at defending, Pello will sort that out as number 1 change, Joe will be under most pressure.

[Dameerto]

Some of the comments about him in this thread are ridiculous, at times this season he's held our midfield together singlehandedly when Yaya has decided to not turn up (despite being on the pitch). He has easily got another season or two left in him at the top.

[Niall Quinns Discopants]

Pace for a holding midfielder is not important. It's better to have great anticipation and know where the ball is going (which Barr does) rather than having to rely on pace to get there due to poor positioning/anticipation. Being able to read the game well is far, far more important.
At OT there was a great example of this when he pickpocketed Giggs and set up our first goal.
He's easily been our most consistent midfielder since we signed him.

It's stuff like that you come out with that I simply don't understand. Maybe pure pace over 100 yards isn't important but pace, or quickness, over five to fifteen yards is extremely important for holding midfielder. Change of direction even more so. Alsom he consistently takes too long on the ball.

I really genuinely hope we sell him this summer and we can have these "would Gareth Barry have helped" arguments rather than it going sour in the end. He has been good overall for us and deserves to be remembered as good (not great) player.

[MilnersJaw]

Barry out, dj Campbell in

[Green & Blue]

I always feel it not worth bothering to mention on here when Barry has put in a bad shift as some fans have a "he can do no wrong" attitude towards him and will defend him to the hilt regardless.

I have grown to like Barry myself but of course he does have his faults, nobody would deny he has a distinct lack of pace but for the most part he makes up for it with quick thinking and reading of the game.

In fairness to him he has done a great job for City and hopefully he will have another couple of good seasons in him but i do think it's time we were looking for a long term replacement, for me i would look no further than Jack Rodwell but obviously with his injury record that may or may not be the solution.

[Ted Hughes]

If we're getting rid of players who have looked sluggish, been below par, moved the ball slowly & not done their jobs, this season.

Barry should be about the 20th to leave.

[Blue Since 76]

Well that's complete bollocks for a start - I can name quite a few who were worse than Barry against Wigan in the cup final - Silva, Yaya, Aguero all had abysmal games but somehow seem immune from criticism by many on here. He wasn't shite against Wigan, he just had the misfortune of misplacing a pass that cost Zabaleta a red card. Apart from that error he was one of our better players. How you cannot see that is beyond me

I'd agree with that - Barry's passing was awful in the final, not just for the red card. But you noticed it as he was the only one passing. He was also having to do the tackling and covering, which, considering his age and lack of pace was always going to be a disaster, but he was by no means the worst player, as at lease he was trying.

For next season, I'd like to see Milner and Rodwell in the centre - reasonable pace, loads of energy, can both tackle, can usually both pass (although when Milner has a bad day, it's a really bad day) and can both shoot from distance. That would also free Yaya up from having to pretend to be interested in the defensive side, which might help and also puts him in the part of the pitch where he can do damage.

[Bridge'srightfoot]

Pace for a holding midfielder is not important. It's better to have great anticipation and know where the ball is going (which Barr does) rather than having to rely on pace to get there due to poor positioning/anticipation. Being able to read the game well is far, far more important.
At OT there was a great example of this when he pickpocketed Giggs and set up our first goal.
He's easily been our most consistent midfielder since we signed him.

It's stuff like that you come out with that I simply don't understand. Maybe pure pace over 100 yards isn't important but pace, or quickness, over five to fifteen yards is extremely important for holding midfielder. Change of direction even more so. Alsom he consistently takes too long on the ball.

I really genuinely hope we sell him this summer and we can have these "would Gareth Barry have helped" arguments rather than it going sour in the end. He has been good overall for us and deserves to be remembered as good (not great) player.

Disagree. He's very rarely out of position. His reading of the game is so good that he gets there first, even against much faster players. Many people judge him because of his 'shocker' the England germany game in the world cup where he was left as the only man back against 4 german attackers.

Pace for this position is a bonus rather than a necessity. De Jong was not quick, Makalele wasn't particulary quick nor was Senna or Alonso. There are few holding midfielders who have blistering pace. They all have great anticipation though.

Why sell him? He's at least good enough to do a job from the bench. To put in when someone needs a rest or to be a claming influence when we're protecting a lead.

He's worth keeping.