Gareth Barry

[Bridge'srightfoot]

Why is there no Silva thread? He's been gash by his standards this season. Some members of our squad really do seem to be immune from criticism.

[Hazy2]

Why is there no Silva thread? He's been gash by his standards this season. Some members of our squad really do seem to be immune from criticism.

Fair point, and the way the P.R is in overdrive all is now fine, Silva has had niggles all season and was not at it last week I was right in the corner where McManaman walked past him a few times in the last phases of the game, shocking lack of interest in defending and getting to extra time.

[Tokyo Blue]

If we have got some width, and that appears to be the target for the summer from the names I have seen banded around, Barry will have a lot more options to pass to and a lot more space because play will be a lot more stretched. GB still has a contribution to make, I feel.

[zuricity]

If we have got some width, and that appears to be the target for the summer from the names I have seen banded around, Barry will have a lot more options to pass to and a lot more space because play will be a lot more stretched. GB still has a contribution to make, I feel.

Gareth reads the game very well. i don't think it will hurt his ego if he is used less and less as he gets older. we certainly should not be building the team around him though as perhaps was done when he first came in.

His experience will help in player rotation , going for all four trophies next season.
A more favourable draw in the CL and a bit more attention round xmas time with Yaya being around should help us push on in all competitions, whoever is manager.

I think we need to be adding to the squad , not selling until a better replacement has been found

[freshie]

If we have got some width, and that appears to be the target for the summer from the names I have seen banded around, Barry will have a lot more options to pass to and a lot more space because play will be a lot more stretched. GB still has a contribution to make, I feel.

Of course he does. He has been one of our most consistent players over the last 2 seasons and is still a vital 1st team player

[aaron bond]

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?

We were the worst (that's worst, not worse) team in the league on the break? 20th out of 20???

Keep showing your level of intelligence there mate.

[aaron bond]

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.

Barry's positional play is excellent. Despite his lack of speed, he almost always knows where to be at the right time. Ever since he's joined us, he's been solid in that centre midfield position and I really don't understand how anyone can underestimate the impact he has on our play.

He regularly sweeps up in front of the defence, covers the full backs when they go forward and has to cover for Yaya who never can be bothered to get back. I know someone will come up with some stat on Yaya about his passing ratio or whatever, but he IS a lazy sod when it comes to getting back, so Barry has to cover for him.

To replace him will be very difficult. If we can keep Rodwell fit, I think he could potentially do the job but keeping him fit is another question.

[Rag_hater]

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.

Barry's positional play is excellent. Despite his lack of speed, he almost always knows where to be at the right time. Ever since he's joined us, he's been solid in that centre midfield position and I really don't understand how anyone can underestimate the impact he has on our play.

He regularly sweeps up in front of the defence, covers the full backs when they go forward and has to cover for Yaya who never can be bothered to get back. I know someone will come up with some stat on Yaya about his passing ratio or whatever, but he IS a lazy sod when it comes to getting back, so Barry has to cover for him.

To replace him will be very difficult. If we can keep Rodwell fit, I think he could potentially do the job but keeping him fit is another question.

The thing is he has been given the DM role whilst playing for us.Yaya plays a different role more box to box.When Rodwell is fit or Jimmy told to do Gareths job they do it just as good,last year worse,this year better.
He can be replaced with players we have already if they are told to do the job Gareth does or if Manuel feels we need somebody else I am sure we could find someone

[Beefymcfc]

Bazza is the bezzer.

[aaron bond]

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.

Barry's positional play is excellent. Despite his lack of speed, he almost always knows where to be at the right time. Ever since he's joined us, he's been solid in that centre midfield position and I really don't understand how anyone can underestimate the impact he has on our play.

He regularly sweeps up in front of the defence, covers the full backs when they go forward and has to cover for Yaya who never can be bothered to get back. I know someone will come up with some stat on Yaya about his passing ratio or whatever, but he IS a lazy sod when it comes to getting back, so Barry has to cover for him.

To replace him will be very difficult. If we can keep Rodwell fit, I think he could potentially do the job but keeping him fit is another question.

The thing is he has been given the DM role whilst playing for us.Yaya plays a different role more box to box.When Rodwell is fit or Jimmy told to do Gareths job they do it just as good,last year worse,this year better.
He can be replaced with players we have already if they are told to do the job Gareth does or if Manuel feels we need somebody else I am sure we could find someone

Yaya could never do Barry's role. He doesn't read the game well enough defensively nor can he be bothered to track back when he needs to.

Milner could do Barry's role, but then we'd lose his attacking prowess, particularly as he's our best crosser of the ball by a long shot.

Rodwell has the potential to take over from Barry. In the few matches he's played this season he's been excellent. Just his injuries are a concern.

[Cit.revenge]

I think Barry just lost much on hes speed hes still run like hes on fuel without stop for hours and i like the gay but hes problem is he s not neither Pirilo neither Gattuso and because he's playing at DM position with Yaya who is great player strongest in league but at times just to fuckin lazy to defend .I remember when Ibrahimovic said i hate play against Gattuso u take him ball in two seconds hes there u pass him twice hes coming again and then he will take the ball or u must kill him. So when Barry or Yaya make mistake in our half and if we playing against fast counter attack team no Barry no will Yaya will respond on time to help back four. Pirilo is magic player who had that most of u talking abaut good reading but even if hes slow like Barry AC could suffer that because he had brilliant passing in him specially deep ball witch we almost never do and he had Gattuso to kill anybody if Pirilo make mistake .We have Yaya but we do not have Gattuso or similar fast player who can read good but also be on time and never give up ,that is the best DM. Itook just one of the best example but that place is vital and we lost a lot with the De jong this season and Garcia ell he can play CD maybe but on DM hes just to slow passing nothing special ,often left players on 20 to shoot .If he was choose to replace Barry or help him that scaut was blind.

[Rag_hater]

The way I see it is all of

Rodwell,
Milner,
Zaba,
Garcia,
Fellaini,
Schneiderlin,
Kroos,
Bender,
Sahin,
Essien,
Diarra
Are just a few examples of players who could do what Gareth does.

[Bridge'srightfoot]

The way I see it is all of

Rodwell,
Milner,
Zaba,
Garcia,
Fellaini,
Schneiderlin,
Kroos,
Bender,
Sahin,
Essien,
Diarra
Are just a few examples of players who could do what Gareth does.

Garcia? Seriously?
Don't agree with Zabaleta, Milner or Fellaini either.

[Slim]

The way I see it is all of

Rodwell,
Milner,
Zaba,
Garcia,
Fellaini,
Schneiderlin,
Kroos,
Bender,
Sahin,
Essien,
Diarra
Are just a few examples of players who could do what Gareth does.

Garcia? Seriously?
Don't agree with Zabaleta, Milner or Fellaini either.

Aren't you two the same person?

I mean if you can't even agree with yourself, what hope do you have around here.

[Ted Hughes]

The way I see it none of those players do the same job as Gareth Barry.

You can put them in the same position, but they won't do the same job.

That's fine if you don't need a player to do Barry's job. We quite often do.

Just to add; Makelele used to do that job for Chelsea. They have signed younger, bigger, faster, trickier & still haven't replaced him.

[Pretty Boy Lee]

The way I see it is all of

Rodwell,
Milner,
Zaba,
Garcia,
Fellaini,
Schneiderlin,
Kroos,
Bender,
Sahin,
Essien,
Diarra
Are just a few examples of players who could do what Gareth does.

Looks to me that you've just clicked search DM into FIFA transfer mode and named everyone you recognize.

Joke of a post.

[freshie]

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.

Thankyou. The fact that YOU have posted this vindicates all I have said about Barry

[Ajardine]

Gaz Baz should be a squad player next year, would love to see Zaba in that role and Richards at RB

[Pretty Boy Lee]

Gaz Baz should be a squad player next year, would love to see Zaba in that role and Richards at RB

Are you serious?

Move our best player all year to a different position?

[Ajardine]

I know what you're saying Lee, we would lose so much from Zaba from RB but I just think he'd be class in that midfield role. He'd be a proper enforcer, but has a good range of passing, has the speed and can bomb forward