I may have cracked it- What Rafa sees in Gareth Barry

[PLY]

I've never thought much of Barry personally but I've never watched him very closely to be fair and I suspect that he's a Carragher type player who is appreciated more by the fans of his own club than those of other clubs who only give him a cursory glance

[el matador]

barry is a replacement for alonso and will play alonside mascherano which means he will persist with his 4-3-3 formation.

[mchaggis]

He can cross. That should be enough (Villa scored 1/2 of their goals from set pieces and he takes them).

[rage]

He can cross. That should be enough (Villa scored 1/2 of their goals from set pieces and he takes them).

great now that we're owned by americans we have a specials team where they come on just to kick the ball.

i'd be overjoyed if barry wasn't signed by us. latest reports 15 million - you must be mad!

[dww]

the problem is that Alonso is the better player, so although we may make money out of this deal (though to be honest I dont see Villa selling for £10m) what we're doing is trading down. Now I accept the points that Xabi's been off form, I also agree that the time he is given on the ball by opponents is less than what it used to be and this affects the influence he is able to have on the game. But Xabi at his best is much better than Bary IMO, and that is where I have the problem. I'd not be happy with him replacing Xabi. I'd rather get Flamini to be honest, if that were at all possible, which it probably isn't.

I really think that you have to think of the player in the context of the team and the league. I don't think anyone doubts that Xabi is the better player in terms of maximum ability and stylishness. However as a team we have lacked drive and movement from central midfield. Barry would improve thses qualities of the midfield and his greater mobility could be expected to make better use of Maschers' talents and possibly reduce the amount Gerrard feels the need to drop deep in PL games.

I think that in the context of a team restructuring to add pace and dynamism Barry could be a good move, however as with a lot of the moves we are linked with it only makes sense in the context of other possible moves (both into and out of the team).

I too would love to get Flamini but I can't see it happening.

[Skillz]

He can cross. That should be enough (Villa scored 1/2 of their goals from set pieces and he takes them).

8 goals and 12 assists I think. If he adds a greater goal threat from set pieces, which to be fair wouldn't be too hard, this is a good thing. We have lacked badly in this department for years and it is the easiest thing to fix as well as being a critical part of the game, particularly against the other '3'.

[Dutte]

Great post, the kind of post a fan forum really should be all about.

[Kenneth]

The front 6 of:
Torres
Babel
Bentley
Gerrard
Barry
Alonso or Mascherano

Can be organized as both a 4-3-3 and a 4-4-2, depending on Rafa's mood, without making one substitution.

Our front six can do that now, with the flexability of Babel, and stevie pulling ro the right.

[JohnDoe]

Our front six can do that now, with the flexability of Babel, and stevie pulling ro the right.

But Rafa doesn't want Gerrard on the right.

[Kenneth]

But Rafa doesn't want Gerrard on the right.

Probably more a case of Garrard not wanting to play on the right I would think. Point is, we don''t need baryy to make the front 6 changable. SOmeone like Luis could play right or centre, for example. We just need a better left back than Riise who'll play more than Fabio.

[cannotmakeit]

Didn't we have the same discussion last year about Yossi being a disaster?

[Kev_81]

O'neil today "Liverpool haven't made a straight cash offer. They've made an offer involving a mish-mash of nameless player exchanges"

[Kenneth]

Didn't we have the same discussion last year about Yossi being a disaster?

We had people saying we shouldn't be buying him becasue he wouldn't improve our first team, and he didn't.

[JermainePennant]

I keep seeing people say barry can play left back but there is onlt one problem with that, he is **** there and is definitly not an improvement on jar or aurelio there.In midfield he is average and I am assuming his fans on here are thinking of him as a dm as he has no great qualities getting forward.

I would much rather spend the money on a young player to develop then a average player who has got 3 or 4 more years left at his peak.

[Dirk07]

riise and crouch offered would be my guess