VMC new recruit, Daniel Grigg sent us the following.
Gareth Barry really is starting to look more and more like a spare part at Manchester City the deeper we get into the new season.
Toure and particularly De Jong already do such a good defensive job that much of Barry’s role must be largely to set up chances, goals and play the ball around dangerously from the middle of the pitch. Instead, while in all competitions both Silva and Tevez have three assists, Toure and Milner have two, Jo, Johnson, Vieira and Richards have one Barry has absolutely none this season.
What might I ask is the point of Barry playing in the centre of a five man midfield if he is going to offer nothing productive in terms of creating chances or making the team more of a flowing attacking force? It’s not even like City have been creating vast numbers of chances, rather that the team simply haven’t been imaginative enough; a factor which were it not for Carlos Tevez could well be costing City far more than it has.
Barry doesn’t defend well enough to be in the team for his defensive solidity alone as was shown by his complete lack of awareness or alertness to Nasri’s run into the box for Arsenal’s first goal last weekend. That mistake cost us nearly as much as the Boyata sending off which as we all know set the seal for City’s defeat.
To add to poor displays on the pitch both Barry’s manager and many thousands of newspaper readers would have seen and read about a poor display off the pitch when during the week Barry and team-mates Joe Hart, Shay Given and Adam Johnson were seen drinking late into the night and clearly worse for ware.
While the 4-5-1 system works as it has done so far, then Barry will no doubt find himself safely within Mancini’s starting eleven most weeks. However, if a formation which has limited the number of goal scoring opportunities begins to cost City points and then in turn causes the club to slip down the table then Barry will surely be the first of the three central midfielders that the manager will look to drop from the team.
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