Barry Bannan - Recalled

[sonlyme]

I was delighted to see our master of the impish pass Mr Barry Bannan has been recalled from Leeds United.  I was not surprised to see much wailing from the Leeds message boards at the limited use Mr Simon Grayson has put our Barry through of late - almost to a man they rated our little proto Gemill highly.

For me - watching the Stoke game - the one thing we lacked (apart from centre-halves with the wit to defend aerial set-peice attacks) was a cunning ball playing midfielder.  That used to be Petrov - albeit without the cunning - but against Stoke old Stan rarely ventured forth - preferring instead to sit in front of Tom Collins and You'vebeen Dunne.  NRC may well be a sound runner and tackler but he can't pass gas let alone a football.  Makoun seems to be a Coker clone but with a short pass gene inserted.

What we lacked against Stoke was someone to take the ball in the centre and play the incisive pass - the pass into the path of the run - otherwise we are left with the old option of playing it wide and hoping for a decent cross.   All well and good in it's place - but I think Bannan could be the missing link to feed our front three with the sort of defence splitting pass we haven't seen for far too long at VP.   Mr Bent is showing us all just how good he is with his movement - we need midfielders who understand where he is going to be before he actually gets there - and who  have the guile to slide that pass into the space Mr B wants. 

Remember Milner in the middle - what a revelation that was - I'm hoping Barry B will do the same today against the saggies.

UTV

[Monty]

100% agree. If wee Barry fulfils his potential he could be the creative link we've been crying out for.

[Archie]

I was in Wien last August,  when he scored his first goal for Villa, and after seeing his skills in passing and throwing the ball, I have soon had the impression that he could become a great player.

[PaulMcGrathsNo5Shirt]

Yet he wasn't even on the bench!

[spangley1812]

Yet he wasn't even on the bench!

He was swopped with Marc @ the last minute apparently

[mozza]

Yet he wasn't even on the bench!

But Pires was and look what happened when he shuffled onto the pitch -

[Monty]

Well when talking about injuries, G Mac talked about Heskey, Makoun and now Dunne. No mention of Bannan. Inference - to leave him out was a decision he took, rather than one forced on him. But it's ok, because Pires saved the day in his place.

[TonyD]

Bazza is the sort od player we need AND we HAVE!!  Just need hard but cultered midfielder for him to work with next season.

[VillaAlways]

I'm still trying to fathom why there was a huge article on the OS about how it was time to unleash Bannan and then he didn't even make the bench.Baffling- injury must surely be the only excuse