Ross Barkley

[Monty]

Poor bastard. I think there's a difference between lack of effort and lack of motivation, and whenever he's been on the bench he's just had that thousand-yard stare of pure regret. I agree with ChicagoLion - he just looks like his brain has been transplanted into another, less athletic body. It must feel for him like those dreams where you can't run.

[Toronto Villa]

The Ross Barkley against Liverpool and to a slightly less extent against Leicester (he did score a fabulous winner) was superb. He got that injury and who knows if he got Covid and returned to the game looking like Eric Djemba Djemba. No confidence to push himself like he was when he joined us.

[VILLA MOLE]

just watched the highlights and i noticed him jumping up and down on the bench for the El Ghazi miss, which i was surprised at but shows he cares for the team

[Pete3206]

Tara Ross, expected more and only contributed slightly more than Drinkwater.

Harsh. If fact, totally wrong.

[tomd2103]

Ross played his part in a fantastic start to the season.  Without him we may not have had the foundation that we needed to get through the poor run unscathed.

Yep, he was mostly rubbish after his injury, but he wasn't the only one.  He played his part this season and was well paid for it.  Ultimately he was dissapointing but I'm not sure why there's so much hatred and glee about him moving on?  It was a marriage of covenience and it just about served it's purpose.

No hatred or glee from me Chris, just disappointment that it didn't work out the way it looked like it might earlier in the season.  We paid a lot of money and in reality, he did well in a handful of games, so it has to go down as a failure really. 

When we really needed him to step up in Jack Grealish's absence, he became worse if anything and contributed very little.  He was, however, able to lift his performance and energy levels considerably on his return to Goodison Park, either trying to prove a point or catch the eye.

I wouldn't put him alongside some of the wasters we have seen over the past decade or so, more in the category of disappointing that it just didn't work out for one reason or another.

[ROBBO]

I feel sorry for Barkley, not for a moment do i believe he is not trying, what his problem is may come out later but when he plays i see a player that is devoid of confidence and very short on fitness. He still has the skill but he seems always to be half a step behind. I would love to hear the opinion of Dean Smith as to why his form dropped so dramaticaly.

[OzVilla]

I've got to say i'm really surprised as how all this turned out with Barkley.  Before he signed I thought he was exactly what we needed and after 4/5 games I knew he was.  Then just nothing. His injury obviously rocked him back and just never seemed to recover.

Up there with Didier Six, Sasa Curcic and Antonio Luna as players who had blinders in their first games and just seemed to regress game on game.  A real shame and a missed opportunity for him.

[paul_e]

Obviously doesn't matter now as he's played his last game for us but watching back some highlights yesterday I noticed something about his running. Watch the Liverpool game and pay attention to him then watch a game recently, even Everton where he played well.

He looks about 10 years older and is scared to really open his stride so everything is at about 80%. Coupled with everything else I suspect the injury was worse than we thought and he's struggled to recover.

[LeeB]

Obviously doesn't matter now as he's played his last game for us but watching back some highlights yesterday I noticed something about his running. Watch the Liverpool game and pay attention to him then watch a game recently, even Everton where he played well.

He looks about 10 years older and is scared to really open his stride so everything is at about 80%. Coupled with everything else I suspect the injury was worse than we thought and he's struggled to recover.

Some of the cameos before that as well, I think it was the Newcastle game when the ball was close and a fit player would have got first to it, just needed a quick turn but he couldn't do it. 

[Pat Mustard]

Obviously doesn't matter now as he's played his last game for us but watching back some highlights yesterday I noticed something about his running. Watch the Liverpool game and pay attention to him then watch a game recently, even Everton where he played well.

He looks about 10 years older and is scared to really open his stride so everything is at about 80%. Coupled with everything else I suspect the injury was worse than we thought and he's struggled to recover.

This is exactly right - something just looks wrong with him to me. Whether it’s still the injury, or it’s the psychological pressure of knowing something could go wrong again but he just wasn’t the same player after the injury.

If he could be fixed then to me there is still a very useful player there, but it doesn’t look like it will be with us. I hope he does manage to get it sorted though, because he doesn’t deserve to end up on the scrap heap.

[Neil Hawkes]

He was more animated on the bench against tottenham than I have seen for a long time, he was really appreciative of our play. If his problem is psychological, he obviously needs some care, for reference - see Stan Collymore.

[ChicagoLion]

Ross played his part in a fantastic start to the season.  Without him we may not have had the foundation that we needed to get through the poor run unscathed.

Yep, he was mostly rubbish after his injury, but he wasn't the only one.  He played his part this season and was well paid for it.  Ultimately he was dissapointing but I'm not sure why there's so much hatred and glee about him moving on?  It was a marriage of covenience and it just about served it's purpose.

No hatred or glee from me Chris, just disappointment that it didn't work out the way it looked like it might earlier in the season.  We paid a lot of money and in reality, he did well in a handful of games, so it has to go down as a failure really. 

When we really needed him to step up in Jack Grealish's absence, he became worse if anything and contributed very little.  He was, however, able to lift his performance and energy levels considerably on his return to Goodison Park, either trying to prove a point or catch the eye.

I wouldn't put him alongside some of the wasters we have seen over the past decade or so, more in the category of disappointing that it just didn't work out for one reason or another.

Same here, I do feel a bit sorry for him. I have always maintained that there is an underlying injury problem and it must be dismal to know you should be at your peak but can not get there.
Any one that has played knows the sadness of discovering your body just cant do it any more but much worse if it happens prematurely.

[sickbeggar]

Think the injury thing is more likely than anything psychological.  Some players just need much longer than others to return to peak form whether that's fitness, weight, off-field activities... Probably didn't help that he became the goto man for a post-match kicking from the fans after a defeat although how much he was aware of that I don't know but he must be aware he hasn't performed. To be honest everyone expected more from him. It didn't work out  and that's that. At least we can send him back.

[Allan C]

I feel genuinely sorry that it didn’t work out for Barkley. I’ve said it several times despite what others have said, when he arrived he looked good and it worked well. Since his injury and Covid he hasn’t looked the same player however. He’s never looked fit and I also think his confidence is low. He’s a very talented player who is low on form. I can see him prosper at West Ham under his old boss maybe but I wish him luck anyway

[Bryan]

Wanted it to work. Didn't. To the extent that we actually got 1 more point in the 13 games where he didn't feature than in  the 24 that he did.

I really want someone creative in the middle to supplement Jack and Traore, but if that player can't press and leaves us under pressure when he'd not in possession, we'd be better playing another striker.