Ross Barkley

[Somniloquism]

How about Duran for McGinn on Sunday!
I'm awaiting the starting double act of Watkins and he!

Don't we have a thread to discuss if we are starting one, the other, or both?

[Footy-Vill]

Definitely needed the game time v Wycombe tonight

[Demitri_C]

Looked rather meh to me. Didnt take the chance given to him in my opinion. But will likley start vs Ipswich with mcginn injury

[coreyfeldman]

Looked rather meh to me. Didnt take the chance given to him in my opinion. But will likley start vs Ipswich with mcginn injury

Bailey will start on the right, there's no way he's playing onana/tielemans/barkley

[ChicagoLion]

Looked rather meh to me. Didnt take the chance given to him in my opinion. But will likley start vs Ipswich with mcginn injury

Bailey more likely to replace SJM.

[OCD]

Ross Barkley 2.0 is exactly the type of player Unai Emery loves at Aston Villa

Past the quarter-of-an-hour mark away to Wycombe Wanderers, young defender Sil Swinkels stood still on the ball.

The 20-year-old hoped to bait Wycombe’s narrow shape into pressing him, in turn freeing up space in the central areas further forward. In that time, only a matter of seconds, Ross Barkley looked over his shoulder to scan his surroundings four times.

Barkley was making his first competitive start since rejoining Aston Villa, a feat notable in itself given how accomplished the early impressions have been. When he plays — albeit across a small sample size — this version of Barkley tends to be Villa’s chief ball-progressor. On Tuesday night at Wycombe, he was also the oldest player in a squad that included nine academy graduates.

Youngsters such as Swinkels would invariably gravitate towards Barkley, capped 33 times by England and an FA Cup and Europa League winner. Earlier on, Barkley gestured for Swinkels to stay relaxed in possession, knowing extra touches would settle a young team and aid control in the opening stages.

A minute later, under near-identical circumstances, Swinkels played straight into Barkley’s feet, despite him being sandwiched between two Wycombe shirts. Barkley simply flicked a sharp first-time pass around the corner, wriggling Villa out of a tight situation. He made 76 passes in total, more than eight of Wycombe’s starters combined — showing his metronomic qualities.

Even while they were on holiday in the summer, Villa’s triangle of power – manager Unai Emery, president of football operations Monchi and Damian Vidagany, director of football – spent hours every day deciding on the squad’s balance and addressing profit and sustainability fears. Yet the most straightforward outlay was Barkley.

The midfielder was Villa’s first signing this summer. The former England international represented a low-cost market opportunity — Villa had little doubt in activating the Ł5million ($6.4m) buy-out clause in his contract at Luton Town — but, more importantly, he was the profile of central player Emery loves; confident enough to stay in possession and play forward at the right time.

For example, it is now a common sight to see Barkley with his studs on the ball and rolling it backwards, daring an opponent into tackling him. By wanting Villa to become more refined and patient in possession, Barkley, the second iteration, felt stylistically perfect to Emery.

It was the Villa manager who told Monchi and Vidagany to buy Barkley. The 30-year-old wished to return to Villa after spending the 2020-21 Covid-19-impacted campaign on loan and hearing from former team-mates about the depth of detail Emery instils into them.

Barkley’s reputation had been rejuvenated over the previous 12 months, repaying Luton Town’s short-term gamble in signing him as a free agent. From a broader perspective, Barkley became the deep-lying creator, using his ball progression and improved temperament to change the trajectory of his career.

Emery often berates his players for attacking too quickly. It might seem counter-intuitive, yet going forward at pace can be directionless and cause the match to become very transitional and chaotic. Because of fatigue, substitutions and the general game state, this tends to materialise in the second half.

It is why Barkley has been tasked with coming on in four of the first five Premier League matches. In each of them, he has replaced Amadou Onana, an all-round, athletic midfielder who still requires improvement in being more press-resistant and regulating the tempo.

Barkley, now a matured No 6 with his head on a constant swivel, has worked increasingly well when coming on alongside Youri Tielemans, a player of comparable profile. The pair have formed a partnership in the second half of matches against Leicester City, Everton and Wolves — at a time when each contest was in the balance — managing to bring authority and a stranglehold on Villa’s ability to sustain attacks.

The case in point was the comeback victory against Everton when Barkley replaced Onana at half-time. Villa became more attentive in possession, reducing counter-attacking opportunities and enabling the wide players to stay higher and wider for longer. As a consequence, Villa were successful in pinning Everton’s 4-2-3-1 shape into a back five.

“We have to be intelligent, using each match with the characteristics we need on the pitch,” said Emery in his post-match press conference. “Barkley and Youri Tielemans are similar. They can even play together or with one other midfielder — Onana or (Boubacar) Kamara — but what we needed in the second half was to take time in our build-up.”

Barkley then helped to shift the momentum the following week against Wolves. Jhon Duran has earned the game-changer tag, but Barkley’s presence is arguably as effective. After the hour mark of that match, Villa added precision to their play and were less wasteful and far more deft, resulting, ultimately, in coming back once more to win.

In light of Villa’s typical malaise in domestic cup competitions, the 2-1 victory at Wycombe followed a similar trend. It was a stodgy affair but perhaps understandably so, with Emery putting together a young, hodge-podge line-up. Gradually, as more of the seven debutants were introduced, the onus on Barkley to hold Villa’s shape together grew.

When Onana was replaced by 17-year-old Aidan Borland, set-piece coach Austin MacPhee called over Barkley to stress why he needed to be even more defensively mindful.

Barkley is no longer the young Evertonian who played with no handbrake and had a licence to roam. This is the second part of his career: more disciplined, tactically astute and suited to Emery’s ideals.

Source - Jacob Tanswell, The Athletic

[jon collett]

I prefer us with him in the team to Onana who I don’t think fits with our style of play!

[OCD]

Onana fits very well in our away games.

[jon collett]

Onana fits very well in our away games.

Possibly but we’ve only had two in the League and other than his goal he was poor at Leicester and hooked!

[purpletrousers]

ah the days I longed to be able to complain about a big, athletic intelligent, well spoken goal scoring midfielder not suiting our style of play. Not particularly taking sides, but if he's the problem, i'm happy with that.

As far as our Ross, delighted he's putting the doubters in their place. Unai and the boys in charge do seem to know what they are doing...

[RichardBatchelor]

Evil Dead II don't know
Back to the Future Part II not as good as the first
The Dark Knight not as good as the first
Batman Returns not as good as the first by some distance
Superman II - equal to the first
Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan don't know
Bill and Ted's Bogus Journey - no where near as good as the first
Addams Family Values - didn't like either
Daleks: Invasion Earth 2150 - don't know
Green Lantern 2 (don't think this has been made but that's preferable to the first one) don't know

Marked your work as above :-)

Evil Dead II - equal
Jurassic Park II - thought it was better because I was hammered, but wasn’t on second viewing, though exciting moments.
Back to the Future II - equal
The Dark Knight not as good as the first
Batman Returns not as good as the first by some distance
Superman II - better. Zod was terrifying
Star Trek II - a million times better, the first film was quite dull.
Bogus Journey - only slightly inferior in my view “That’s the Devil, dude.”
Addams Family Values - didn't like either much
Daleks: Invasion Earth 2150 - not as good

[Brazilian Villain]

Ross Barkley 2.0 is exactly the type of player Unai Emery loves at Aston Villa

Interesting stuff, thanks for posting.

[frankmosswasmyuncle]

I thought he was a bit crap last night.

[john e]

I thought he was a bit crap last night.

He was back to the Barkley we had first time round last night
But in fairness he’s been quality when he’s come on in the prem league games so far

[coreyfeldman]

I prefer us with him in the team to Onana who I don’t think fits with our style of play!

Is this a joke that I'm missing?