by bigmick » Tue Jul 15, 2008 11:04 am
Might as well chuck my two penneth into the ring. Joey Barton is a good player, a footballers footballer who reads it well. He is better than many give him credit for. He is not though in the same stratosphere as Frank Lampard. Lampard is or certainly was a top midfielder. The number of goals he scored and made over the last four seasons would have been a decent return for a striker never mind a midfielder. He isn't as good as Gerrard, is a bit of horrible cockney ponce, but is a better player than Joey Barton, by a distance.
Masherano IMHO is one of our three World-class players. The other two are obvious (and sorry Sabes and Lando but Xabi isn't one of them) but although being the most debateable of the three, Masherano makes the cut for me. Why? Because I think he's the best holding/defensive midfield player in the Premiership, and although I don't watch football from around the World my suspicion is he's one of the best around. If i was picking a squad of 22 players for the World team, Masherano would be in it. This is my definition of World class.
The only other player we possess which would come anywhere near is Reina IMHO. He did however go backwards last season in my view, and as such would just miss out.
Rotation isn't the main reason we haven't won the league recently, the fact that we haven't got enough good players is more important than that. It is though the single most significant reason that we haven't mounted a challenge over the last four seasons, as we have had teams which are plenty good enough to actually try and win it.
It is quuite possible that Joey Barton was abetter player than Gerrard was when they were kids. If the people who dealt with them at that age swear blind that he was, then I have no doubts that it is so. Equally, there is no doubt that Gerrard has surpassed Barton since then. The reasons could be anything, but I would think that Gerrards freakish physicality is a major factor, as well as him not showing quite the same appetite for behaving like Barton does when he's not playing football. I think that Gerrard may also have developed and improved his football abilities more than Barton.
Anyway, that's how I see it. Feeling a bit fluey tonight so I'll retire from the fold and come back to see how it's all gone tomorrow. Good thread though this and if people can resist the temptation to resort to insults it gives the forum a bit of point, which is not something you can always say in the Summer.
"se e in una bottigla ed e bianco, e latte".
all in football apart from kick a few people and score a handful of goals, he was an average footballer for City and Lampard is miles and miles better. You are talking about world class players and you must class Barton as world class as Frank IS world class - 20 goals a season for the last 4 years, countless assists, European Player of the Year, numerous league and cup winners and you are being soft enough to claim Bartons better because he once had a kickabout with you at Whistons?
