Bailey

Yeh this is what I was getting at. You put Pienaar into this playing style and the game will pass him by, same with Osman. Koeman would love Cahill though.

In respect of your second paragraph it's not as if Rom isn't also contributing to the team. No his first touch isn't perfect and yes he does give the ball away in places he shouldn't but it's not like he doesn't play others in, he scores goals he has no right to and on the whole, he can link the play really well, creating outlets and space for others. He will always give the ball away when he shouldn't, part of that is the nature of his role as a sole striker because 50% of the time he will be 2 v 1 against him but he has nothing to do with why we are struggling as a club either for Koeman or Martinez and I find it unfathomable that people seem to be going down that route. I would genuinely hate to think where we would be without him this season. Do you think we as a club would have scored more goals with Valencia or Kone leading the line? Would we fuck!

Spot on StevO

Yeh I watched the Hull game and until City scored they looked the better side. This certainly won't be an easy game but if we score early we could rout them.

That's why I said individual not the collective. Individually Mirallas, Gerry, Bolasie are all better that Pienaar but they don't fit into the team half as well as Pienaar did.

You're not the only one! Bloody women!

I don't know why people think him having more instructions would help as he looks like he has trouble tying his laces. The problems with Barkley are all between his ears. He needs help with his defensive positioning but a lot of that is about his desire to get back behind the ball and into position more than anything. Martinez let him get away with not putting in the effort to defend but he did the right thing in not trying to force him into rigid instructions.

Yeh they definitely so but at the same time they have more creative license than Barkley (comparing the Derby to their normal games).

Is anyone on here from a European non EU country? What do you think about the EU and would you want your country to join up if you had the chance?

I don't think anyone has said he played well have they? Re the defensive side, If you watch the game back you can see he spends more time looking at Rom and his own positioning with him than he does looking at the ball or the player around him. He looked to me to be so concerned with following instructions that he forgot to actually play the game. There were times that he seemed to be man marking Henderson but when the ball carrier 5 or 10 yards away moved forward with the ball he then realised he needed to defend that run but was already behind the ball and then we'll out of any reasonable position. Koeman had clearly focused Barkley on his defensive positioning but had neglected how to bring his talents into play from an attacking point of view. It's something Moyes would have done! Don't get me wrong, I'm not absolving Barkley of responsibility because he was crap but he just seemed so unsure about what he was supposed to be doing and the ping pong nature of the game completely bypassed him. You couldn't have played a game more to his weaknesses if you tried.

I dont think it will ever go that far but its an interesting idea.

He is supposed to be creative when we are pumping long balls up to him and Rom hoping to get on the end of flick ons and scraps. We know he isn't a David Silva type player that will bring other players into the game with trickery and flicks etc and I dont get why some people seem to think that is his game. He is a power player, more like a Yaya Toure, breaking box to box, taking people on and banging them in from the edge of the box or getting on the end of a pull back. I was thinking more Gana or McCarthy and then Coleman as our best 3 who are all defensive players.

I blame the manager for bringing him back too soon!

Good job as there wouldn't be many of us left on here!

Definitely enquire about the CCTV ASAP otherwise they might overwrite it as unless they have an incident reported they tend to do it pretty sharpish.

And what a piss take they are. So far removed from the "people". It's an old boys club and if they really want to make savings that should be the first bunch of cronies to go.

If Barry plays we have to sit deep and counter. We can't play an open game and expect him to get from box to box. We haven't got anything to lose so get Davies in there.

Big blow.

So should Rom, so should Lennon so should Valencia. Don't get me wrong Barkley has to do better, like he did in the Arsenal game, but the dross we were served in terms of quality of football over the last dozen games just doesn't suit him at all. Like I say he has to do better but the only player to have stood out under Koeman are defensive players and that says it all. Not every single one of our attackers can be that shit, but they are generally playing like it.

Stones just hasn't progressed as expected, like Barkley. You would have expected both to have learnt more from their mistakes but they aren't. Barkley can get away with it more because if he fucks up he isn't the last man yet with Stones 50% of the time it is a goal.

We need to get better quality ball into them as well. McCarthy allows us to win the ball further up the pitch, the defence can stay aggressive and we do start getting up the pitch and more sticks up front because we have better service. The thing I like most about McCarthy is that he is bringing some attitude to our squad. Everyone else bar Coleman pussy foots around but McCarthy gets stuck in and that in turn encourages the rest to be more aggressive.

Barkley doesn't need to go anywhere. You could have played Ossie, Arteta or Cahill and they would have all struggled because we were that bad in bringing him into the game.

I'm with Pad, I know why your saying that but it's too much of a stretch to put a young lad into a position he hasn't played before at a decent level (as far as I know). With that bench I only think you could bring in Barry at that time in the game but you can't put him in there and expect him to play like McCarthy. He needed to be the smart midfielder and let the other two do his running. Not have Barkley and Lukaku on string 10 metres apart.

Are you saying Holgate should have played in midfield?

Leicester have turned a corner recently so another game I'm not looking forward to.