Ashley Barnes should have been Man of the Match last night

[Hungry Joe]

Start Dobbie on Saturday.

I tend to agree but it's a really difficult one. Who would you drop to the bench?

 

[Mellotron]

I tend to agree but it's a really difficult one. Who would you drop to the bench?

Barnes. Nothing against him, just we don't need the protection he gives Bridge. Either that or play Barnes higher up the pitch.

 

[Steve.S]

Ashley 14 appearances this season and has scored 4 goals Bridge has made the same appearances and scored 2. I agree that Barnes will be a good player, however all good players need a spell on the bench.

 

[Silverhatch]

I'd have given it to Buckley - that man has pace to burn for the whole 90 mins... if we had a strong centre forward to convert the plethora of crosses he puts into the box he'd be worth $1.7Trillion, like Zaha.

We did, and he's playing with Zaha

 

[detsknil]

"Ashley Barnes should have been Man of the Match last night"



Which match was that? He was overshadowed by an excellent second-half performance by Orlandi, Bruno & Bridge as always was a way better candidate for MotM.
I admit AB had his moments but overall he was pretty useless and lost most tackles he encountered (or just fell over).

 

[S'hampton Seagull]

Dobbie in for Barnes on Saturday for me. Dobbie has done well in his last 2 sub apps and lets face it, he hit the back of the net when it looked like no one else would.

 

[Eddie Bee]

It's interesting looking at the HIGHLIGHTS on seagull player, Ashley Barnes seemed to be involved in quite a lot of our "best" moments...just saying like

 

[Hungry Joe]

Barnes. Nothing against him, just we don't need the protection he gives Bridge. Either that or play Barnes higher up the pitch.

Tactically I agree. The only other way we could accomodate Dobbie, CMS and Barnes would be to go diamond when we have the ball with Dobbie and Barnes tucked in behind CMS and say Orlandi and Buckley wide. If Bridcutt plays that means of course dropping both Crofts and Hammond, which wouldn't be too harsh based on recent performances.

 

[Thunder Bolt]

It's interesting looking at the HIGHLIGHTS on seagull player, Ashley Barnes seemed to be involved in quite a lot of our "best" moments...just saying like

It's true but not something the Barnes' knockers will acknowledge. He worked his socks off last night.

 

[Acker79]

Why does barnes have to be dropped for dobbie to come in? They were both accommodated by Barnes going into Croft's position when Dobbie came on.

 

[LamieRobertson]

It's interesting looking at the HIGHLIGHTS on seagull player, Ashley Barnes seemed to be involved in quite a lot of our "best" moments...just saying like

People's perceptions of the facts can sometimes get in the way of the actual ones....guilty of it myself at times

 

[severnside gull]

Is this a joke? He did well to control the ball in the lead-up to the goal, but other than that I thought he was poor. In fact, I remember saying at half time that I couldn't remember him doing a single thing in the first 45 minutes. I was fine with him last season and actually grew to like him, but he's been toilet in far too many games this season.

you need to cut out the pre match drinks.

first half Barnes played left wing, centre forward, midfield and defence. Had one ball bounce off him and one misplaced pass but otherwise he was as effective as anyone. He was more prominent in the second half as he had less need to defend but it certainly rated as his most assured performance for a while. Not m.o.m. for me because Bridge and Buckley were on song but Barnes is a very very effective utility player who would get less flak if we had a striker putting the ball in the net consistently.

 

[somerset]

. I'd wager the majority of them are people who've never kicked a ball straight in their lives.

Ooooohh, you are soo perceptive,....... hang about!, no you aren't!

 

[Greg Bobkin]

Barnes Man of the match? The best player over 90 minutes? I'm not so sure.

You can tell he had a good game though – not because there are lots of positive comments about his performance, but there is far less abuse posted in his direction. I thought he had a great second half, and really impressed me by with his defensive duties, as well his ability to keep a move going.

He is always going to be one of these players who divides opinions, regardless of what he does, or doesn't do. I rate him pretty highly, but admit there are areas of his game that need addressing – he does go down a little too easily, and does have a habit of losing his rag, or getting riled by the opposition (El-Abd probably has a field day with him in training!). I can remember two instances (one at each end), where I feared a card could come out. At the south end he seems to leave a trailing leg when the ball was going out of play, and then was getting annoyed (maybe rightly) when his marker was manhandling him.

I do, however, remember he seemed to get a lot of plaudits for linking up well with Vicente last season, so he must have been doing something right. And looking at the highlights video of last season showed he had some quality strikes.

Man of the match for me last night was Buckley. He was a machine down that right wing, and was playing with so much confidence, he could have done a pretty decent job in place of CMS.

 

[Hungry Joe]

Ooooohh, you are soo perceptive,....... hang about!, no you aren't!

It's either that or they're complete idiots. Maybe I was being too charitable.

 

[bhawoddy]

Is this a joke? He did well to control the ball in the lead-up to the goal, but other than that I thought he was poor. In fact, I remember saying at half time that I couldn't remember him doing a single thing in the first 45 minutes. I was fine with him last season and actually grew to like him, but he's been toilet in far too many games this season.

TBH, this thread is solely for the AB apreciation society.

 

[Originunknown]

Can't be serious?

Orlandi and Bridge had far better games. Was hoping Dobbie would get the start over Barnes to be honest.

 

[Pavilionaire]

For me everyone was pretty much 7 out of 10 last night except Buckley who was worth an 8. We were camped down their left for what seemed like the whole of the first half.

 

[severnside gull]

Is this a joke? He did well to control the ball in the lead-up to the goal, but other than that I thought he was poor. In fact, I remember saying at half time that I couldn't remember him doing a single thing in the first 45 minutes. I was fine with him last season and actually grew to like him, but he's been toilet in far too many games this season.

you need to cut out the pre match drinks.

first half Barnes played left wing, centre forward, midfield and defence. Had one ball bounce off him and one misplaced pass but otherwise he was as effective as anyone. He was more prominent in the second half as he had less need to defend but it certainly rated as his most assured performance for a while. Not m.o.m. for me because Bridge and Buckley were on song but Barnes is a very very effective utility player who would get less flak if we had a striker putting the ball in the net consistently.

 

[bhawoddy]

For me everyone was pretty much 7 out of 10 last night except Buckley who was worth an 8. We were camped down their left for what seemed like the whole of the first half.

IMO thats bollocks - CMS and Greer would struggle to get more than a 5 a piece. CMS left foot effort 2nd half woulda looked out of place on a sunday morning quite frankly.