Kalimantan Gull
Well-known member
Barnes is the biggest enigma I have ever seen play for Brighton.
I have never felt he is striker. He is a just a hard working utility player who when on form can score goals.
He has limited ball talent, but yet can score great goals, as Bournemouth away shows for example.
He has improved this season in the role of holding the ball up, but never really looks a threat in the way Ulloa does.
He doesn't ever look like a Premiership player.
I suspect in the right type of team he looks good, in the wrong type he looks rubbish.
Overall if he left for a good sum of money I wouldn't be disappointed, and I would be fascinated to see where he goes and how he does. Burnley strike me as a good fit for him, Leeds I think would be a nightmare as I don't think his style would endear himself to the home support.
I agree with most of this. I really like the kid, he worked very hard, scored some important goals and somedays was fantastic. Hard to leave him out, but at the same time I felt it was tough to fit him into either Gus' or Oscar's style and perhaps we'd be better off going down a different route.
He reminds me a lot of Dirk Kuyt at Liverpool, or Jon Walters at Stoke, not quite a striker, not quite a winger, can't really play in the hole behind the striker - good footballers that manager's like but without an obvious place on the pitch.