Jump to content

Barker or O'Brien


sage

Recommended Posts

  • Replies 98
  • Created
  • Last Reply

I have never doubted Barkers ability to play in the premiership, I know certain people have, but in my opinion for what he does he is one of the top boys in the division, horrible for any striker to play against, especially if you're a target man.

He wins everything in the air, he judges everything, he puts his body on the line and is a good leader of the defence and while he plays, and is fit.. he'll boss most players, he limited Cole and made him look like league two striker!

Also, find it bemusing on how you can say players can and cant play in the premiership, they haven't exactly had the chance to prove it.

O'Brien, is a very good young centre back, with the potential to go far in his career, a lot of games this season he played like a centre back of 300+ games, when infact it was his first proper season in football.. its remarkable, probably not as 'stylish' as addison and tanga at their age, but certainly a lot less erratic and stable in defense.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Never thought I would see Nyatanga and stylish in the same sentence! It is hard to judge if players are good enough for the prem but the rule of thumb I find is that if they are good enough they will be playing there before they are 28 and 29 (barks and shack attack) with very few exceptions. Whilst I rate these two very highly at our level- it is at our level. If they did play in the Prem it would be with a team they got promoted with ( us?) or a team that had lost the plot, had no money and were panicking (relegation fodder). Out of all of our players the one I expect to go on to bigger and better things is Frankie- he is causing a stir already and I very much doubt January will go by without a few bids tabled for him. Not saying they would be from the Prem but I wouldn't be surprised if they were. If they don't materialize now they will one day. If we don't get promoted in the next few seasons expect to be watching Frankie on M.O.D without the ram on his chest.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Barker needs to work on his positioning and distribution..

He's a mountain in the air though, perfect for playing against the longball teams

So is O'Brien's distribution better than Barker's?

Which one is the better CB?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I thought people on this forum believed Barker to be overrated? Where have they all gone?

Its the curse of the internet!

He played all last season with an injury, he looked slow and sluggish at times because of that.

Give him another 2 or 3 games to get fully up to match fitness and we will see the player we had the first season - but with a better partner.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

He's not overrated at all. He's one of the top cb's in this division. If we were saying he's premiership quality then fair enough but I can't remember anyone saying that...might be wrong tho!.

All we can measure him against are other cb's we come up against.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

So is O'Brien's distribution better than Barker's?

Which one is the better CB?

O'Brien has very poor distribution too.. Terrible in fact.

Barkers performances against WHU and Hull were impressive.. Against Leeds Frankie bailed the defence out bigtime as they could have scored at least 3 in that game. In that game the defence at times were all over the shop.

Also threads like this just shows how fickle fans are.. We lose 5 on the bounce and we're going down with a sh*te defence and no creativity, we win 3 on the trot against an out of sorts Leeds, an injury plagued WHU and then a smash and grab at Hull and all of a sudden half our players are potential PL class and some even that level now.

No way in hell is Barker PL class, he will never play there.. He's not good enough.

Whatever happened to one game at a time? Far too many people try and run before they can walk

Link to comment
Share on other sites

O'Brien has very poor distribution too.. Terrible in fact.

Barkers performances against WHU and Hull were impressive.. Against Leeds Frankie bailed the defence out bigtime as they could have scored at least 3 in that game. In that game the defence at times were all over the shop.

Also threads like this just shows how fickle fans are.. We lose 5 on the bounce and we're going down with a sh*te defence and no creativity, we win 3 on the trot against an out of sorts Leeds, an injury plagued WHU and then a smash and grab at Hull and all of a sudden half our players are potential PL class and some even that level now.

No way in hell is Barker PL class, he will never play there.. He's not good enough.

Whatever happened to one game at a time? Far too many people try and run before they can walk

Who is the better CB, Barker or O'Brien? That was the OP and that is the question i put to you.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

O'Brien has very poor distribution too.. Terrible in fact.

Barkers performances against WHU and Hull were impressive.. Against Leeds Frankie bailed the defence out bigtime as they could have scored at least 3 in that game. In that game the defence at times were all over the shop.

Also threads like this just shows how fickle fans are.. We lose 5 on the bounce and we're going down with a sh*te defence and no creativity, we win 3 on the trot against an out of sorts Leeds, an injury plagued WHU and then a smash and grab at Hull and all of a sudden half our players are potential PL class and some even that level now.

No way in hell is Barker PL class, he will never play there.. He's not good enough.

Whatever happened to one game at a time? Far too many people try and run before they can walk

Would of *liked* the entire post although had to disagree with one bit....but I likey like this ^

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Did I say O'Brien was better than Barker? Or did I simply say Barker is overrated and isn't even a top CB at this level?

You have said on more than one occasion that Barker is rubbish and O'Brien is better than him.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

You have said on more than one occasion that Barker is rubbish and O'Brien is better than him.

Really? I don't remember that. I also don't remember ever calling Barker rubbish, I've used the words overrated and average many times.. Rubbish I'd describe Ben Davies, not Barker.

If you weigh up a defenders responsibilty it'd probably go like this.. IMO

Positioning O'Brien > Barker (Barker can't play the offside trap for toffee)

Heading Barker > O'Brien

Marking Barker > O'Brien

Distribution Barker = O'Brien

Tackling Barker > O'Brien

Leadership Barker > O'Brien

Pace Barker = O'Brien

Recovery O'Brien > Barker

Common Sense Barker = O'Brien (both bad, O'Brien stupidly dives in whilst Barker stupidly pushes the striker in the back when shielding the ball)

Barker is better, O'Brien has 9 years to get to his maximum level (midtable average NPC defender)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

×
×
  • Create New...