We are missing Barton in the middle...

[Ginger Ninja]

Funny how good he becomes when he's not playing

Think back to last season, how many 5/10 or worse performances did he put in?

Exactly this.

[maverick69]

Faurlin is the one we miss, can see Park playing right when Ali is back with Diakite along side him and Hoilett on the left

Yep.

Simple as that really.

[Shania]

With Barton in the dressingroom, I bet 75 % of the signings we´ve made would have rejected us!!

What a naive thread.

[dave58]

Think we do miss Joey, but miss Ali Faurlin more as someone posted earlier Faurlin Barton Diakite in midfield. Would be our best line up with 2 othersprob Park & Hoillett but it would also give the scope to play Taarabt more often probably away from L/Rd

[silvercue]

Funny how good he becomes when he's not playing

Think back to last season, how many 5/10 or worse performances did he put in?

Agree. He was useless to average for most of last season, with the exception of 2 games where he was better, one of them was against Wolves who were awful.

He then needed to be booed off to make a single bit of effort and then had a few decent games, but still let us down horribly at the end of the season when we REALLY needed him.

He won't play for us again and I don't think we miss him at all. Think we need to look somewhere else for why we didn't win the first games.

[rogp]

We desperately need holding midfielders capable of protecting the back 4, breaking up play, and making simple and reliable passes to our creative midfielders. Sean Derry and Ali Faurlin did the job in our promotion season. Barton did it occasionally last season (and even 5/10 is better than the 0/10 that I'd have given our midfield for their defensive work against Swansea). Now we've nobody, and a probably adequate defence becomes over run. If Barton's off, there's a squad place for another midfielder, and tbh I think that's more urgent even than another centre half.

[silvercue]

5/10 is better than the 0/10

Which of our players would you give 0/10 from last two games? Also, we may not have a great player to do that role, but we certainly have players than can do better than 0/10.

[W12_Ranger]

Bartons final games in a Rangers shirt post Liverpool were his best

[W12_Ranger]

With Barton in the dressingroom, I bet 75 % of the signings we´ve made would have rejected us!!

What a naive thread.

Naive is thinking Joe Cole is the answer to our defensive midfield probs...no go and do some washing up or something !!!1

[rogp]

Which of our players would you give 0/10 from last two games? Also, we may not have a great player to do that role, but we certainly have players than can do better than 0/10.

"(and even 5/10 is better than the 0/10 that I'd have given our midfield for their defensive work against Swansea). " was what I said. They can have points for their creative attacking work, but defensively, the midfield went absent against Swansea. No defence can survive if their midfield let opposing attacking players run through unchallenged. Maybe we do have players that can fulfill the defensive midfield role currently, but I doubt it - they're certainly a long way from doing it at present. We need (players equivalent to) a younger Derry and an attitude-free Barton, + Ali Faurlin back & match fit.