After a month of the season, yesterday was my first trip to HQ and aside from the obvious excitement of taking up my seat again I was looking forward to seeing Barton play after hearing nothing but rave reviews all season. Now I have to be honest and say I am not one of the thousands of fans who have welcomed him back with open arms cheering him to the rafters. The way he behaved in his first season with his sendings off against Norwich and City, his comments about Neil Warnock following his sacking and his general poor peformances meant that rather than being a player a I simply do not rate he is a player that leaves a bad taste in the mouth. Even his comments on twitter over the summer rankled me as it was clear the last place he wanted to be lining up this season was where he has now ended up. Here. To be honest as Im concerned the best thing he's done in an Rs shirt was get substitued against Liverpool two seasons ago which led to that famous 3-2 win. However I cast all that aside, as best I could, for what was for me the start of the season. However by fulltime I was quite frankly baffled by the endless, almost cringe worthy praise he received from everybody around me. Personally I thought Barton was poor and that his sublime free kick at the end was somewhat of a saving grace. What irritated me was the blinkers that many fans had on what he did with the ball. In the first half he gifted them their best chance, on more than one occasion he sloppily gave the ball away and had he been booked for his cynical hauling down of Burke (?) in the first half he would've been having an early shower after two yellows. "Aha!" I hear the Barton defenders say "what about his bicycle kick? Can't say that wasn't good can you?" Yes it was an excellent piece of skill. But one that only came about because of a poor first touch not to mention Matt Phillips was completely free and waiting to be played in. It was a guilt edged chance that to be perfectly honest he pissed up the wall! Maybe I'm guilty of what I'm accusing everyone else of in blinkered vision. Maybe he's earnt this leeway with the fans after an excellent start to the season. But to see him revered so highly after the disrespect he's shown the club over the years compared to the treatment of Zamora whose injury saw him unable to even sit down at halftime or drive home following matches because of the pain he was in is disgusting. Yes Zamora's performances have been crap but he's played for almost a year for this club whilst requiring an operation. Committment to the club is a trait that us fans have been crying out for and only one of Zamora and Barton has it. The moments that summed it up for me were when an aimless punt to nobody was met with an angry cry of "FOR ****S SAKE ZAMORA YOU SHOULD BE THERE! YOU'RE ****ING PONY ZAMORA!" by the man beside me. Barton on the other hand played a terrible ball out from the back straight to the Birmingham player who instead of launching what could've been a threatening attack politely passed it straight back to him. "WELL WORKED JOEY! *turns to his mate* ****ing brilliant ain't he." I couldn't bring myself to imagine his reaction if Zamora had replicated the exact same passage of play. And that's the difference. If Zamora loses the ball and wins it back he's lambasted for losing it in the first place. If Barton does it he's praised for his never say die attitude and work rate. I know who in my opinion deserves the rose tinted treatment. All in all is Barton a terrible player? Far from it. Deserving of his position as fans favourite? Never in a million years.
Fair post Scottie too Hottie. I didnae see the game yesterday so I can't comment on that but I do think he's done well so far this season. He's not a top player by any stretch and in the PL he comes up short but at this level I think he's important for us. As for slating Zamora even though he couldn't sit down: Can't see the problem with that. If he's playing sh*t, whether injured or not, fans have the right to slate him. He's paid well enough to be able to take it. And if Barton was as bad as you say he was yesterday, then they should have given him a bit of stick an' all.
I believe Zamora also favours the blinkers..... please log in to view this image Perhaps this approach would assist him jumping higher for the ball? please log in to view this image
I thought that, despite one or two bad passes, Barton was MOM yesterday and has been our best player so far this season. I haven't checked his stats, but when a player has as many touches as Barton, there will inevitably some that go astray. He seems to me to be back to the player that was the fans' POTY at Newcastle. An important part of his game are his dead-ball kicks which are so superior to what we had to put up with last year. I'm in the forgive and forget corner.
After my first "live at the game" of the season...............I find myself pretty much agreeing with all of that.
I think I wrote virtually the same comment after the first game and nothing has changed. Yes he battles and gets involved but this needs to be weighed against the big number of misplaced passes we see in every game. And there was the inevitable booking which meant he was far less effective in the second half. QPR fans are so desperate to give him a chance that they're overlooking his flaws I'm disappointed to say.
He gives it away sometimes because he's the only one willing to try a difficult forward pass. Yesterday wasn't his best game this season but overall he has been very good.
I only had commentary of the game available yesterday, but I wonder what everyone would be saying today if that free kick of his had gone in, or if his Leeds "goal", wrongly ruled offside, had stood. Can't say I like the hair band look though:- please log in to view this image Likely if Zamora suddenly started scoring, everyones' tone would change too.
Let's have some of last season's skilful shirkers back then. At least he puts a shift in and has a presence, he's not perfect but he'll do at this level...
Can't say fairer than that it's a good point but for me it doesn't detract from him being treated as if he's been putting in top level performances for the Rs for years! Or someone who genuinely cares for the club. Is a better passer of the ball and wants to be here. Arise Ale Faurlin. First time I've missed consecutive home games since Jan 2009. You can't get me on that one I may be called a scot but I live in Wandsworth!
True , trust is another issue , I'm sure he would be gone in flash if the price was right . Been class when I've seen him though , class in this league I mean , prob average in prem .
Good heavens. Barton is turning into the new Taarabt. All Joey needs to do is to perform a couple of step-overs before hitting a pass to nowhere and the transformation will be complete.
See my reply to Col. Also I feel you're missing the point. I'm not doubting that he can be an excellent player at this level. He's proved it before and had a successful spell with Marseille last year. The guy can play. What I'm saying is surely a player who has shown such disrespect for the club by tweeting openly about how he didn't want to play for us over the summer, slated a manager who gave him a chance when nobody wanted him and almost costing us our position in the Prem with two stupid red cards, should deserve the respect and non-relenting praise he's receiving. He hasn't even had to earn it he was greeted like a returning hero before kick-off against Sheff Wed. For christs sake somebody behind started chanting "He'll drop you just like Aguero." I remember all four sides of the ground chanting "****er!" at him as he walked off after that and that was his last contribution in an Rs shirt before his heroic return. How times change.
Have to admit that although I thoroughly enjoyed yesterday, I was not overly impressed with what I saw on the pitch. Gave everybody at the dinner table last night my reasons. Haven't responded to cols match report on another thread yet but I agreed with almost every word and I also find myself agreeing with much of this OP. Personally, I thought that Barton was OK yesterday but I definitely wouldn't have rated his performance excellent or anywhere near that. I'll agree that his attitude was good and he ran his socks off but he simply gives the ball away far too much. I think I said to roller last night that his brain can see the pass but his feet can't deliver. After the Leeds match I posted pretty much the same thing. When we have everybody fit I genuinely think he may struggle to get in the team. Henry can also run the hard yards with the added bonus of not consistently giving the ball away. I think we looked very solid at the back but we are seriously void of creativity. In the last few matches I don't think that we have created anything more than 2-3 good chances in the whole game. That's not good enough. For me Austin wasn't scoring because he wasn't getting enough good service. I hope that this improves with Carroll getting more game time, Philips improving his fitness and Kranjcar recovering from injury. Don't get me wrong, I'll take 1-0 all season but we will struggle against the better sides if we don't improve. Barton is a very average player who flatters to deceive. Not my Cup of tea.
That I didn't agree with , he was treated like this at the Sheffield game , I'm just thinking new season new start if you like , I think he's been key to our performances , bit of grit and fight unlike so many before him ....
