Barry: Nothing better than a bouncing Goodison

Lyndon Lloyd , 14 September, 14comments | Jump to most recent

Gareth Barry has hailed a game plan successfully implemented against Chelsea that ensured Everton delivered the performance pumped-up fans were expecting.

After relations between Goodison Park and Stamford Bridge soured in the wake of Jose Mourinho's very public pursuit of John Stones this summer, expectations were high that the Grand Old Lady was going to be rocking for the visit of the defending Champions on Saturday.

The atmosphere in the packed stadium certainly delivered and it helped propel Everton to a memorable 3-1 win on the back of excellent performances throughout the team.

“There is nothing better when the fans are like that,” the 33-year-old told evertonfc.com. “They were expecting a performance from us. We hadn’t won at Goodison before the game and we were playing against the champions.

“So to get our first three points at home against the champions sums the game up perfectly.

“As I have said before, when the team wins it generally means you have played well. When you suffer defeat you get the stick that comes with it! It is all about winning football games.”

Barry, who made his Blues debut in this fixture two years ago, said Roberto Martinez and his players were full value for the victory given their preparation and execution of their duties.

“We deserve all the praise because our tactics were to stop them creating too many chances and then to hit them on the counter attack,” Barry continued. “Some of our football going forward was brilliant."

Reader Comments (14)

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Duncan McDine
1 Posted 14/09/2015 at 17:21:35

I just hope he can perform somewhere close to that for the majority of games. Barry at his best is pure class, and we don't have another player in the squad capable of doing what he does best. At 33, his position will be the next major replacement.

Dave Pritchard
2 Posted 14/09/2015 at 17:25:45

Barry was very good on Saturday and, Spurs apart, he has done well this season.

Danny Broderick
3 Posted 14/09/2015 at 17:38:28

I think Barry has always done well for us, apart from a spell of a couple of months last season, when Roberto was picking him for every single minute of every game. Is it any wonder his form dropped in that time?

If we can manage his game time, he is a good player. He covers as much ground as anyone in our team, admittedly a bit slower than the likes of McCarthy. Give him a breather now and again, and he can still do an important job, breaking things up in midfield, until Besic is ready to come through.

Mike Oates
4 Posted 14/09/2015 at 17:48:38

It's absolutely amazing the stick players get over the years on this site. Go back a few years it was Hibbert and Osman, we now seem to have moved on to Howard, Barry, and Naismith. Each of these are excellent professionals who 95% of the time produce the goods. When they have an off day they get slaughtered time and time again, yet each have won us countless games.

Let's lay off the uncalled for over the top criticism and just accept there are very few professionals, if any, who deliver every game.

Eddie Dunn
5 Posted 14/09/2015 at 17:48:55

He was playing with an injury for part of last season- he is a tough old dog, and may lack a yard of pace, but he is a vital cog in the team. If we played Besic and Mac instead, we would see what an important player he still is.

Ajay Gopal
6 Posted 14/09/2015 at 17:56:08

I have been meaning to ask this question to fellow Blues: Is Barry our very own Pirlo? Is he our orchestrator in the middle of the park? Or I am going over the top in the afterglow of a fine victory?

Mike Gaynes
7 Posted 14/09/2015 at 18:07:04

Barry doesn't have even a glimmer of Pirlo's vision going forward, but other than that the comparison is not inappropriate. Barry was key to our success Saturday in playing the ball out of the back -- every touch was superb, every short pass well-measured. Whoever was under Chelsea's pressure was looking immediately to Barry, and he rarely failed to make just the right play.

Turning the ball over in the midfield is generally catastrophic for this team, and that's what Chelski was trying to force. Barry was the biggest reason it didn't happen.

Ross Edwards
8 Posted 14/09/2015 at 18:08:43

Ajay, Barry is not even comparable to Pirlo and one decent performance doesn't change that view.

Neil Thomas
9 Posted 14/09/2015 at 18:54:27

Give credit; he played well but to even put him in the same sentence as Pirlo is a joke. One is a good Premier League player, the other was simply one of the best midfielders in the world. I drive a white van, but I'm no Eddie Stobart .

Harold Matthews
10 Posted 14/09/2015 at 19:09:10

Terrific professional. Admits he always struggles after a break these days and needs competitive game time to reach peak fitness. Tremendous performance against Chelsea and will hopefully enjoy a successful season.

Martin Mason
11 Posted 14/09/2015 at 19:27:11

Keeping Chelsea out and destroying them on the counter attack we've shown we're good at but 2 other situations we need to work on. One is how we break down 2 or 3 well organised lines of defenders whose only aim is to stop us scoring and hitting us on the break. The other is can we ever make the jump to do what we did against Chelsea to Man City?

The wonderful thing is now that none of the top clubs are going to find an easy game all season and it may be that, if things continue to go as they are now, maybe by the end of this season we can be a match for not only 2nd to 5th but Man City too. What could turn everything round is how we do in the derby, surely we're due a good performance but we must be careful, they have a good side in there somewhere.

Tony Abrahams
13 Posted 15/09/2015 at 10:18:16

Barry was excellent, but Chelsea played two defensive midfielders themselves, so never really squeezed Everton, high up the pitch.

McCarthy really impressed me second half Saturday. You don't always have to do a lot with the ball to have a good game, and the way he was always in space and available must have sickened the Chelsea players when they were chasing the game.

Anyway, I'm sure if the team can keep playing with the same intensity, then Goodison will keep bouncing. This would definitely keep a smile on our faces, we deserve it.

Peter Cummings
14 Posted 15/09/2015 at 14:30:46

Mike #4 Criticism, like praise, is part and parcel of football where both comments are due, not only for players but anyone related to the game ie, managers, boards, coaches, etc, not forgetting the cancer infesting modern football, the players' agents.

Supporters are entitled to air their views as the game's lifeblood, their hard-earned cash helps even average players to live lifestyles they themselves can only dream of, so when their team has a day like Saturday, their praise is unbounded; yet, only a week before, many of them booed the team off the field... that is the magic of 'The Beautiful Game'.

I have constantly praised our wonderful supporters on the site, especially those who travel hundreds, even thousands of miles, to roar the team on and hate it if they're disappointed, COYB.

Dave Pritchard
15 Posted 15/09/2015 at 16:46:02

Lies, damn lies and statistics. However it is interesting to note that on a BBC analysis Barry's ancient legs put him third in the list of distance covered by PL players from this weekend's matches.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/34249318

(Barkley was 4th as well.)

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