Barkley admits confidence was an issue last season

Roberto should have him practice mindfulness techniques. The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle is an international best seller that I would recommend he reads.

First thing he did from the kick-off last night....tried to take on Arsenal single handed. He’s always looking to repeat "that" Newcastle goal but invariably gives the ball away.

I don't think either Moyes or Martinez have quite known what to do with him and England's manager seems just as bemused. Answers on a postcard, as they used to say!

Just too much pressure and expectation put on the shoulders of a young player. He’s only 21, remember. Plus Martinez was playing him in one position one week and then, the next week, he was in another.

I blame him solely for his confidence issues. If he’d have kept his mouth shut instead of the endless hyperbole and positivity rubbish, the press wouldn’t have hyped him up and raised the expectations through the roof and the fans wouldn’t either.

The kid is built like a tank and should be able to bully players around him like Zidane used to. He actually reminds me a bit of Zidane at times the way he plays.

He needs confidence, and should be played further forward where he can express himself and not have to worry so much about the dirty work that he's not cut out for.

He can't tackle or head the ball so just let him play.

Wasn't it them who hyped him up pre World Cup and put the pressure on him?

I can’t get my head round the fact even with Barkley’s natural physique and all the sports science at the club he can’t perform at a high level for 90 mins?

That to me shows a problem upstairs, either in his attitude to work or his levels of focus. I worry what he’s getting up to at the weekend or in his spare time... more so after Baines commenting on how professional and dedicated Stones was, almost having a dig at Barkley to take note!

Don’t be the next Billy Kenny, Ross!

We got a diamond called Ross Barkley.....

Bobby Robson always said he’d talked to Gazza before every game and tell him what he wanted to do. Gazza would reply, "Aye boss, aye. Okay mon, aye." and then go out and do whatever he felt like. Ross needs a bit of the devil in him, a bit of cheek and arrogance then he’ll be unstoppable.

Our Ross needs that "Innocent Arrogance" that Gazza had, and that definately would require for him to do 'zackly as Liam @9 wisely counsels.

I think a good manager would make use of his best talents in their best positions and have lesser players to make up for their deficiencies. I do not subscribe to the ’every player in the team is equal’ theory so, if Barkley needs someone to do is running and tackling back, then set the team up that way.

In my own humble opinion, the Gazza example is a bad one. Think about the talent he had and then think about what he became and achieved compared to what he could have done.

You say let him go out and do what he wants; there’s a balance. No one wants to stifle the raw talent in Ross but my only very slight criticism at the moment is that he is almost playing like a 10-year-old who wants to win the game from kick off on his own by trying to beat everyone when sometimes the easy ball is on.

Just a view... I’m actually a huge Ross believer by the way.

He should start in the middle next to Cleverley, Osman or Gibson and the opposition would struggle to get a look in. This talk of playing him in the ’No 10’ role (inside left?) is just modern gobble-de-gook. If we need to take a negative approach against the top teams (3 or less) then pair him with McCarthy or Besic - preferably the latter. We should be building the team around him with the assistance of the old heads of Osman and Pienaar.

It is Martinez’s refusal to even try this which makes me believe him to be a defence-oriented manager with little positive to contribute.

Why not put him there and see? Can't do any worse.

He is 22 in December and you feel like this is a massive season for the lad in terms of which way he is heading.

We got the same impression of Jack Rodwell’s career and we have been given our answer as he has done nothing and if anything he has gone even further backwards since leaving Everton.

I do think Ross needs to get his head right but I go back to the same thing I always do, for me its all about the hunger: is he going to be hungry enough? Does he have the fire in his belly to want to succeed?

Wayne Rooney had it, Jack Rodwell did not (Leon Osman's words from his autobiography).

What category will Ross Barkley end up falling into?

In the meantime, I do not see any #10s out there that would be an improvement over Ross at a decent price. This type of player does not "grow on trees". I think the answer is to be patient with Ross, have faith in him, play him regularly in this position, build up his confidence and let him develop into the player that he can be, one who can boss a game in the opponent's half.

Ross has it in him to be a great player but seems to think too much; as someone else said, just do the simple things and the rest will all come together.

The ability to do what he did yesterday, shoot on target, he can do that naturally, doesn’t do it often enough. If he gets it all together he will be one terrific player; if he doesn’t, he is wasting an awful lot of talent. That’s why so many of us get on to him; we can all see the abundance of talent he possesses.

It looks to me like he’s a bit immature and needs a role model or something to happen to make the penny drop; by the age of 22, that shouldn’t be the case.

Wayne Rooney, Steven Gerrard, and Frank Lampard were established internationals at his age. Marouane Fellaini played in the Champions League and joined us by the age of 21. So, if Barkley has the talent, what is holding him up?

He needs coaching by someone who knows what they are doing. His spatial awareness and decision making are atrocious at the moment.

The goal was great but he was on a 2 v 1 situation but he showed his finishing is top drawer when he isn't under pressure.

He would start every match in an easier environment, get the ball an awful lot in a team used to dominating their rivals and hopefully score a bucket full of goals and return to us revitalised, full of confidence and ready to do it in blue.

Crazy I know but just fear it will only take a few sub-standards displays to get an edgy Goodison Park on his back and before long he will be at last season's woeful standards.

The lad is a confidence player if ever there was one.

I agree with Steve Cotton above -- I hope I’m wrong, but I don’t believe he’s going to live up to expectations; his first task is to earn a place in our team, which he certainly didn’t do last season.

At one stage, it was clear to everyone he needed to be pulled out of the firing line and rested for a few weeks; instead, the manager insisted on playing him each week and his confidence ebbed away.

The situation wasn’t helped by our own supporters at Goodison giving him a torrid time with some vile personal abuse every time he misplaced a pass. The two morons sitting behind me in the Park End couldn’t wait to give him hell as soon as the first mistake occurred.

That particular incident has made me question Martinez’s judgement on the development of young players.

I suspect he has been coached to death, and does not quite know what to do for the best. The manager should talk with him, agree what the his true strengths are, then play to them. Just let him play, and let the opposition worry rather than Ross doing the worrying.

I read about Garbutt today and he was saying let's indeed score more goals (well, tell that to Kevin Mirallas when he ran in and stopped the through-ball from getting to Mirallas when he was heading in to score).

What about Kone? I could've scored that with my left foot. I have an evil parent and a police monitor working together. I turned it off after 70 minutes and my dog took over and we where Roy and the Rovers, this was until I got up and took some tea?

Sorry about the last minutes...

My own thoughts are that he was nowhere near as bad as being suggested on here, but nowhere near as good as he he could/ should be. Time will tell us how much learnt during a challenging season that will benefit him in the long run.

If we’re going for crazy thoughts though, mine would be that he should leave Everton. He’ll earn more, assuming that is important to him, win more, play with better players and, hey ho, be appreciated more.

The added benefit is the money that the club will gain dough from wealthy suitors who don’t realise what much of the Everton public, and some on ToffeeWeb have cottoned on to. That he is rubbish. No?

Learn from the foreign lads and he will become a great great player.

I am not advocating over coaching Ross, but he needs some work on his positional awareness and his decision-making. Players like Pirlo, Xavi, Iniesta and Riquelme have these qualities in abundance, that is why they appear to be "ball magnets" always at the hub of everything good.

I recall Arsene Wenger saying that most players at the top level are very similar in terms of technical and physical abilities. He said that what separated the great players from the rest was the great players always do the right thing at the right time. That does not describe Ross at this point in time.

Hopefully he will get there though. Ant, if what you say is true then I am sad to hear it. He has to have a better attitude than that to fulfill his potential.

What a strike it was.

With his "weaker foot".

He's not just your average football is our Ross. I sincerely hope he gets the magic back this season, it's definitely in there somewhere.

I agree with the people saying he has been over coached and he could do worse than look at England’s record wicket taker, James Anderson. He was a rising star who lost direction but came back better.

The man himself said, too many people were giving him too much advice. So he stopped, thought about it, and went back to what made him good.

Imagine if the Man Utd fans booed C7 when he dribbled without passing all the time when he first came to the EPL. It is okay to point out a young player's flaw but give him support at the same time if he makes mistakes.

Let him play and give him support!

At the moment, as others have noted, he lacks the spatial awareness and decision-making to be a successful No 10. Whether he can develop, I don't know, but I'm a little sceptical.

If we buy a new No 10, then it won't be his main role. I suspect we'll see him in both centre-mid and No 10 roles this season. Either way, he has to improve and develop, or a spiral of decline awaits.

There is so much 'advice' available on here but it seems there is no common thread to this. Some say he's a natural 'No 10' (support striker?), others a central midfielder although whether this should be defensive with Besic/ McCarthy or attacking with 'whoever' is not clear.

There's a lobby for him to become the fulcrum of the team and a view that Roberto plays him too frequently. He needs specialist coaching (a head doctor?) or he's over-coached. He's a confused Gazza or just another Rodwell.

On all this advice, I somehow think the last place he should resort to is ToffeeWeb, don't you?

If you can, watch a re-run of the Arsenal game and watch their numbers and movement in and around our box compared to us, that's the difference. Barkley would shine at Arsenal.

Howard (or a new keeper, Valdes if Utd are selling)

Coleman
Stones
Jagielka
Baines

Mirallas
Cleverley
McCarthy
Deulofeu

Barkley
Lukaku

McCarthy would be the DM; two out-an-out wingers with full backs overlapping where appropriate.

Cleverley told to pass forward and to get in the box as appropriate.

Barkley and Lukaku alternatively dropping deep to pick up/hold up and play. Barkley told to get in the box as much as possible with Lukaku.

I'd also like to see a Number 10 bought to alternate with Barkley or Lukaku depending on the opposition, and a playmaking left winger to replace Pienaar...

I'm now going blue(er) holding my breath...

Barkley probably would shine at Arsenal. My thoughts on him are his passing is atrocious and his shooting is incredible off both sides, play him up front where he can cause problems.

We all hope that this season will be different for him and some of the other players who laboured through last season.

Mirallas was another but with Delboy and Cleverley around the pressure for starting places will stronger.

Creative, quick midfield play is crucial to a successful team and Everton definitely lacked that last season.

If, however RM keeps with the slow build up strategy then it will be another season of boredom.

When he just did what he's done probably since a kid. Take players on, leave them standing and rocket a shot intro the net, he was a natural. But he's being asked to do an awful lot more now and I think it's been a massive hill to climb, to become the all round fantastic player we all want/expect him to be

The weight of expectation on him last season, was too much for him, I think. He froze. His confidence in his own ability went for a burton and we saw a lad who couldn't really function in anything like the way he wanted to.

He is a professional footballer, getting paid a fine old salary and if he's got a five year contract, why should he worry.

The fact is though, He's and Evertonian, playing for the club he's supported since a kid.

This is where I think we have a part to play; a big part to play.

Some say, he's 22 , he should be mature, he should be able to just churn out match winning performances week after week.
Well, he wont!

And if the people who booed him last season, do the same this season, then my guess he'll freeze again for fear of doing wrong.

Yep, those who boo him, have paid their money and are entitled to do what the fuck they want. They're the customer.

Some miserable get behind me never encourages the team, booed Ross, and anyone else who got in his sights. I couldn't help it but I pulled the miserable sod and asked him diod he ever support the team. "I've paid my money" sayeth the happy chappie, as though that explained all. I'm sure that did Ross the world of good

Well, he did pay his money. What kind of support he thought (if indeed he does think) he'd given the team; I'm at a loss to understand.

The lad has to learn. So, I think has Gerry. If they get booed because of whatever, frustration, should do better, whatever the reason. I think that has such a negative, negative reaction from those lads, we are actively knocking the confidence right out of them.

But we've paid our money, haven't we?

The fact of the matter is the supply line to Lukaku wasn’t good enough last year, blame Martinez’s tactics or blame the attacking players lacking the quality to provide the ammo.

My opinion is Barkley should not be starting every week and should and should not be shouldering the burden of being Everton’s main creator, we still badly need an experienced quality attacking midfielder like a Yohan Cabaye to make the difference up top to give Barkley time and give him a role model to learn off!

With Rom and Gerri more developed and hopefully stretching defences, he will have more chance to show off his power and skills in more space breaking from defence or from transition in the opposing half. I did notice that at Swindon (less in the heat of Singapore) we went with a high pressing approach which would help if executed well to get more opposition half transitions and space.

My actual belief (bow to other opinions too) is that his best position is right side of defensive midfield. He can control the ball with short passes and then get forward on occasion. He did this in one game last year (was it QPR) and it fitted him better.

We shall see in the Scottish friendlies how the team shapes more.

I think he took the unwarranted criticism to heart, having gone to the competition thinking he might be able to do something really spectacular, and then finding himself amongst a bunch of talentless, over-praised second- or third-raters whose main talents consist of: a) diving; b) waving imaginary cards in the air when one of their team mates has dived; c) rolling about on the ground energetically if someone comes within a few feet, and off the pitch; d) beating up women; and e) killing people by driving too fast while full of cocaine.

Martinez is right to support Ross, but needs to do so in the right way. He needs to convince him that his natural game and talent will never be enough to be the world-class player he can be, and he needs to work on his awareness of his own side and the other side, and to develop an understanding of the tactical play of opponents (that's why he's so easy to channel into dead ends). The likes of Messi actually exploit the attempts to smother him, and allow him to take whole squads of defenders out of the game with an intelligent pass.

That's the sort of learning Barkley needs.

In all my years watching 'our lads', I don't think any player has ever attracted so many theories as to their lack of progress. Of course, it may be that he has already reached 'his ceiling' and we are all expecting to much from him.

Pleas to see him chosen to play each and every game, regardless of form, are totally unrealistic. Like every club, Everton is about more than one player – however talented he may be – and no manager can be expected to sacrifice all else on the altar of a player's potential.

Another problem, of course, is that his manager insists on TWO defensive mids (one of whom must be Barry) and only ever ONE winger. Perhaps he's hooked on a theory that brought him success elsewhere. But, however he lines them up, he seems unable to decide exactly the role he wants Ross to play – although the lad, himself, seems to favour that blessed 'No 10' slot for which he has to compete with Naismith, it appears.

And so the argument goes on!

"Roy Hodgson brought Ross Barkley back down to earth with a bump after the Everton midfielder's first England start against Ecuador.

Everton star Barkley was widely praised for his fearless approach to the game, as he set up Rickie Lambert's goal and frightened the Ecuador defenders.

But England manager Hodgson claimed Barkley will only fulfil his potential once his decision making improves and evaded questions on whether the 20-year-old could start against Italy."

And the sequence of events was:

• Barkley has a very good season and is seen as a potential world-class talent.
• He is selected for England and goes to the World Cup.
• He has an excellent half against Ecuador, set up a goal and terrifies the opposition.
• Boot-faced misery of an ex-RS manager publicly insults him and says he has major holes in his game.
• Barkley loses confidence (foolishly believing said raw-meat faced loser manager whose team exited the World Cup ignominiously after barely trying and whose "talisman" was probably the worst player in the competition)
• Barkley has rotten season and says he lacked confidence.

That said, I entirely agree About how the team is set up and the excessive use of fundamentally uncreative players.

I don't for one minute buy into the suggestion that Ross is such a sensitive soul as to be still fretting over a rollicking he got from the England manager, given that he had played much of his football under Moyes who was never afraid to tell players as he saw it.

I must admit that I always felt Hodgson's admonishment of our lad was made as a direct riposte to the nonsense Martinez had uttered about the boy's England future a few weeks before.

My comments on Ross were not meant to offend. I have friends who know Ross and he's not doing an awful lot wrong. He is allowed to have a drink and he's allowed to have friends but he has lofty ambitious to become a international football star. This clearly takes dedication as well as ability and imo Ross should up his commitment to his course.

He has to realise that his mates have a different life to him and he's well paid to lead this life. Unless I were to have a dossier of were and when, then it would be near impossible to prove my comments as a fact, but this is fact as I am knowing it.

Again, I'm not making statements that Ross is doing anything a lad of his age shouldn't be doing but can you imagine Mario Gozte, Neymar, Muller and other foreign players at top clubs leading this life.

I for one cannot and I'd just like to see Ross knuckle down for a few months an try hard to cement his place in both the Everton and England team instead of wasting his immense potential.

Again I'm a true blue and a massive Ross Barkley fan, I'm only putting my point across and I'm certainly not trying to disrespect Ross or upset fellow Evertonians.

It is more that Barkley is a young lad who played well (even the BBC had him Manof the Match) and got publicly slated by his manager. In that match, Smalling, Jones and Milner were all terrible, and Sterling got sent off for violent play.

But Barkley got the public abuse from the manager. And certainly he has not played as well ever since.

I don't put much to this theory though. I think he had a purple patch when he first came into the England team but has now reverted to the form he showed when on loan at Sheffield Weds. He has serious weaknesses in his game: positionally, weak tackler and too head-down at times. Let's hope he can improve.