Hello all, me again (I’ll try not to commit a major social faux pas this time).
So, Harvey Barnes….. firstly I’ll mention that I am a huge fan of his. Depending on which Leicester fans you speak to about Barnes you’ll get a couple of different takes on him, but you’ve got to consider his player profile before debating….
His key attributes are;
Pace, power, strong running, direct running and an eye for goal.
Barnes is your prime example of an inverted winger, his only position really is on the left, but he could play through the middle if needed I feel. Barnes in my opinion has been our best player this season, and that’s in a dreadful team. He is incredible at receiving the ball in stride and not having to alter his sprint speed, which makes him an absolute nightmare to defend against. He would often take the ball whilst running at full speed, knock it beyond the full back and get into a dangerous area, and because he runs at such pace you can’t touch him otherwise he hits the deck.
He can go either on the outside or come inside, and he is a goal threat, as he has a great ability to open his body up (Henry like) and pass it into the back of the net.
On his day, he can be unplayable.
In terms of weaknesses don’t expect much in the air from him, and despite all of his attributes he needs a team that play with pace and momentum to consistently bring the best out of him. Due to Rodgers ball we saw it sporadically, and Barnes was reliant on his own explosive pace to get him up the pitch and into goal scoring areas because we were just far too slow and ponderous in possession, and this did unfortunately diminish his performances with us. Defensively he will come back, however he usually hangs on the shoulder is the deepest player so if you win the ball back he can get going and drive you up the pitch.
My only criticism of Barnes, is that occasionally he will drift inside and leave no option for the full back to pass into, despite there being a massive hole for him to exploit, but I think this is more down to the teams build up play being too slow, than it is Barnes not knowing what he is doing.
So in short if you play with a high press, quick passing phases and like to utilise the counter, he will flourish.
The only sticking point will be the price. It appears our club is run by idiots, so they’re likely to pretend we’re not in the championship and try and drive a hard bargain and not budge from £40m and try to push for more.
It’s worth noting that Barnes has just found out he is a father so the chances are he will want to stay local, so if you are interested and move fairly quickly I can see a deal being struck, as we need to get business done quickly.
He would be a real gem for you, he is still a bit unpolished but under a top class manager he will lift your team to another level. I generally hate my club at the moment apart from Vardy, Barnes and Albrighton….