Barry Bannan

[Big_John_10]

I think he's an awful player and I have no doubt part of the reason we are so pathetic attacking and so piss poor in defence is because bannan is actually considered one of our better midfield players.

[Cambridge-AVFC]

I think Bannan is a great player who is premiership quality. We seem to retain the ball a lot more with him on the pitch. Also most of his work goes unnoticed. He's a deep lying play-maker and starts off attacks. For example, against Liverpool, Bannan turned fantastically(which left Lucas on the floor) before playing a one two with Weimann and then passing to Benteke which led to THAT back heel goal. He knits play up very well, and he seem to now be hitting these long passes now. I think he hit 4 out of 5 against Wigan. His technical ability is second to none as is his crossing and set pieces. From this season, to me, Bannan has been one of our best players. I don't think the fans like him, as i said before, theres a stigma attached to Bannan ever since the car crash. Everything Bannan does bad is emphasized for example when he hits a long pass that gets intercepted then he's playing 'too many hollywood balls', every time Bannan doesn't win a tackle he's 'too small to be a footballer'. Even today when Bannan played the ball to feet people were claiming he 'lacked creativity'. I think too many Villa fans look for reasons to dislike him.

[benireduk]

No goals and two assists for Bannan in the PL this season. Considering he models his game on being a playmaker that's pretty diabolical. I think he's only ever scored two goals for us? (Vienna and QPR and that was a pen)

Even Holman has chipped in with 1 goal and three assists.

He's lightweight, gives the ball away too often, and doesn't offer much going forward. What does he actually do?

Edited January 6, 2013 by benireduk

[lexicon]

No goals and two assists for Bannan in the PL this season. Considering he models his game on being a playmaker that's pretty diabolical. I think he's only ever scored two goals for us? (Vienna and QPR and that was a pen)

Even Holman has chipped in with 1 goal and three assists.

He's lightweight, gives the ball away too often, and doesn't offer much going forward. What does he actually do?

He's a deep-lying playmaker - like Modric was for Spurs (he didn't get many goals or assists directly either).

I think you need to stop being so simplistic.

[benireduk]

He's a deep-lying playmaker - like Modric was for Spurs (he didn't get many goals or assists directly either).

I think you need to stop being so simplistic.

Read my post on the previous page. He gives the ball away more than any other player.

Bannan is nothing like Modric. He's had plenty of chances to prove himself and failed. Like previous people have said, he's Championship standard at best

[Cambridge-AVFC]

Read my post on the previous page. He gives the ball away more than any other player.

Bannan is nothing like Modric. He's had plenty of chances to prove himself and failed. Like previous people have said, he's Championship standard at best

He is a deep-lying play maker, and he doesn't really give the ball away that much. In fact his ball retention is very good. The only Villa player who can pick the ball up under pressure and retain possession. In my opinion, he's done enough this season to justify a place in the starting 11. Most of our attacks stem from him. He's a useful player.

[lexicon]

Read my post on the previous page. He gives the ball away more than any other player.

Bannan is nothing like Modric. He's had plenty of chances to prove himself and failed. Like previous people have said, he's Championship standard at best

I get that you don't rate him and ostensibly don't like supporting our academy players but stop stating opinion as fact, it's pathetic.

[AshVilla]

The sooner he's sold the better

Doubt we will get much for him though

[Con]

I think the whole 18/19 points with Bannan on the pitch is a weak argument. He's the midfielder who has played the most in our entire team.

What classifies as a key pass? Is the higher tackle rate tackles in total or successful tackles? Is the dispossession rate all over the pitch, middle of the pitch etc?

data from whoscored.com, who get their data from sources like Opta.

They don't explain what the term means.

I interpret a key pass as one that leads to a chance. A key pass is like an assist for what should have been a goal if the striker hadn't fluffed the chance.

Tackle rate must be successful tackles otherwise it's not a tackle. Seems to me the definition of a tackle is removing the ball from the feet of the opposition.

Dispossession rate has to be all over the pitch. Why should it be confined to any part of the pitch?

Bannan's stats are the best of our central midfielders. I'm not saying he is anywhere near Juan Mata yet but I would say a reasonable comparison is Joe Allen.

I notice from the highlights Bannan made an excellent low pass through the middle of the pitch to N'Zogbia for the first goal against Ipswich. The pundits made a point of commenting on the nice attack through the middle.

Edited January 6, 2013 by Con

[Con]

For anyone one twitter, follow @AVFC_stats. Their last tweet about Bannan was after the Stoke game. It read.....

“@AVFC_Stats: Barry Bannan has misplaced more passes than any other Villa midfielder this season, with 93 going astray thus far

He's not good enough.

That stat tells you nothing on its own. Very poor tweet that.

You need to know not the total but the frequency - how many passes go astray per time on the pitch. Bannan has the most minutes of all our central midfielders so will have higher totals of all stats.

Bannan makes more key passes. He goes for the hard pass that gets the reward, and achieves that more than any other player.

This kind of player will misplace passes more often because being creative is hard.

For the same reason, a striker or winger gets dispossessed far more often than a central defender as it's their job to try to go around a player - which is hard.

Edited January 6, 2013 by Con

[Skruff]

In the games he's been poor it's been a poor performance from the whole team and not just Bannan. He's played very well in a few games. People tend to forget that though.

Played well vs reading, arsenal, liverpool and united. Was awful vs city and chelsea, and average in the rest of the games.

I agree with the hollywood-pass critique though, he tries too hard at times.

What he does very well is switching the play to another flank where there is room to play, when we're under a lot of pressure on one side.

[villarule123]

Bannan needs to wake up and realise he's not as good as he thinks he is.

He is one of the most frustrating players I've seen at the Villa.

[Con]

I don't think Aston Villa has ever had a player like Bannan.

Before reasonable quality football pitches existed for whole season you couldn't have the Mata, Fabregas, Arteta, Modric, Scholes dominating in this country with their playmaking game.

This is the continental style. Try playing continental style in a mudbath you don't get very far. Hoof ball is the only game.

Jack Wilshere, Joe Allen, Barry Bannan etc (this is a trend, there will be many others)... they are the first generation of continental style British born footballers.

Edited January 6, 2013 by Con

[OutByEaster?]

If there's me and you in a forest and we get attacked by a bear, I don't need to be able to outrun the bear - I just need to be able to outrun you.

Villa's midfield is a bit like that; we can argue as to the level of quality in Bannan's game and I think there's some merit in that, but for me, he's better than Ireland, better than Holman, better than Herd, better than El Ahmadi, better than Delph and as good as Westwood.

I can't see why there are so many people so keen to throw Barry to the bear first.

[NurembergVillan]

Because if I'm running from a bear I don't need Barry Bannan pinging 60 yard passes round the forest whilst I'm doing it.

[NurembergVillan]

I don't think Aston Villa has ever had a player like Bannan.

I don't know how old you are, but if you think Bannan is good you'd have spiffed in your pants watching this bloke -

[Con]

Gordon Cowans definitely would have been a continental style footballer if he were playing today - and a great one. When he was playing the pitches were crap and you could kick each other.

Edited January 6, 2013 by Con

[Alpaywasawesome]

Read my post on the previous page. He gives the ball away more than any other player.

Bannan is nothing like Modric. He's had plenty of chances to prove himself and failed. Like previous people have said, he's Championship standard at best

Watch the equaliser against ipswich, it was Bannan who pulled off a brilliant long pass for Zog to play in Bent. Without him there would be no goal. Games turn on midfield players having the vision to exploit opportunities like that, and Bannan has that ability to see the decisive pass, rather than just pass it sideways. The problem with Bannan's contribution is that he's often provides the assist for the assist, and that doesn't show up on stats as easily as goals or assists, and leads people to think he contributes nothing attacking wise - which is untrue, as stated in an earlier example as well:

"against Liverpool, Bannan turned fantastically(which left Lucas on the floor) before playing a one two with Weimann and then passing to Benteke which led to THAT back heel goal."

Defensively he's meh, but he's useful in attacks, more so than KEM or Delph.

Edited January 6, 2013 by Alpaywasawesome

[CrackpotForeigner]

In the games he's been poor it's been a poor performance from the whole team and not just Bannan. He's played very well in a few games. People tend to forget that though.

Played well vs reading, arsenal, liverpool and united. Was awful vs city and chelsea, and average in the rest of the games.

I agree with the hollywood-pass critique though, he tries too hard at times.

What he does very well is switching the play to another flank where there is room to play, when we're under a lot of pressure on one side.

Agree with this nicely balanced view, and he does deserve credit for the pass to Zog in the Ipswich game. But overall we can and should do better. He can stay in the squad, I guess.

Edited January 6, 2013 by CrackpotForeigner

[Czechlad]

Even though we play better with him in the team, people still criticise him.