Brighton Mod
Its All Too Beautiful
Peter Ward took a lot of big hits in his day and stood up a lot, one talent he had was to go for goal which he did very well.
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Let's Big Up Barnes
- Thread starter Zen Frenzy
- Start date
Peter Ward took a lot of big hits in his day and stood up a lot, one talent he had was to go for goal which he did very well.
Typical of you lefties to make an unpatriotic comment, you clearly have forgotten that it's a mere 47 years since we last won the World Cup. No wonder this country has gone to the dogs, can't walk down the street these days without seeing a Polish plumber fixing a washing machine etc etc.
Brighton Mod
Its All Too Beautiful
Yes that's fine, the conversation has moved away from Barnes however. I am not anti Barnes by any means, I just struggle with the way he is held up in such high esteem for scoring 2 goals in 16 games. If he is great then Crofts must be out of this world with his five.
I don't recall Wardy playing the lone striker role though.
Brighton Mod
Its All Too Beautiful
Like Messi, Ronaldo et al, jack of all trades and master of none springs to mind. Next you'll be advocating TK going up for corners.
1: He has not played up front in all of those games.
2: He's scored 48 other goals too since coming to the Albion, and is (apparently) about 12th in the All Time list of goalscorers for the club, which isn't as shabby as you make out.
Ronaldo cost £80 million, Barnes cost £60k.
Brighton Mod
Its All Too Beautiful
I recall Wardy going it alone on many occasions, beating defenders, getting into the box and scoring all sorts of goals, a player of his time who was in the England squad as a third division player. I am trying to illustrate that if Barnes stood up more he would achieve more, some times its easier to go to ground than actually go for goal, I think there s something of Poyet in that however. In terms of lone striker, i'm not sure about that, Ulloa and CMS both played in that role and scored goals for the club.
Brighton Mod
Its All Too Beautiful
So there s a threshold to the strategy of tracking back helping in defence and not scoring goals. If Barnes played a similar game all season we would be looking at him scoring 6 goals and that is just not acceptable.
Brighton Mod
Its All Too Beautiful
I do not have the facts to hand, however he has only two goals this season is not great, yes he has his place in the team but why such adulation?
Brighton Mod
Its All Too Beautiful
Do Ulloa and CMS play a similar game?
The Large One
Who's Next?
Why such scorn?
You're comparing him to arguably our best-ever striker, rather than the dozens? hundreds? of others who have played.
Hundreds, possibly thousands of players have played for Brighton down the years, and only 23 have scored more.
The Large One
Who's Next?
Oh dear.
The past four years of the way Brighton play seem to have passed you by.
Brighton Mod
Its All Too Beautiful
Of course, surely that's a yardstick which to measure against or are we just settling for mediocrity?
Do you like any of our players? As good as they are I'm not sure any of them are as good as the best ever to play that role, so all of our players must come up short in your eyes. Except perhaps kuszczak, depending on if you rate grommet above him according to the other thread.
Richy_Seagull
Well-known member
Superb cross to JFC at the start of the second half as well.
The Large One
Who's Next?
A yardstick you're viewing through rose-tinted Foster Grants from back in 1977.
To say Ward stayed on his feet as often as he could is quite funny. He still goes down easily now - though that's probably more to do with the state of his knees.
Ward's record as a centre-forward in his first to seasons in this division is 24 goals in 66 games.
Barnes' records in this division in the first two season as an occasional centre-forward, occasional wide-midfielder is 19 goals in 77 games.
Not as good as Ward's of course, but if Barnes' record is only mediocre, Ward's isn't pulling up too many trees either.
Baldseagull
Well-known member
both!
Brighton Mod
Its All Too Beautiful
No not at all, I didn't miss any of the passing the ball across the back four for a quarter of the game, or the 'lets give the ball to Vicente at all costs strategy, slow build up identified by the opposition so easily, hence the endless bore draws, or the not coming back after being behind ability. Passing the ball and retaining possession is fine, if it is done quickly and with a forward direction. No, it hasn't passed me by and I am not a purist, a contemporary intellectual on football, but I watched that strategy unfold on us in the later end of last season.