Derek Johnstone: Joey Barton is a marked man...

[ian1964 10,613]

...and he only has himself to blame.

 

Maybe I’m old-fashioned, but in my day players never ever said anything remotely close to boasting about dictating Old Firm games. Not in public at least.

 

It was understood that you showed people what you were all about on the park, not by boasting about it beforehand, and I still believe that holds true today.

 

The only sportsman that could talk like that and get away with it for me was Muhammad Ali, who had the biggest mouth you could imagine but could back it up because he had sporting gifts way above anyone else in that era.

 

Now, no offence to Joey Barton, talented lad that he is, but he’s no Muhammad Ali.

 

He’s a good player, and could be a stand-out up here, but he is in no way in a different stratosphere to the players already playing the Scottish Premiership, particularly at this stage in his career.

 

That’s why he might want to have a quiet word with himself about the sort of stuff that he’s been writing online, because people are reading that and he’s become a target.

 

He’s a marked man, that’s for sure, and it hasn’t made his settling-in period to Scottish football any easier on him.

 

He’ll not get the chance to perform and show people what he is all about as a footballer if he’s on the end of tackles like the one from young Greg Taylor at Kilmarnock the other day.

 

Not to excuse a dangerous tackle as bad as that one in any way, but that’s the sort of thing that he’s going to have to expect, that’s what Scottish football is all about.

 

If you’ve got a reputation, which he does have, then people are going to target you.

 

In Joey’s defence, the great thing for me was that he handled it really well. You didn’t see him jumping about, pointing his finger at the player or the referee and asking for a card.

 

He took it on the chin as part of the game and I was pleasantly surprised by that.

 

Well done to him for that, but people don’t like it when folk mouth off like he has done, especially players, so he’s going to get a few challenges not to dissimilar to that during the rest of the season.

 

There’s no doubt he can look after himself, but the Taylor challenge was just an example of someone letting him know that he might think he’s going to come up here and boss the division like he was telling everyone online, but he’s going to have to work hard and earn that right.

 

In many ways, the start that Joey Barton has made to his career north of the border has mirrored Rangers’ performances overall so far this term.

 

Like Barton, the team have yet to put in a 90 minute performance, and they are going to need to do that not only against Celtic next week, but in every game at this level.

 

They are playing well at times, but that’s not good enough. They may have got away with that last season in a lesser league, but when they’re in this league they have to be on song right from the first whistle.

 

In most of the games – apart from the Dundee game where it was the other way around - Mark Warburton has said that he had to have a talk to the players at half-time to get them going for the second half, and then they have been much better.

 

Maybe he should be making that speech before every game, and just remind the players that they have to start quickly and be in about sides from the off.

 

There is a massive squad now and there is competition for places, and Mark Warburton may have to start using that now. There are certain players, like Barton, who are not playing as well as they can.

 

There are four or five injured players coming back now, and I think we may see some of them against Linfield this afternoon, because the manager can’t afford a player going two or three games without playing well.

 

That won’t be tolerated in the Premiership, and there are certainly plenty of people sitting on the bench and in the stand who are desperate to play.

 

If players are not performing, then I don’t care who they are, they don’t deserve to be playing.

 

There are problems in midfield, but the manager now has the choice of six or seven midfielders which he has never had before.

 

I don’t think he knows what his best midfield is. I know he is on record as saying that he doesn’t know his best eleven, and that it’s horses for courses depending on who they are playing, but I think that with the way Rangers play then midfield is a key area.

 

They’ve got to have pace there, and they’ve got to have players who can tackle and can pass the ball.

 

He’s tried Joey Barton and he’s tried Jordan Rossiter, who I think is a smashing player, but when he plays Rossiter as the holding midfielder it pushes Barton further forward into an area that I don’t think he enjoys.

 

Joey Barton wants to sit and be the holding player, dictating the game, shouting at people in front of him, winning tackles and getting on the ball to make passes.

 

He’s maybe getting asked to do a different job to the one he expected when he came up, and that’s maybe why he’s not performing the way he can so far.

 

Perhaps those two players, Barton and Rossiter, trying to play the same way in the same side just can’t be accommodated.

 

http://www.eveningtimes.co.uk/sport/14721438.Derek_Johnstone__Joey_Barton_is_a_marked_man_and_he_only_has_himself_to_blame/

[BEARGER 1,829]

Johnstone is a buffoon. He gets paid to put his name to various articles that are written for him.

[the gunslinger 3,366]

But he's not wrong

[BEARGER 1,829]

But he's not wrong

 

On what I've witnessed so far I see no evidence that Barton is a marked man, obviously with the exception of the assault in the Killie game.

[ian1964 10,613]

Barton a marked man?,playing for a marked club!

[cooponthewing 1,139]

I can't agree hes a marked man, and I have no beef with DJ however listening to him on Clyde he has become one of their sycophants. Barton is slow and it appears that they are all around him, not because he's a marked man, he's off the pace.

He has had one shocker of a tackle and the idiot was rightly sent off.

We live in a different world from the one DJ and his cohort Keevans recognise, where social media is used for various reasons. I think DJ is correct in saying that Barton should keep his mouth shut if he can't back it up on the park, he has been shown to be a fairly average player imo, slow and off the pace.

On his point re Rossiter and Barton I 100% agree. I wouldn't have Barton in my team every week, Rossiter should be first choice. He has quality at such a young age in every department.

Edited September 3, 2016 by cooponthewing

[Scott7 5,662]

A Motherwell bloke tried a homicide tackle but Barton saw it coming and jumped.

[Gribz 745]

If he is going to get these tackles every week he wont be so lucky next time and it will finish his career. How can DJ say this is Scottish Football - the tackle was bordering assault. Im all for fair tackles but more should have been mentioned about that one, is was a fraction of a second to ending Bartons career.

 

I previously mentioned he will get some tough tackles because players are inferior to him.

 

Barton does have to get up to pace though, he hasn't done anything wrong but looks like he has aged as a player which I cant believe could happen in a few months when he was POTY in a now Premier League team.