Trouble brewing at Everton between Ross Barkley and Ronald Koeman
Everton manager Ronald Koeman is at odds with star Ross Barkley
Everton fans are overjoyed with their 3-0 win against Sunderland yesterday. Romelu Lukaku’s second half hat trick electrified the Toffee fan base. It also covered up growing tension between manager Ronald Koeman and star midfielder Ross Barkley.
The 22-year-old English midfielder was hauled off halfway through the match against Sunderland after a very poor first half performance. Koeman didn’t pull any punches after the match when asked about Barkley’s struggles either. He certainly didn’t apologize for making the controversial substitution.
It’s been a rough couple of weeks for Barkley. First, he was surprisingly left off Sam Allardyce’s first English national team, and now he’s struggling for his club. He certainly won’t get any sympathy from his Everton manager.
It’s a very dangerous game for Koeman to play. If he’s going to get the best out of his squad this season, he needs Barkley firing on all cylinders. By calling him out in the press, he’s put a serious strain on his relationship with the talented midfielder.
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That’s either going to cause Barkley’s game to go in one direction or the other. Koeman’s hope, is that his “tough love” will motivate Barkley to buckle down and play the best football of his career. He’s clearly got tremendous talent and he’s never been able to truly harness all of it with any consistency.
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The other alternative is much worse from Everton’s perspective. Barkley could take Koeman’s criticism personally and completely shut out his new boss. If that happens, his performance could fall off a cliff. That could cost his club valuable points in their quest for European football.
Even more importantly, Barkley could decide that he doesn’t want to be managed by Koeman at all. If he made it known he was looking to leave the Toffees, clubs all over Europe would line up to acquire his services.
As it stands, Koeman has Everton rolling and that gives him all the ability in the world to manage Barkley as he sees fit. When they inevitably hit a bit of a lull, we’ll really see if Barkley is willing to submit to Koeman’s leadership style in the long run.
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