There used to be certainties in Evertonian life. Leighton Baines would take the penalties and Baines would score the penalties. Now it seems Everton have entered an era of illogical unpredictability. They have been awarded five spot kicks in 2015. Baines has taken none. Romelu Lukaku has scored three out of three, but Kevin Mirallas, who scored the only goal of the game here, and Ross Barkley have missed once apiece, both at 0-0 in vital home matches.
It required an outstanding save from Burnley’s Tom Heaton to deny the Englishman, but goalkeeping brilliance is no explanation for Everton’s curiously cavalier attitude. Their manager, Roberto Martínez, spoke of being able to plump from several expert spot-kick takers, yet the sole penalty Barkley has scored in his senior career was for Sheffield Wednesday against Bolton Wanderers in 2012. Perhaps, given a record of excellence from 12 yards that includes 15 conversions from 16 attempts, the laid-back Baines ought to be more demanding.
The sense of strangeness about the situation is in keeping with Barkley’s status as the Evertonian enigma. “We have an incredible character who can become a great, great player,” said Martínez, who said in November that the 21-year-old would become the finest English player ever. That Barkley was booed at Goodison Park two months later indicates that a much-touted talent is yet to convince many. Perhaps his most auspicious display of the campaign was a bright cameo for England in Italy, rather than anything he has produced in an Everton shirt.
The midfielder has been compared to Paul Gascoigne and Michael Ballack by Martínez, valued at £50m by Everton and yet Kieran Trippier, the right-back of a Burnley team who prop up the division, has created four times as many goals this season. Barkley’s Premier League career has still yielded only eight goals and one assist, and an opportunity for a statistic-inflating set piece was squandered.
Perhaps only Martínez, who has an ability to draw a positive from any situation, could derive such satisfaction from seeing one of his charges fail. “Once you win the game and you can look back at that incident, I’m happier that he missed it because as an experience it doesn’t get any better than wanting to take the responsibility,” he said. If the theory is that adversity is a great educator, given the tone and tenor of underwhelming Everton’s year, Barkley ought to have absorbed much.
“He has learned massively from this demanding season,” Martínez added. “He comes from a World Cup, then all of a sudden he has found expectations, responsibility and an interesting learning curve. He never allowed his standards to drop.”
Others might beg to disagree; Barkley seems to have suffered an acute case of second-season syndrome. The Spaniard’s upbeat rhetoric tends to jar with realists in a year of high aims and low achievement. Barkley has been outscored by the centre-back Phil Jagielka, dropped for more prosaic talents and shunted out to the flanks. His ball-carrying ability was apparent in his preferred central role particularly, his manager argued, after the setback of his 10th-minute spot kick.
“I was extremely impressed in the manner that he took responsibility: working for the team, doing his job, showing for the ball,” Martínez said. “The bravery of Ross Barkley is to get on the ball and always be available. I think today we got a better player after that display because of the experience of the penalty.”
Yet if the emergence of a local prodigy prompts thoughts of exponential improvement, there is an unpromising precedent. Jack Rodwell was a homegrown talent who did not develop quickly enough. He became more of an asset on the balance sheet than the football pitch. Ultimately his sale to Manchester City, given the canny way David Moyes used the proceeds, proved more beneficial than his presence at Everton.
History provides warnings for a player expected to have a bright future. To Barkley’s right on Saturday was Aaron Lennon, excellent against Burnley and enjoying a personal renaissance, but yet to realise the potential he displayed as the teenage breakout star of an earlier England World Cup campaign. “He is quite a unique player,” Martínez said, again displaying his capacity for extravagant praise.
Man of the match Leighton Baines (Everton)
