Stephen Ireland....This Season Needs You!

[bluesoup]

Been following Stevie's progress since he came to City at 15. Whether Stevie is in the right position or not, he has the potential to stand out more than anyone else in the team. Stevie please just get settled asap and play your best game.

From what I hear, Mancini needs to put the best people into the right slots and he is not at the moment. The aim is to win a game as a team - not satisfy one player's ego for match time. Ireland clearly needs to be more central for his game to improve. If he is not being played central, why not just coach him 1-2-1 to cope better with his new positioning! He still young - he is still learning ffs.

 

[mancunial]

thats because robinio was on the ball his link up play with him was the best i have seen at city for years? stevie needs a sidekick in the team someone he can play off, if you look at him now he is looking for a partner to play off there is no one when you have two holding midfielders,i am hoping johnson miight fill that post, blame the guy who got into robinios ears, the one who was undermining his stay at city,pele?

what staggers me is how many times this season he has made the runs but not been seen or found with the pass, last year they found him every time.

 

[Freestyler]

I believe in stevie, play him in the middle where he should be and the lad will be fine.

 

[gman07]

This for me has been this season enigma.... from being so beyond doubt our best player last season to being very ordinary... i noticed early on this season noone seems to find him with the passes... he was in the same positions so many times but never a pass went towards him... incredibily annoying... bellamy and tevez has a great partnership but they never pass ireland... many injuries has also destroyed good partnerships from being built...

But i Have faith and I hope Mancini will see this... and watch last years games to find our form... i hope johnson and ireland can find each other... swp and ireland can we know that... but they need to play at the same time...

I think we must either play tevez or adebayor not both of them... that might solve irelands problem...

 

[KingofDraw]

i dont like this 4 3 1 2 formation..just means we need to put 3 defensive mids in and ireland in the hole, and good wingers miss out not a good balance to me. and we also dont have good attacking fullbacks like ashley cole, evra, sagna...instead we have pablo and bridge

 

[Mattyc55]

Ireland is a quality footballer, but the true world class players can adapt to different positions by simply limiting their game a little. Stevie is a luxury and no doubt quality when played in the pocket of space behind the striker, but with Tevez in the side I doubt you're ever going to see him get played there. What he has to do is learn how to limit his game a little, maybe look sideways more often, as opposed to that killer pass (superman) he always seems to look for. Its great when it comes off, but as a center midfielder with a lot more responsibility, losing the ball is a dangerous game to play, and i think Stevie's creative game is suffering as a result. What has upset me most about his football this season though is the fact that he has been giving the ball away a lot, and that games just seem to easily pass him by without him stamping any form of authority onto it.

Whatever way you analyse his game, hes been VERY poor this season and its sad to see.

 

[uwe282828]

for me the best footballer in the squad,all this dm crap should be plan b.Plan a should be to get your best footballers to control the game and create goals.stevie is a key player...

 

[Nicholas van Whatsisface]

I posted my formation in the 'What's our best team' thread earlier, but I reckon our best formation should without doubt include Ireland. To best play to his game, we should be looking to play a midfield diamond formation, with Stevie at the top of the diamond behind the two strikers. The best personnel for it, in my opinion, would be:

--------------------de Jong----------------
--Wright-Phillips--------------------Johnson
--------------------Ireland-----------------
-------------Tevez---------Adebayor-------

He's our most naturally gifted midfielder, but he needs to pull the strings like he did last season, not fill in on the right or left as needed to accommodate too many defensively minded midfielders in the centre of the park. We need to take the game to teams not sit back and soak up their pressure, as when we do go for it, we look unstoppable. Stevie is, in my mind, central to this style of play, and we need to be return hiom to the role he filled so spectacularly for us last season.

 

[KingofDraw]

for me the best footballer in the squad,all this dm crap should be plan b.Plan a should be to get your best footballers to control the game and create goals.stevie is a key player...

we should still play the 4 3 3 but drop ade, i dont think he should be our long term solution we could do plenty of things with ireland to make it work for us: a team for bolton considering every one is injured

zab---toure---onuoha---bridge

------vieira-----de jong-------
-----------ireland-------------

swp-------------------johnson
-----------tevez--------------

or we could use stevie like scousers use gerrard:

zab---toure---onuoha---bridge

swp---vieira---de jong---johnson

-----------ireland--------------

-----------tevez---------------

and when everyone is fit for me kompany gets the cb role, i dont think hi and toure did bad together against pompey, toure just needs to play with him to be good..as for bridge i am not a fan. it seems to me when the ball goe to bridge he panics and hoofs it every time. i would ike to see: Richards---Toure---Kompany---Lescott

 

[leighton]

2 of our main strikers we signed are the type that will tend to drop back in the midfied which over crowds the midfield and doesn't help anyone in there. 1 fair enough but 2 no chance of us breaking down teams. This season more so other players know how good Ireland is on the ball they tend to double up on him.

People are right Ireland is still making the same sort of runs he has done seasons before but at times for other players in the squad they see Tevez and tend to go down that route more than switching to Ireland. Robhino and Ireland were great together they new what the other were doing were they would play the ball. He will come good no wonder about it a new manager and a new style of play. Hughes should of built a team around him in the summer and stuck with was a good thing the goals from midfield from Ireland and Robhino last year was a highlight of that play.