Steve Ireland

[RichieTHFC]

Reckon you guys would sell him to Spurs? If so, how much do you think you'll be looking to get for him? £8m - £10m?

Took like an hour to get approved so thought Id bump this post

 

[Dave Ewing's Back 'eader]

I think there is much more to Stevie's predicament than just a dip in form. You don't get a player who has scored the kind of goals he has, played the defence splitting pass, chased back, sprinted back, outsprinted defenders been voted player of the season and nailed his colours to the mast more than once, going downhill so quickly as some on this thread would suggest.

He has got to come good, again.

 

[maxflicity]

I to am massively disappointed at the defeat and subsequent results on saturday, but I think its worth noting the massively different approach that the scum adopted at our place on saturday.

Previously the have come to our place and tried to play us off the park (not always won but tried) but this time they came with an approach like they do for the away leg of a European tie. 5 in midfield to stop us playing, quieten the crowd and play for a break on the counter attack.

I think this shows that old baconface has realised the threat we pose and cannot take us for granted anymore.

WE will learn as a team and have come a long way fast so dont berate individual players as its the team that counts.

 

[simon23]

because its basic fan mentality instead of looking at the performace of the WHOLE TEAM

The game was lost tactically not by one individual....fromt the first kick of the game the best we wre going to get was a 0-0 with the way we set up as a team....playing like that you are always going to run the risk of getting hit by a late goal.

imnot saying ireland wasnt at fault for the goal....but the way we played before he came on the pitch was appaling and that is down to the manager...again being far too negative

RM got what he deserved on Saturday....nothing!

That's way too negative an opinion if you ask me.

I think the manager got the subs wrong but, unlike his previous two derbies, I can't really blame him too much until then. There's no way we were "appalling". We matched the current champions stride for stride and were unlucky to lose.

Again.

we defended superbly....we attacked appalingly...one shot on goal from a free kick in the first half thats it...we createed nothing

Im not totally blaming him..he hasnt got the players to play the way he wants and knows...but he must be able to see this and therefore just till he has the chance to get the players he needs to adapt.....Im worried that we have a manager that only has one way of playing regardless of which players he has at his disposal

 

[Neil McNab]

If you play two slow defensive midfielders it's no wonder we end up creating very little. Central midfield is where we've dropped most of our points this season, Ireland seems to have given up, his attitude in training must have tailed off badly to end up so far from selection for starting. A mental lightweight, thought last season he'd matured!

 

[Failsworth_Blue]

That's way too negative an opinion if you ask me.

I think the manager got the subs wrong but, unlike his previous two derbies, I can't really blame him too much until then. There's no way we were "appalling". We matched the current champions stride for stride and were unlucky to lose.

Again.

we defended superbly....we attacked appalingly...one shot on goal from a free kick in the first half thats it...we createed nothing

Im not totally blaming him..he hasnt got the players to play the way he wants and knows...but he must be able to see this and therefore just till he has the chance to get the players he needs to adapt.....Im worried that we have a manager that only has one way of playing regardless of which players he has at his disposal

Recently we have played some excellent attacking football and on Saturday you thought we played defensive, i can't see how you can come to the conclusion that our manager knows only how to play one way when we've shown we can mix it up. You believe in the first half we attacked appalingly and while that may be the case you've got to appreciate that we're playing Manchester United who packed out the midfield and have one of the best defensives in the leauge, you can't just attack at will and expect to create chance after chance, you need to patient and we were and in the second half we grew into the game and had the better of the chances but sadly didn't take them and got punished because we we're pushing too many many forward

 

[Didsbury Dave]

That's way too negative an opinion if you ask me.

I think the manager got the subs wrong but, unlike his previous two derbies, I can't really blame him too much until then. There's no way we were "appalling". We matched the current champions stride for stride and were unlucky to lose.

Again.

we defended superbly....we attacked appalingly...one shot on goal from a free kick in the first half thats it...we createed nothing

Im not totally blaming him..he hasnt got the players to play the way he wants and knows...but he must be able to see this and therefore just till he has the chance to get the players he needs to adapt.....Im worried that we have a manager that only has one way of playing regardless of which players he has at his disposal

I am certainly coming to the conclusion that our manager, at the moment, has his limitations in the English game.

But I don't think we were "appalling" in any department. Wigan home we were, Spurs and Everton away we were. Not this one.

 

[KentBlue]

FFS! Here we go again. A defeat and we're at each others throats.

Come on chaps. We didn't lose because of a momentary lapse from Stevie. Granted, it didn't help that he lost that ginger prick, but overall we lost because we were a little naive. That's all.

Bobby's been here 4 months, the tyrant has been at the swamp for 23 years. What were the rags like under the bully's first 4 months? Winning every game and playing every side off the park?

Not if I can remember correctly they bloody well weren't.



Let's see how the rest of the season pans out. If there are any more defeats and we finish outside of the top 4 then we can have a post-mortem amongst us, but until then let's get behind the team and Bobby himself and be a little more optimistic.

 

[bizzbo]

I am certainly coming to the conclusion that our manager, at the moment, has his limitations in the English game.

I still dispute that. I think he is trying to instill the basic mentality that it's better not to get into trouble in the first place, than to claw your way out of it. I think we are in the early days.

I think the manager realises that we'd conceded three goals in 45 minutes twice against this opposition this year, and I think he realised that a point would have been a good result (as he couldn't forsee the tottenham game). I think he probably came to the conclusion that if you crunch the numbers, as in most football matches, the best chance of winning comes if you don't let them score, definitely don't let them score twice. So i think he probably did come up with gameplan that had this as the priority, at least for 60 minutes. That's often the pattern in league matches between top teams, and semi's and finals. keep it tight for 60 minutes, then think again. as it happened, united got on top at exactly that moment. they had us pushed back, and nani was one on one with onuoha repeatedly. so he introduced viera, to match them 3 for 3 in midfield, stop them playing around our box, cut out the supply to nani. if he made a mistake perhaps it was in having several players on the pitch at the end who are not the steady, see-it-out type.

anyway, what I really believe is that any manager worth his salt will come here and decide the way to make this a winning club, is to instill a mentality that regards conceding last minute goals and losing games where you have lead as unforgiveable. we have to instill in every single player, on as deep a level as possible, how disgraceful this is, and how much pride they should take from a clean sheet or seeing out a win. and how it all comes down to decision making and concentration. I think he's made progress, but we are still in the early stages. you don't instill an attitude in a couple of months. it takes years of hard work, and a management team that never loses focus. if mourinho came he'd do exactly the same thing, IMO.

I think as you make progress in this area on the pitch, then you unleash the forwards. we've seen what can be achieved when we really unleash our attack for 15-30 minutes. but you can't do that all the time, and it very rarely happens in big games between big teams. teams almost never start these games in that way. deadly attack is what you build towards, not where you start from.

in this instant I think utd out did us because they had the better options on the bench. nani coming on targetted an inexperienced fullback who was being supported by an inexperienced winger. in cutting him off, we had to call on a veteran midfielder. it all started from the midfield. they had three players who could pass with ease, we had one. that's always been the weakness in this squad and IMO they targetted it brilliantly. we got them into check but couldn't force mate. when they made substitutions it was check and check mate. they were lucky, and we did play well, but maybe it happened because of the squad. we had four bishops when we needed a rook.

 

[moomba]

RM got what he deserved on Saturday....nothing!

Phew, glad you're OK. Haven't seen you posting so much over the past few weeks, thought you might be ill.

Hope you had the chance to see the Birmingham match, it was pretty good.