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Stephen Ireland


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Albrighton is a good prospect but he has no end product whatsoever. His crossing is dreadful if you’re lucky to see a cross from him at all.

We must be watching a different player because I think his crossing is brilliant!

This is what I was about to say.

His corssing is superb! a little inconsistent now because of his experience I would think. But when he gets it right (which is more often than Downing, that's for sure) it's excellent.

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I think a reason why Downing's crossing has always been off is because of the positions he gets into, he never trys to beat a player, leaving him having to curl it around a man from about 30 yards from goal, if he'd grow a pair and try take it past players we'd probably see some better crossing.

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Albrighton is a good prospect but he has no end product whatsoever. His crossing is dreadful if you’re lucky to see a cross from him at all.

We must be watching a different player because I think his crossing is brilliant!

This is what I was about to say.

His corssing is superb! a little inconsistent now because of his experience I would think. But when he gets it right (which is more often than Downing, that's for sure) it's excellent.

Completely. His crosses are very dangerous. He gets them at great speed going across the box and always has defenders scrambling for them....

On Ireland, you could see that he makes some excellent runs through the middle during a game. It will take time for all around him to learn how he plays but I have a feeling that when they do, he will score a handful and be a real attacking threat for us.

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Does anyone else think that we may be keeping Ashley in the advanced position, because we dont want him to throw his toys out of the pram?

Could things be really that simple?

OK, its just a thought that momentarily passed through my head on satiurday, then went through again when we took off Ireland for Carew.

Ireland has to play in his best position, and one of our wingers has to drop to the bench, or i can see this ending in tears.

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Does anyone else think that we may be keeping Ashley in the advanced position, because we dont want him to throw his toys out of the pram?

Could things be really that simple?

OK, its just a thought that momentarily passed through my head on satiurday, then went through again when we took off Ireland for Carew.

Ireland has to play in his best position, and one of our wingers has to drop to the bench, or i can see this ending in tears.

I can't see that being the issue tbh. I just think that it was a combination of MacDonald wanting to keep all 3 wingers on the pitch and his tactics not being suited to the players he was playing.

I expect Downing or Albrighton to be dropped for the next game and for Ash to be back on the left wing.

I hope Houllier has done his homework on our squad and their best positions!

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Why does it just have to be Ireland in behind Gabby, we could easily put Young and Ireland behind Gabby. As the wingers is not working, with just one man up top.

Interesting point. I think if we played with a 4-2-3-1 with Ash and Ireland in the 3 they could both play more central and leave the other attacker to give us width.

To play without wingers you need very good fullbacks to give the team width and a very good DM to drop deep when the fullbacks push forward. With our current team i just dont think we can pull that off.

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I'm not sure how effective it'd be as we'd have to push one of Ireland & Gabby out wide but we could play a 4-3-3. With NRC, Petrov and Downing in the defensive 3 and Ireland, Gabby and Ash in the attacking 3. Then having Albrighton to come off the bench to run riot for the last half an hour..

-------------- Friedel ----------------

Young - Dunne - Collins - Warnock

-- NRC ------ Petrov ---- Downing --

-- Gabby --- Ireland ---- A Young --

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I'm not sure how effective it'd be as we'd have to push one of Ireland & Gabby out wide but we could play a 4-3-3. With NRC, Petrov and Downing in the defensive 3 and Ireland, Gabby and Ash in the attacking 3. Then having Albrighton to come off the bench to run riot for the last half an hour..

-------------- Friedel ----------------

Young - Dunne - Collins - Warnock

-- NRC ------ Petrov ---- Downing --

-- Gabby --- Ireland ---- A Young --

Not convinced with this. Personally, I would love to see the following for the next game at Wolves.

--------------- Friedel ----------------

Young --- Cuellar --- Collins --- Warnock

----------------- NRC -----------------

----------------------- Downing -------

------------ SI ------------------------

Albie ------------------------------ Ash

----------------- Gab -----------------

Much more energy and aggressiveness with NRC holding to combat a poorer side and our two best "footballers" - SI and DJ - in CM combining to hopefully keep some possession and feed the front three. JC and Bannan off the bench if needed in the last 30.

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Why does it just have to be Ireland in behind Gabby, we could easily put Young and Ireland behind Gabby. As the wingers is not working, with just one man up top.

Interesting point. I think if we played with a 4-2-3-1 with Ash and Ireland in the 3 they could both play more central and leave the other attacker to give us width.

To play without wingers you need very good fullbacks to give the team width and a very good DM to drop deep when the fullbacks push forward. With our current team i just dont think we can pull that off.

I think we have two great full backs in Warnock and Young who both like to get forward but we rely so much on our wingers we need to change our style from time to time, mix it up occasionally.

I'd play

Stan NRC

Downing Ireland Young

Gabby

(If the attacking 3 can be taught movement they'd be a pain in the arse for any side)

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We really are easily pleased aren't we.

It says it all really that before I even viewed this thread I knew there would be multiple posts concerning the 20 yard run he went on.

That was all he did in what, 75 minutes?

I remember Ulisys De La Cruz doing something similar once......it may have even ended up as a goal, bring him back.

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Petrov is our best CM at the moment. I don't understand people leaving him out of their teams that they post here.

I don't understand how anybody can say this. What does he do that makes him our best CM'er?? Nice hair do? Good tan? I just don't see it and the results are supporting this, especially in a 4-4-2 where he is particularly exposed.

Last dozen or so games of 08/09 he was shown up in a CM pairing of him and Barry. Last season this was somewhat masked by Milner's energy BUT our best performance in a 4-4-2 was the drubbing of Bolton at VP and he wasn't involved! This season, since Jimmy has moved on, he has been exposed again.

He might be a reasonable footballer (although I am really struggling to see this fine array of passing that many speak of) but he has no energy or drive and is not working in our current sides. Football is about balance and Petrov in a two is poor unless he has a beast of a partner like Milner. Maybe in a three he can do a job.

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Albrighton is a good prospect but he has no end product whatsoever. His crossing is dreadful if you’re lucky to see a cross from him at all.

We must be watching a different player because I think his crossing is brilliant!

We must be. He didn't stick a single ball in the box in the first half and then in the second when he did, they were woeful balls. Against Stoke I cannot think of a single ball the lad played in. He's got to work on his end product and cut the naivety out where he believes that he has to take player after player on. He's a good prospect, but he's still just a prospect.

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