lexicon Posted September 27, 2011 Share Posted September 27, 2011 He gave the best account of himself that I've seen so far - which is good news because if we can get him playing like he did at Man City, we'll be laughing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jat_r Posted September 27, 2011 Share Posted September 27, 2011 He gave the best account of himself that I've seen so far - which is good news because if we can get him playing like he did at Man City, we'll be laughing. I agree mate and I think the fact he started will encourage him to work harder in training and during games because there is a real chance for him to play, an incentive to work hard. Also I think the more he trains with the lads the better understanding they will gain. Him feeding Bent should be amazing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AVFC-Prideofbrum Posted September 27, 2011 Share Posted September 27, 2011 He worked hard, which was a first, so fair play to him. Still has everything to prove however. I read this every time he plays. "At least he worked hard for a change". I've personally never seen him slack off in a Villa shirt, but I missed the first couple of games last season. I thought he was decent Sunday. Movement is fantastic as ever and he picked his spots well. Impressive. Wasn't impressive. Maybe Impressive compared to his complete joke of performances in other games, still average. Just has no desire though. He is a nearly man. No heart. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NASTY_LEE Posted September 27, 2011 Share Posted September 27, 2011 Got to be worth a run. Delph has been poor all season imo and offers very little, another MON transfer mistake. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dont_do_it_doug. Posted September 27, 2011 Share Posted September 27, 2011 He worked hard, which was a first, so fair play to him. Still has everything to prove however. I read this every time he plays. "At least he worked hard for a change". I've personally never seen him slack off in a Villa shirt, but I missed the first couple of games last season. I thought he was decent Sunday. Movement is fantastic as ever and he picked his spots well. Impressive. Wasn't impressive. Maybe Impressive compared to his complete joke of performances in other games, still average. Just has no desire though. He is a nearly man. No heart. I'm not sure what he's doing (or not) compared to others to give you that impression. Maybe it's the way he "looks"? He's not a combative player, he's never going to be. He doesn't need to be. I'd compare him to Bent as it happens, who often wanders around the pitch looking 'heartless' but comes up with the goods when you need him to. If Ireland can ping balls around the pitch and put in a shift like he did on Sunday every week then in my opinion he's worth building the midfield around. Big if of course, but we're a side full of them. I think you've got an agenda. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
briny_ear Posted September 27, 2011 Share Posted September 27, 2011 He was impressive, as a matter of fact. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VillaAlex Posted September 27, 2011 Share Posted September 27, 2011 He worked hard, which was a first, so fair play to him. Still has everything to prove however. I read this every time he plays. "At least he worked hard for a change". I've personally never seen him slack off in a Villa shirt, but I missed the first couple of games last season. I thought he was decent Sunday. Movement is fantastic as ever and he picked his spots well. Impressive. Wasn't impressive. Maybe Impressive compared to his complete joke of performances in other games, still average. Just has no desire though. He is a nearly man. No heart. I'm not sure what he's doing (or not) compared to others to give you that impression. Maybe it's the way he "looks"? As Larry says it's discrimination of bald people Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dont_do_it_doug. Posted September 27, 2011 Share Posted September 27, 2011 As Larry says it's discrimination of bald people Toupee? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
barry'sboots Posted September 28, 2011 Share Posted September 28, 2011 He worked hard, which was a first, so fair play to him. Still has everything to prove however. I read this every time he plays. "At least he worked hard for a change". I've personally never seen him slack off in a Villa shirt, but I missed the first couple of games last season. I thought he was decent Sunday. Movement is fantastic as ever and he picked his spots well. Impressive. Wasn't impressive. Maybe Impressive compared to his complete joke of performances in other games, still average. Just has no desire though. He is a nearly man. No heart. I'm not sure what he's doing (or not) compared to others to give you that impression. Maybe it's the way he "looks"? As Larry says it's discrimination of bald people Maybe we should all chip in for a "Rooney" and see if that changes his game? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gilbertoAVFC Posted September 28, 2011 Share Posted September 28, 2011 He worked hard, which was a first, so fair play to him. Still has everything to prove however. I read this every time he plays. "At least he worked hard for a change". I've personally never seen him slack off in a Villa shirt, but I missed the first couple of games last season. I thought he was decent Sunday. Movement is fantastic as ever and he picked his spots well. Impressive. Wasn't impressive. Maybe Impressive compared to his complete joke of performances in other games, still average. Just has no desire though. He is a nearly man. No heart. I'm not sure what he's doing (or not) compared to others to give you that impression. Maybe it's the way he "looks"? As Larry says it's discrimination of bald people Maybe we should all chip in for a "Rooney" and see if that changes his game? He tried and failed to disastrous/hilarious consequences. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Overdubber Posted September 28, 2011 Share Posted September 28, 2011 Second half in Loftus Road looked better than he has done of recent. Only quibble I`d have is that he doesn`t pressure the opposition much at the front, allowing them to set up passes. Tends to make him look like he has gone missing. Gabby and Heskey are good at troubling the opposition higher up the pitch. Certainly helps to win balls back. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VillanousOne Posted September 28, 2011 Share Posted September 28, 2011 Stephen Ireland is a luxury player that we don't yet have the luxury of being able to play, maybe if the team was more confident and closing down better then we could afford to play him. Having said all that the Premiership is no longer a place where you can have midfield players who don't work hard and track back and tackle. so maybe he should go play in Spain or Italy or just work harder, thing is he can tackle and track back when he wants to. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
villaglint Posted September 29, 2011 Share Posted September 29, 2011 All this guff about graft etc is just noise. If you look at the stats he works harder/covers more yards than almost anyone. For me this is more about game nouse, knowing where to be/when to strike to make the tackle. Ireland is an attacking player and doesn't really have the nouse to be consistently breaking up the tackles. Petrov makes a good comparison here because he covers far few yards but is much more effective at being in the right place to make the challenge. So if we don't pass him the ball much he looks like the game is just drifting him by, which it is. I think if Ireland is to be effective he needs to be getting the ball all the time, almost looking to play through him. For Villa it often seems a challenge to string 5 passes together - until that changes (i.e. like second half at QPR) we wont see much improvement from Mr Ireland. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AshVilla Posted September 29, 2011 Share Posted September 29, 2011 In the first half ireland looked shit because we were not playing to his strengths and the system McLeish put out just wasnt working He's a ball player and needs the ball to his feet not none of the scrappy anti football hoof shite where the ball was booted over his head for 45 minutes it wasnt just him that looked ineffective in this system the same could be said for Nzogbia and Bannan In the second half not just him but the rest of the players played and responded alot better because we passed it along the ground alot more and played to their strengths Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
roscoe Posted September 29, 2011 Share Posted September 29, 2011 He should have had an assist the week before against Newcastle too when Bent stuffed up that golden opportunity in the second half. I have already seen more glimpses of what he can do this season than last (but that isn't too difficult I guess!) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daholteend Posted September 30, 2011 Share Posted September 30, 2011 SI is definitely showing signs of being the player we thought we were getting in exchange for Milner. If we could now dress up Barry Bannan to look like Robhino and play like him, we will have something. Definitely a work in progress, albeit slow and steady . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wiggyrichard Posted September 30, 2011 Share Posted September 30, 2011 I would love to see Ireland and Bannan strike up a partnership. Both are without a doubt our most technically gifted players, if they can get a bit of form playing together then it can only be a good thing. Ireland needs a run of games to find his top form which i no doubt think we will see at some point. He showed glimpses 2nd half against QPR of returning to form FWIW i think McLeish has thus far handled him perfectly by drip-feeding him 1st team minutes and not rushing him back. Lets not forget how little football the lad has played over the last 2 years. Im of the believing that Ireland will turn out to be a huge player for us this season. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AVFC-Prideofbrum Posted September 30, 2011 Share Posted September 30, 2011 I still think he'll make very little impact all season or ever at Villa. Just don't see it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Oaks Posted September 30, 2011 Share Posted September 30, 2011 I still think he'll make very little impact all season or ever at Villa. Just don't see it. Is pretty much how I see it. Ireland was ok in the second half, all the pro Ireland seemed to think he was fantastic. He showed glipses but not enough yet to start IMO. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
villanfromluton Posted September 30, 2011 Share Posted September 30, 2011 If the likes of Ireland, N'Zogbia and Bannan are to shine, we need to be playing the ball through the midfield. Thought we did that for quite a while in the second half at QPR and 2 out of the 3 performed, less said about N'Zogbias efforts the better. I think Ireland can be a good player, just needs to show the right attitude and thought he did that last week Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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