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He doesn't seem to be anywhere close to the form he was in last season. He also seemed to be knackered in the last 15-20 mins, surprising considering the work he does in the Summers.

Let's hope this is a temporary thing and we see Superman back to his very best soon.

I thought he's been doing alright Kev considering we are two days in...he played excellent at Blackburn and he wasn't terrible today either...I reckon a few games in he will find his feet...they are all still learning about each other and we have 6 points on the board...it's all gravy ;-)

With our new attacking frontline, Ireland is probably over concerned with his defensive duties. He seems to be playing as a center midfielder and not an Attacking center midfielder this season around.

Agreed he is sitting back abit more, you often see him around our own box picking up pieces and creating the break.

With no official defensive midfield position, its important the centre midfielders work hard and stay back when needed, and know when to move fwd.

If he had scored that pretty easy chance mid way through 2nd half, it would have capped a good day for him. His defensive and excellent positioning when the opposition have the ball, go unnoticed alot.

I wouldnt swap him for any player in that position in the world, including Gerard, Lampard, Yaya Toure etc etc. Ireland is awesome

I thought he was immense against Barca..

I expect him to attack more with De Jong and or Kompany back as DM. Quite good performance today except that lost chance when he put it right outside the goal.

Stupidly premature question for me I'm afraid Lee. If you were asking this after 8-9 games where he'd actually been fairly ropey then fair question.

But he's played 180 mins of competitive action. In a pretty new look team, with a new (albeit brilliant) midfield partner. He's been playing responsibly in that context. Sacrificing some of his natural instincts for the good of the team....essentially doing what Lampard/Gerrard were incapable of doing when playing centre mid for England under Sven.

Consequently he's clearly not going to look as great as last season just yet.

Posting a thread like this is....well....foolish at best. Why, at this stage, (and after nothing more worrying than "efficient" performances from our current POTY) invite undue criticism/excessively negative analysis of such a talented (but somewhat mentally fragile) player?

ant london wrote:Stupidly premature question for me I'm afraid Lee. If you were asking this after 8-9 games where he'd actually been fairly ropey then fair question.

But he's played 180 mins of competitive action. In a pretty new look team, with a new (albeit brilliant) midfield partner. He's been playing responsibly in that context. Sacrificing some of his natural instincts for the good of the team....essentially doing what Lampard/Gerrard were incapable of doing when playing centre mid for England under Sven.

Consequently he's clearly not going to look as great as last season just yet.

Posting a thread like this is....well....foolish at best. Why, at this stage, (and after nothing more worrying than "efficient" performances from our current POTY) invite undue criticism/excessively negative analysis of such a talented (but somewhat mentally fragile) player?

I wasn't trying to invite 'excessively negative analysis', I was asking why he wasn't making such an impact on games as we know he is capable of. Previous replies in this thread have offered sensible and intelligent solutions to this question without being 'stupidly premature' or 'foolish'.

I'm not worried about his form, it's way too early for that Kev imo. He maybe not seem as dynamic as we have become accustomed to but it's a new team with a new system that he has to adapt to. I just hope he isn't being shackled by the management and i hope he is being encouraged to attack at every opportunity. If he bagged that sitter today it would have done him the world of good, plenty more opportunities this season though, we will see the superman pants before too long.

2 great chances that he would have buried last season, made the wrong choices on both so I think its fair to say he's not up to his usual form yet, he had a moderately slow start last season though and he's playing a fair bit deeper as well. Give him time and he'll come good.

King Kev wrote:He doesn't seem to be anywhere close to the form he was in last season. He also seemed to be knackered in the last 15-20 mins, surprising considering the work he does in the Summers.

Let's hope this is a temporary thing and we see Superman back to his very best soon.

I wouldn't say he is doing badly, he is just doing a different job for the team. By playing deeper he is adding different, more defensive elements to the team and to his own game. We know from last season he is capable of playing further forward. We now know he is capable of playing rather deeper, making him a more complete footballer.

His attacking contribution - scoring in the first game, providing important passes in creating other chances and missing a golden chance in the second - is still there but with so many others doing similar around him, perhaps he is going unnoticed slightly.

But I don't see any problem in this and I certainly have got no complaints about what I have seen from him so far.

Kevins point is a good one, like last week he was once again below par today. His par is a high one but he sank well below it this afternoon.

Ireland has been our poorest performer over the last 2 competitive matches in terms of what we know he can do and underperforming. That doesnt make him a load of shite overnight of course. He has a barometer to hit, im confident he'll get there eventually. Qality players always do.

Even though im a Hughes lover by site standards, not everthing has to be positive to the nth degree. We may be winning but there is continual improvement needed from the team and individuals like Ireland and also, so it doesnt look like im picking on one person, Tevez.

We are 2 games into the season, its a marathon, not a sprint.

King Kev wrote:I wasn't trying to invite 'excessively negative analysis', I was asking why he wasn't making such an impact on games as we know he is capable of. Previous replies in this thread have offered sensible and intelligent solutions to this question without being 'stupidly premature' or 'foolish'.

Mate, I wasn't calling you foolish...apologies if you took it as such.

However, I did give you my take on what has affected his form, you just appear to not want to focus on this.

For what it's worth, I just don't think that encouraging a debate on the form of our talented but mentally dubious genius is particularly wise. We all know and have seen how nervousness in a City crowd transmits itself to the team, or specifically, to certain players when people are worried about their form.

That was my point

I think the people who have pointed out that Stevie is playing a slightly different role this season make a good point.

My concern is that we may not be playing one of our best players to his strengths so therefore won't get the best from him.

There is also a concern that he will become frustrated playing in a more restricted role and, as has been pointed out, he does have a somewhat fragile temperament.

not surprised the kid was knackered towards the end he is running box to box all game, doing what he does better than anyone else in the premiership - finding space only to be ignored (largely by robinho). i don't mean that to sound like a dig at robbie or anything last year him and stevie combined brilliantly time and time again, but now you've got tevez and ade in the equation. yeah sure at times his passing was poor, but it was also brilliant i'm sure he will do well as an all round midfielder but its a huge step up from mainly attacking in terms of fitness. the one thing you know with stevie is that no one will be more frustrated with middle of the road performances than him. i think he would be fuming at his inconsistency yesterday and will be working harder than ever behind the scenes to make sure it doesn't happen again.

King Kev wrote:I think the people who have pointed out that Stevie is playing a slightly different role this season make a good point.

My concern is that we may not be playing one of our best players to his strengths so therefore won't get the best from him.

There is also a concern that he will become frustrated playing in a more restricted role and, as has been pointed out, he does have a somewhat fragile temperament.

Yes, I agree that this is a bit of a worry.

The system has changed a tad and after last season you have got to find a place in the team for him somewhere, even if he has to adapt a little bit.

If I were the one picking the team (and you can all thank your lucky stars that I am not), I'd be playing him just behind the two strikers where he can do most damage to the opposition.

But it is a long season and we will more than likely see the best of him at some point. That said, I don't feel he has performed badly by any means.

It's the system. He isn't playing as advanced, cos we've got 2 strikers. Same with Robinho. Still think 4-3-3 is the best system for our players.

Ireland-de Jong-Barry

Tevez/SWP-Adebayor-Robinho

Fidel Castro wrote:It's the system. He isn't playing as advanced, cos we've got 2 strikers. Same with Robinho. Still think 4-3-3 is the best system for our players.

Ireland-de Jong-Barry

Tevez/SWP-Adebayor-Robinho

Same here pal but it is'nt going to change while we keep wining so no complaints from me. I think Robson and Superman will ajust to the new set up soon enough.

I haven't read through all of the above...but yesterday was a warm day, and maybe the hottest since they were in AbuDhabi. Give the lads time....its been a shit summer, well here it has anyway.

I think the thing is with a lot more quality around he's gonna blend in now. Last season he shone so much as we only had a couple of quality players but now we have a lot more quality its hard for him to shine.