And remarkably the time elapsed between those two shots is five seconds; he got from our half after seeing off an Everton break, and had the ball in the back of the net within 8 seconds.
Original Dub wrote:There are some fantastic playmakers in the premier league.
He's one of them and has the ability to become the best IMO.
He could well adjust and do a job at becoming an all round midfielder, and if this is for the best for City, then fine. As far as the player goes, this 'learning curve' could help him, but I'd rather play in my favourite position if I were him.
He has admitted and hughes has admitted that he is being asked to sit back more. Of that there can be no arguing, so it is pretty ignorant to claim that he's doing the exact same thing as last season... or last season has 'taken it out of him'.
CTK has quite correctly stated there is a change in role for Ireland this season, and while most in this thread are debating the three options listed, there's still a couple who won't accept this for some bizzare reason.
I don't think Hughes should tweak his system to suit anybody - and I read some of the Petrov rants of how he SHOULD have played. Our team is in fantastic form and it changes to suit no man.
However, like I said above, Ireland is one of the best playmakers in the premier league and if city doesn't suit his style of play over the long haul, then I'd be quite confident the likes of Arsenal would have him like a light.... I'd hate to see that happen because he's a super super player with a lot more to come and I'm not so sure about him learning to sit back more at 23, when he should be harnessing his speciality... but that's for player development and potential.
There's a long way to go in this season, so its still not suffice to say that hughes has indeed found his best system anyway.
MaineRoadMemories wrote:I don't think Ireland's poorish form has been down to positional issues at all.
The two biggest factors affecting Ireland have been...
1. He overtrained in the summer and never stopped - apparently doing more training as soon as he gets home from training at Carrington. This has weakened his body hence the headaches and illness at Fulham away. Training a little less and listening to the medical staff will do him wonders.
2. Robinho has not been playing. As you point out well CTK, Ireland scored a lot of goals coming from deep and making perfectly timed runs into the box. However, we are not playing Robinho and our strikers are now basing all their attacks on pure speed. Even Tevez and Adebayor are struggling to get in the box when Bellamy is running down the wing. This means Ireland never gets nearer than 30 yards from the goal on a counter attack.
If Robinho plays, he slows the game down completely, draws players over to him and creates space in the midfield for Ireland to expose. Robinho is a brilliant passer of the ball and finds Ireland easily with those runs.
For me the dilemma is not about Ireland but about which form of attack do we want to employ?
The Robinho and Ireland show or the Bellamy, Tevez and Adebayor show?
But what a dilemma to have!
Kyle wrote:This may sound crazy, but for one game I am curious to see how SWP would slot in at RB. He seems to track back well, and would be able to swing in a few crosses and put more pressure on. Zabba just seemed to be lacking a bit coming forward, although I have very few complaints with the defensive side of his game.
If Hughes gave SWP a go at right back, slot Tevez on the right and put Ireland in right behind the striker. Just for an experiment I would be curious to see how this line-up worked out.
--------------Given------------
SWP--Toure--Lescott--Bridge
------De Jong--Barry----------
Tevez-----Ireland-----Bellamy
-------------Adebayor----------
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