Stewart Downing amnesty.

[Rudy Can't Fail]

No complaints here, he's been very good so far this season although I'd be suprised if he gets 15 goals this season VT, he's not scored much more than that in his career to date.

[N'ZMAV]

It proves to me how important a full and proper pre-season is for a player. Hopefully Ireland will be a better player after a full pre-season.

[villa1]

Better than last season? Yes. Excellent so far this season? No. I'll rate him, good. Our best player so far? No. Heskey (recently) or Ashley Young.

I'll hold my hands up to slating him last season. Understand what people are saying about him being a winger but, as a centre half, I hate seeing anyone bottle a tackle.

[DB]

So what if he can't tackle, he's a winger. As long as he does that well I don't give a toss. Look at Ronaldo, he's a big a jesse but he's still regarded asrather decent.

[JUAN PABLO]

If Downing scores a hatrick on sunday , i will even put a poster of  him on my office wall ..

[Bad English]

If I didn't have a full and proper pre-term preparation due to the fact that I was lounging around doing fuck-all except fine-tune the settings on my PS3, nobody would give a fuck and I would be expected to do the job I am paid for. No doubt all those who did have a full and proper pre-season will be 'given some slack' soon as they will be 'tired' because they are in the midst of  a 'long and gruelling' season.

Y T Yates, Yardley.

[Chris Smith]

I find all the 'wait and see' type comments a little odd. So far this season he's been our best player and for that he deserves the plaudits he is getting. If his form drops I'm sure that will be noted but at the moment he's our top scorer and very important to to the team and has shown that those who wrote hom off last season were being a little premature..

[jembob]

The first season the Milner came back he had quite a few poor games. For the whole of that season the bloke next to me kept saying that he was never worth £12M! Last season of course he was excellent.
Downing looked crap last season but has looked quality this year so far so it leads me to think that it takes a while for players to work out how they fit into the set up. Ireland's current difficulties stem from the fact that we haven't worked out how to use him yet but by the start of next season I would expect him to have established himself.
Downing to score against the Blues.

[pedro25]

Ireland can go one of two ways, come good like Milner and Downing or stay average like Sidwell, hopefully the first.

Not sure A Young is much better defensively than Downing, remember at home to Chelsea it was Downing who was selected on the right to combat the threat of A Cole and he did a very good job.

[darren woolley]

I think he is playing well and scoring goal's as long as we are winning and he score's goals like against Burnley then i dont care if he does'nt put a foot in of course i would like him to track back and get some tackle's in but some player's dont do it and some player's do.

[Ads]

I find it such a nonsense to see clichéd tripe like being “a powder puff”. I’ve seen him make plenty of good tackles this season, as I’m sure the neigh-sayers have as well. To single him out for this sort of criticism when we have Young in the side who struggles to cope with the effects of gravity is bizarre.

Downing is in the team to create chances, score goals, excite us and cover his full back. He’s doing all of that and to a high standard, so the OP is correct in singling him out as our best and most consistent performer this season. He’s been excellent and his goal on Wednesday was fantastic.

[AV82EC]

I don't know where this issue about him not tracking back is coming from , he's been one of our hardest working players this season IMO.  Yes he doesn't get his foot in too much but good players shouldn't have to, they let their positioning do their tackling for them.

[Merv]

Yeah, we're (or some of us) are falling into the same trap that we do with Reo-Coker (who seems to get judged by many on his goalscoring ratio and struggle to pick defences apart with Platini-like passes, when his game has never been and never will be, about that). Downing is a winger. We bought him because of his skill on the ball, his vision, his ability to deliver a dangerous cross, his goalscoring edge - which we've seen a few times already this season and most recently on Wednesday, when he scored with the kind of long-range strike he's always been capable of. While I expect him to make a challenge if the ball's there to be won, he's not in the side for that reason. He'll never be a crunching ball-winning combative midfielder - just as you'll never seen Aaron Lennon hammering into players, or Adam Johnson sticking reducers on Michael Essien.

Downing's been good this season, far sharper, brighter, more confident. One of our better players, and he's becoming a likely matchwinner. Let's hope it continues.

[VillaAlways]

I thouht he got stuck in against Chelsea when he had to

[Malaga Villains]

So far he has been a completely different player to what we witnessed last season, as has Heskey.

2-0 on Sunday with SD & Heskey on the scoresheet couldn't be any better for me?!?