Stephen Ireland

[Dante Lavelli]

I like Ireland and for all his faults he makes us a better team to watch.  I also strongly think that there are bigger priorities in the transfer window although Westwood's performances have helped.

Oh hang on, I think I have solved it.

Swap Ireland for that Kenyan fella at Celtic (plus say 5m) and get Arshavin on loan from Arsenal until the end of the season.

[Rigadon]

The question I would pose is why is he not fit enough to last a whole game?  Injury?  Lifestyle? 

He has flashes of being a proper midfielder.  He can run, tackle and has the most guile of our current midfield, but only for about 50 minutes per game.

[Tom_Mc9?]

Yesterday was one of his best games for us. He is replaceable, of course, but the nature of our position means that most of our players are replaceable if you look hard enough. We're hardly full of Messis.

[Dante Lavelli]

The question I would pose is why is he not fit enough to last a whole game?  Injury?  Lifestyle? 

He has flashes of being a proper midfielder.  He can run, tackle and has the most guile of our current midfield, but only for about 50 minutes per game.

When he joined he claimed one of his biggest assets was his stamina late in the game.  For us he does appear to pick up a few injuries which have maybe prevented him building up that level of fitness.  Personally I do not doubt his work-rate and hope a run of matches means he can maintain those levels beyond the current 70 minute mark.

[silhillvilla]

Yesterday was his best game in a villa shirt IMHO. He's done precious little for us in 3 years so I'm far from convinced at this stage.

[Ron Manager]

Well at one time I couldnt see how Stephen Ireland could get in any team but when he started to put the effort in my opinion started to change. Yesterday in the first half he was superb as indeed was Vlaar and like it or not creative players do not charge round the pitch tackling everything in sight, thats for the Chris Herd type. But to be fair he closed Scholes down as much as possible and contributed as everyone did.

When he gets his through balls right with a front three of Benteke Bent and Weimann we should be guaranteed a hatful of goals on a consistent basis. Its an exciting prospect for the second half of the season.

[Dante Lavelli]

But to be fair he closed Scholes down as much as possible and contributed as everyone did.

Scholes and Ireland were having a right ding-dong in the first half.  I think a lot of Irelands work here stopped Man U controlling the game.  Indeed there was that "foul" by Ireland that put Benteke clean through and also a good interception in the first half.

I think we might be a bit harsh on Ireland comparing him to players like Merson.  Merson would score spectacular lobs but I cannot remember a single tackle or matches were he has particularly busted a gut, whereas we expect Ireland to do both.

[barrysleftfoot]

  Ireland needs to add goals to his game, but his , and Weimanns movement off the ball is key to how PL wants to play the game.

  To be honest Percs, i think Gabby is one of the more vulnerable players in the team.Alongside Ireland he needs to create and score more goals, his position in the team has now changed, instead of being a CF , he is now a wide attacking inside forward, like Weimann plays on the right.He needs to adapt or he will be replaced.

 Gabby needs to watch how Bale plays the role, and try to play like that.

 I do like Ireland though.

[Nastylee]

People forget that at Citeh he had Robhino (Sp?) pulling the strings and he really brought the best out of Ireland. Unfortunately, we have few players with genuine quality so it's never going to be a fair comparison. I think he does some great stuff but agree he could chip in with a few more goals and get in the box more but I'm not sure what his role is these days.

[garyshawsknee]

He's still not great,but i thought he was pretty good yesterday,made a few runs to get past Benteke. At the minute we just haven't got the squad or cash to replace him with a similar player,unless he tries Bannan up there.

[David_Nab]

I think he tires as he closes down so much.He didn't give Scholes a minutes peace in the first half and he never touched him for the ''foul''.

I think he keeps us ticking just keeping the ball and intocepting passes and when he does go off or isn't in the team it's noticable

[tim]

There should be a third option in the poll of "Getting there".

He has improved definitely however there is hopefully much better to come. I really didn't want him to stick around after the first few months but that has totally changed recently.

[peter w]

So much did Lambert get his tactics right first-half I think Ferguson took off a wide player and put Hernandez on to counteract Ireland in the middle. For the first 15 mins in the 2nd half Ireland was great but then you could either argue that he went off the boil or we then started to get overrun in the middle.

[E I Adio]

I think he tires as he closes down so much.He didn't give Scholes a minutes peace in the first half and he never touched him for the ''foul''.

I think he keeps us ticking just keeping the ball and intocepting passes and when he does go off or isn't in the team it's noticable

I thought he was unfairly penalised by the ref on a number of occasions, in fact, I normally don't join in with conspiracy stuff about MU getting preferable treatment and it may have been just me, but I thought generally that the ref noticeably leaned rather too much towards them.

He looked knackered when he went off. Either that or he was afraid of tackling anyone again for fear of being sent off.

[Matt Collins]

Got no real complaints about the officials. Both goals were rightly allowed but are ones you can see ruled out from time to time