i cant believe we have a player who would take our starting 11 genuinely to another level. its not like s reid where there are doubts among people who watch him week in and out, ireland is proper class
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i cant believe we have a player who would take our starting 11 genuinely to another level. its not like s reid where there are doubts among people who watch him week in and out, ireland is proper class
So, you'd say it's "great" then Neil ;)Quote:
Originally Posted by NeilMcD
Great goal by Ireland. Still don't like the lad no matter how well he plays for City. He emptimises all that is wrong with the modern game. A really bad example to kids growing up.
Really? Do you think this - http://www.stephenireland.com/charity/ - is a bad example to kids growing up?
I would say more of a mix of roy keane and timmy mallet. Roy Keanes arrogance / ego / preciousness, and Timmy Mallet's maturity.Quote:
Originally Posted by Ciaran
Great goal by Ireland.
However, defensively he isn't great, see the third goal.
That's the problem with Man City. They can score great goals but there midfield has more holes than swiss cheese.
It's the same with Stephen Ireland. He can get you a wonder goal now and again. But he can also disappear for long periods of matches and the opposition can walk through midfield. Do we want that for the Irish national team? If Stephen Ireland was playing against Italy, would he have kept their midfielders in check from a defensive point of view? I have never been impressed with his defensive skills, he lets people by too easily.
He is most definately not a Roy Keane, he in unable to impose his will on the team or bully other players. You need a bully in midfield or even as a manager so players are forced to pull their weight. How many times when an attacker had beaten the last defender you have Keane putting in a saving tackle? I've never seen Ireland do that. Five minutes later Keane would be up the other end scoring a goal.
Ireland is ok at attacking but not great at defending. Sure, playing for Ireland he might score the odd goal here or there and set up another. But's that's no use if we concede 3 goals a game because our midfielders won't close down the opposition.
Better to win 1-0 as Trap's philosophy seems to be than lose 4-3 or 5-2 as we did against Cyprus.
In an ideal world you'd have a solid competitive midfield with Ireland deployed elsewhere providing the creativity. There's no way you could have this with Duff & McGeady in same team as him, so in my opinion McGeady's place would be most vulnerable to Ireland's hypothetical return.
I think Ireland's best work is in the final third but where we're lacking most is in the middle third.
With a good central midfield I could see him being as effective as Houghton was for us under Jack, with proper instruction.
Fair play to him for subscribing to that charity. A lot of other footballers subscribe to it as well but probably don't put it on their personal webpages.Quote:
Originally Posted by tetsujin1979
What irks me about Ireland is the attitude he has shown in the past towards his country, fellow players and supporters. He has been found out to be a liar, something he has yet to apologise for. Just because you subscribe to a charity doesn't mean that dropping your shorts is tasteful. He's on the BBC website today saying City players need to be braver, rich coming from someone who hasn't got the character to apologise to all the kids who would love to see him turning out for his country. What do you tell a kid of 11 when he asks why Stephen doesn't want to play for his country.
You could obviously say the same about Kaka and hundreds of attacking playmakers. Ireland may be playing in the central midfield position under Hughes but he's not a central midfielder. What I think happened with Ireland is that he's not a wide player. He's clearly a central player. And he's a midfielder. In Britain, that type of player must track back. Britain doesn't do Kaka's or Riquelme's or Diego's. Because he learned to track back he's now playing in a central midfield role but his instincts are all attacking. He's just not a central midfielder.Quote:
Originally Posted by Emmet7
This is a PR stunt pure and simple. Trying to improve his reputation for being a traitor and well..................... lets just say not the full shilling.Quote:
Originally Posted by tetsujin1979
He didn't subscribe to it, he set it up, it's his own charitable foundation. The memorabillia on it was given to him by other players to sell.Quote:
Originally Posted by drummerboy
Ah, come on, that's a bit much. Is it possible that your opinion of Ireland is colouring your judgement of the charity? Anyone else who sets up a foundation would hardly receive that kind of response.Quote:
Originally Posted by kingdomkerry
I'm surprised he has that Football Focus interview, (with Lawrenson's comments at the end), on his home page.
Maybe he doesn't have much to do with the website :rolleyes:
That's fair enough.Quote:
Originally Posted by eirebhoy
But what I saw last night was Ireland score a great goal but then was largely at fault for Hamburg's final goal...You could see he had woeful defensive instincts. He was in the box, there was an attacker in the box and he never went within 5 yards of the attacker. When the ball came in Ireland was wrong-footed. Defensively he is poor.
So his goal was cancelled out by that mistake and it was a mistake...you should never stand off someone in the box, first rule, you have to challenge for the ball. And Man City were opened up time and time again through the midfield. And once again it could have been 6 or 7 goals to the Germans if it wasn't for Shay Given. That raises questions about their midfield of which Ireland is a part. Do you think Roy Keane would have let any midfield he was a part of have so many gaps.
The midfield has to be a line of defense too.
You're talking about a midfield which about the same balance as:Quote:
Originally Posted by Emmet7
-- Keane --- Bent --- Pavl --
----- Modric -------- Lennon
--------- Palacios----------
Not a difficult question to answer. :) I don't know what Mark Hughes is thinking and it's no wonder Dunne has had a tough season.
If it was a PR stunt he would of done it with an irish charity, i doubt the english care about him not playing for ireland to be honestQuote:
Originally Posted by kingdomkerry
SI has absolutely no relevance to Ireland the football team.
He is of no relevance to our qualification efforts and if we do qualify he will have no relevance at the WC Finals. Trap has behaved impeccably in this matter
Call a poll and see how many members want this thread to stay
A. in the Ireland section
or
B. moved to World Football
Comes across as a PR exercise to me, some of those kids will never get the opertunity to play for their country.Quote:
Originally Posted by tetsujin1979
PR stunt are you for real ffs take your head out of your hole and give the lad a break. Fair play to him. A legend im my opinionQuote:
Originally Posted by kingdomkerry
The web site was created three months after he quit Ireland.
Exactly. PR stunt and no one is going to convince me any different.Quote:
Originally Posted by tricky_colour
I think your the one who needs to take your head out of your hole mate.Quote:
Originally Posted by bellavistaman
To call that tosser a legend is farcical. He would'nt lace the boots of Ireland legends like paul mcgrath.
His scum of the earth for refusing to play for his country and not giving a reason why not.
Quote:
Originally Posted by kingdomkerry
You obviously rate him highly seeing as you're always on here venting your spleen with insults against him , He's not playing for us , I wouldn't call him a traitor it's disappointing and I'm sure he'll live to regret it , Scum of the earth is surely an over reaction
You can't lace shoelaces;)Quote:
Originally Posted by kingdomkerry
Jesus wept....
http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/image..._getty_226.jpg
Quote:
Originally Posted by kingdomkerry
im sorry kingdomkerry, but you are comparing stephen ireland to paul mcgrath in a negative way!! did paul mcgrath not walk out on ireland due to his drinking also, which was never looked on so hysterically by irish fans..
you are being both immature and irresponsible saying such things about stephen ireland - i have no doubt in years to come he will turn out to be a great irish player and will be then be fondly remembered by irish fans..
let me ask if paul mcgrath was not such a superb player, would he not have been castigated by the irish public when he walked out on the squad??
Just because he might possibly live to regret it does not mean that people can not have strong opinions about the actions now.Quote:
Originally Posted by gustavo
If you leave this thread wide open in the Ireland forum, posters are always going to come and vent spleen however irrational. Those are the opinions SI attracts.
This thread is a festering wound in this forum.
If people stop posting in it , it will disappear off the front page
.......If......
Who said anything about censoring?Quote:
Originally Posted by Ciaran
Throw the toys from the pram when bold Mr Kerr doesn't pick you on team for Daddy to see you.Announce the death of Granny in Cobh ( news to her), announce the death of Granny in London ( news to her also).Accept and never repay FAI for private jet.Walk away from your country, but never say never like.Legend my arse!Quote:
Originally Posted by bellavistaman
Imagine a player in your home town promised captaincy in front of us all, and dropped. Why? Because hes the most talented player on the team? Kerrs a muppet, nearly ruined a career before it even started. The talent he has, the way hes played so far, the strike rate hes achieved for the country is superb, the granny thing is regretable but god knows what was going on in his head, his girlfriend had a abortion, he could have went out and played and played terribly or do the right thing get home to his family, the way he went back was terrible, ill be the first to admit it, but build a bloody bridge, he said hes got death threats, would you go to work if nobody wanted you there, do the likes of don givens and liam brady and these muppets who threaten his life, do these people make him feel welcome as long as this hatred continues and senior management in the fai keep harping on hows he public villian no.1 i dont blame him for staying away!! Think we might never have a player of his talent again its a football team afterall and we wont forgive the "grannygate" incident! Unbelievable, you should be made welcome if your good enough, if he's a tosser so be it, he maybe half mad but on the pitch hes a model pro has NEVER let ireland down ON the field in fact hes been quiet heroic. :eek::)
Clearly he needs pampering which mark hughes gives him why cant we attempt it, paul mcgrath was so good we got on with the flaws, why cant we with stephen ireland i said it last year i'l say it again he has the potential to be a world class player. Is he not worth it, he could be the difference between getting to a world cup and not, and more iportantly having a great world cup and not!!
there is one fatal flaw in your argument there bvm, he is such an Irish legend he wont pick up the phone and say he's back if we want him. Thats all it would take and he cant find it in himself to do it.
Ya but could you seriously say with all the hatred following here in ireland you could blame him for not wanting to come back?
its a major character flaw that the guy hasnt got the cojones to man up and put everything behind him and come back to the squad. You talk about Irish fans building bridges, the same applies to him.
Fiar enough i can accept that, nice to have a sensible arguement on this topic. Good man!!:)Quote:
Originally Posted by SkStu
ditto. I also agree that the Irish team would be far better with him in it. But it really is up to him at this stage.
Not only is the ball in Stephen Ireland's court, but there are many many balls in Stephen Ireland's court, all sent there by the Irish management team. The more you go after Stephen Ireland, the more he resists, so it's best just to ignore him and let him come back if he wants to.
The issue is out of the Irish managements hands, its now in Stephen Irelands hands...but really its all time we forgot about Stephen Ireland coming back to play for us...the door is always open, he had his chance and he has turned it down...his loss not ours.
Give me an honest hard working committed Whelan, Gibson, etc any day to a player who couldn't be bothered.
Seriously? Sure ill play so!!Quote:
Originally Posted by Emmet7
Are you as good as them? I'll take a wild punt and say no.Quote:
Originally Posted by bellavistaman
Your moneys safe.:D But he didnt mention the key word TALENT, we need talented players we have too many "honest" players, i do like whelan to be fair, but whelan and andrew is a big no no for me, one or the other.Quote:
Originally Posted by Stuttgart88