Stephen Ireland Must Work Harder - Houllier

dixiefly

So Stephen Ireland's club work ethic that has been touted as being exemplary hasnt cut the mustard so far with Houllier, just like with Mancini before him.

I thought one of the advantages of him not playing with Ireland was so that he would be better prepared for his club duties. It seems as if those club duties with be more with the reserve team!

http://www.rte.ie/sport/soccer/2010/1101/houllierg.html

---

Soccer · England
Houllier: Ireland must work harder
Monday, 1 November 2010 07:19
Aston Villa manager Gerard Houllier has told Stephen Ireland he must work harder after overlooking the midfielder for yesterday's derby clash with Birmingham.

Ireland was valued at £8million when he moved to Villa in August as part of the deal which saw James Milner join Manchester City.


But he has only shown his best form in patches and failed to impress in the previous two matches against Sunderland and then Burnley in the Carling Cup.


Houllier opted to use rookie central defender Ciaran Clark in a midfield role in preference to Ireland, a non-playing substitute, during the goalless draw against Blues at Villa Park yesterday.


The former Liverpool boss has warned the Irishman that skill alone is not sufficient to put him at the forefront of his plans.


Houllier said: 'Ireland needs to work harder. He played against Chelsea and did well, he played against Sunderland and was not good enough to me - simple as that.

'He needs to work harder. The skill is one thing but you need to compete. It is a difficult period for him. We support him, we back him. He comes to a new club and there is a change of manager in between.'

The Frenchman added: 'We know he is a good player but I don't want to have a situation where you say 'he is a good player, but....'

'If you say 'he is a good player but he doesn't defend, he doesn't run back, he loses too many balls in crucial areas', then that is difficult.

'He needs to get rid of these 'buts' about him and be a good player. He needs to work harder in games.'

Villa have now gone 344 minutes without a league goal but Houllier is confident that position can be rectified.

Striker Gabriel Agbonlahor is stepping up his rehabilitation work after groin surgery although he will not be ready for next weekend's game at Fulham.


He said: 'Is the lack of goals a worry? No, because the positive side is we've conceded only one Premier League goal, an own goal against Sunderland. Yes, we know we have to score goals.

'As regards Agbonlahor, I was told he was working a bit harder today on his own with the physios. I don't think he will be in the plans for Fulham. After Fulham, who knows?'


printable version
share this


Story from RTÉ Sport:
http://www.rte.ie/sport/soccer/2010/1101/houllierg.html

The Rooster

I don't think its anything to do with him not trying, it just the type of player he is. He got completely over-rated, by the Irish in particular, after he "retired" from international football and went on a scoring spree for City. When the goals dried up is when the lack of substance was noted.

Stephen Ireland is not, never has been, and never will be, a premiership class or international class central midfielder. He's a good player on the right wing or as the attacking player in a 3-man centre midfield. But he does need to score goals to make up for some of his deficiencies.

Nalz

Of course he's premiership class, hes just a bit of a muppet thats all

Maybe he should quit club football to concentrate on international football.

greendom

Or give up football altogether and concentrate on feeding his goldfish

Handsome Bob

greendom wrote: »

Or give up football altogether and concentrate on feeding his goldfish

Cue an interview about how he achieved everything that he wanted to in football. :pac:

karma_

I never understood why Ireland decided to join Villa at that time. Yes his City career was over and he was in all probability told he would be sold, but to go to a club with no manager was a crazy piece of business.

Fuhrer

karma_ wrote: »

I never understood why Ireland decided to join Villa at that time. Yes his City career was over and he was in all probability told he would be sold, but to go to a club with no manager was a crazy piece of business.

Better then no football at all I suppose

Dolph Starbeam

karma_ wrote: »

I never understood why Ireland decided to join Villa at that time. Yes his City career was over and he was in all probability told he would be sold, but to go to a club with no manager was a crazy piece of business.

I don't think it was that bad, most managers would love to have a player with the ability of Ireland's, Houllier just needs him to work harder before he gets into the team, it would be the same thing no matter who is manager of the club.

Its not really that big a deal and I really don't think everything about Ireland needs its own new thread, maybe start a Stephen Ireland Talk/Gossip/Rumours Thread 10/11 if people really want to talk about every story regarding him.

Bounty Hunter

Lets not get ahead of ourselves, He wasnt fully fit when he joined and he wasnt used to the players around him so he wasnt starting. A new manager came in and kept fate with the players already ahead of him in the pecking order, but after the Injury to Petrov it was expected that Ireland would get the nod to start.

Clark did not start ahead of him, Clark played DM and by no stretch of the imagination is Ireland a DM, he is an AM so technically Sidwell started ahead of him and that will not be the case for long. Sidwell is playing with an injury to help Villa cause and his own as he needs surgery but with his contract up in the summer he may not get too many more chances to impress for Villa. Going by Houliers comments Ireland has portrayed himself as too much of a luxury player in training to get the nod ahead of the workman like Sidwell.

Its still really early for Stephen and Villa, lined like "'Ireland needs to work harder. He played against Chelsea and did well, he played against Sunderland and was not good enough to me - simple as that." dont really worry me too much. It's just ged trying to give Ireland a verbal kick up the arse because Villa could really use him on form.

Unfortunatley imo the best thing would have been to start him ahead of Sidwell (or even come on instead of Bannon but i think the 442 switch was already planned then and he suits that system less) as with only 1 upfront he wouldent need to do too much defending as his role would be as a creative outlet which he can excel at but I guess there inlies the problem as Houlier wants Ireland to offer more than just one of those options.

these comments were briefly mentioned in the Villa thread iirc and we moved on fast, just because the guy isnt playing international football doesent make this worthy of its own thread imo but meh the more Villa talk the better.

dixiefly

MOG7 wrote: »

I don't think it was that bad, most managers would love to have a player with the ability of Ireland's, Houllier just needs him to work harder before he gets into the team, it would be the same thing no matter who is manager of the club.

Its not really that big a deal and I really don't think everything about Ireland needs its own new thread, maybe start a Stephen Ireland Talk/Gossip/Rumours Thread 10/11 if people really want to talk about every story regarding him.[/QUOTE]

Feel free not to read / comment on the thread if you dont want to. Truth is that there are a lot of people on here that are interested in how his career is progressing because of the Irish angle allied to his talent and also some of his actions / comments in the past.