James Milner to Manchester City; Stephen Ireland to Aston Villa: Done and Dusted
by Kirsten Schlewitz on Aug 18, 2010 5:17 PM BST
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Multiple sources are reporting that the deal is finally finished. At this point, I'm totally numb to it all.
My head says yes, of course this is a fantastic deal for Aston Villa. We get some cold, hard cash. We found ourselves a decent replacement in Stephen Ireland--and one that could, in fact, produce just as good a player, provided that Villa use him correctly.
A couple things to remember: Ireland is not a like-for-like replacement. When Villa shifted Milner to the middle last season, he was used as a box-to-box midfielder, whereas Ireland doesn't have the same sort of defensive capabilities. What Ireland excels at is the ability to distribute the ball--and he's a pretty good shot, actually converting more of his chances than Milner.
This is where Villa fans should be pleased that Martin O'Neill has taken off, as Kevin MacDonald looks much more likely to move away from a straight 4-4-2, and hopefully whoever becomes our permanent manager will be as well. With Ireland on the field, Stiliyan Petrov will need to play deeper to compensate for the missing defensive abilities of Milner. But if Villa continue to use Ashley Young as a withdrawn striker, and keep Stewart Downing and Marc Albrighton out wide, opposing defenses just might be overwhelmed at the amount of movement at the front of the field.
As for James Milner, well, I wish him the best. He was caught up in a lot of crap over the past couple months, but he just put his head down and did his job. I'm not gonna lie--it's going to hurt to see him in a City shirt. But for the sake of England, I hope the team doesn't keep him on the bench.
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A 4-3-2-1
with Petrov as holding midfielder, Downing and Albrighton wide and Young and Ireland as the attacking mids with Gabby up top is an attacking holy terror. If VIlla are going to take full advantage of Ireland’s capabilites they will need to trust the backline and try to run the opposition to death.
What about a 4-2-3-1?
I admit I don’t know tons about Villa’s players, but what if Petrov held, Ireland was a central midfield passer, and Young was the creative force behind the striker, with Downing and Albrighton out wide? Or would that not work…
That could work as well.
With a 4-3-2-1 you’re certainly ceding some ground in the center of the midfield, and having Ireland playing back a bit wouldn’t be a terrible thing at all. Also allows Young to move up front and Ireland to play as a CAM should the need arise.
by Aaron Campeau on Aug 18, 2010 5:31 PM BST up reply actions
It's almost like a 4-1-2-3 (or 4-3-3 or 4-1-4-1) with the system you propose, which is fine but would also ask the defenders for a lot?
Unless you’re saying that Petrov plays fairly deep, Ireland is commanding the center and Young is slightly in front?
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I thought a 4-3-2-1 would be great when thinking it over earlier
My only question is if Petrov is a solid enough middie to play by himself in the middle.
There was an article, and I’ll try to find it, that I read today which compared Ashley’s game this year against West Ham with last year’s game. He really was much much better in an attacking position through the middle of the pitch than playing out wide.
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