Ireland's form

Stuart Brennan has a good article on Stephen Ireland's season, and while it makes some very good points, I have to disagree with this:

But he [Ireland] failed to hit the same kind of form which made him such a favourite last season, when he netted 13 goals.

And then manager Mark Hughes also felt Ireland needed some competition, and was actively seeking a creative midfielder when the axe fell on him in December - Scott Parker was a name being whispered loudly around the corridors at City.

But it was the appointment of Mancini which has truly cast a shadow over Ireland.

In the last two matches, at Sunderland and Chelsea, Mancini has adopted a safety-first approach to team selection, plonking the solid slab of Pablo Zabaleta, Nigel de Jong and Gareth Barry in midfield, and opting for a couple of wide men to support Tevez. [Emphasis mine.]

I just can't agree that the arrival of Mancini has been the most problematic element of Ireland's season. In fact, one could argue that Mancini has been better to Ireland than Hughes was this season.

This is fundamentally a question of tactics. Mark Hughes' summer spending led to the junking of last season's 4-2-3-1 for a more cavalier 4-4-2, flirting with 4-2-4 on occasions. Emmanuel Adebayor and Carlos Tévez went up front, with Craig Bellamy and Shaun Wright-Phillips either side. There was only room for two central midfielders, and Hughes started with Ireland and new signing Gareth Barry. While the results were good, it was clear that it was a dysfunctional midfield pairing, unable to boss games. Ireland just didn't have the discipline and nous to take on such a demanding role. Barry's form made him immune from dropping, and so Nigel de Jong was restored to the side.

Ireland did get his chances - in cup games, against Burnley at home, and so forth, but it is telling that his best game under Hughes this term was at Anfield, when the benching of Tévez allowed Ireland back in his preferred position at the peak of a midfield three, drifting behind a striker and two wingers. (He was also excellent in the same role for the last twenty minutes at White Hart Lane.) But as Tévez started to score, and excel dropping into that space in front of the back four where Ireland does his damage, there was no question of returning to the 2008/09 system.

It has only been under Mancini that Ireland has returned to that favoured attacking midfield role: the February home games against Stoke and Liverpool, the cup replay at the Brittania, as well as some of the January games, when he was shifted mid-game between the hole and the right of a midfield four. The point is that he's had as many opportunities to play attacking midfield in a 4-2-3-1 - his dream role, and, if we're honest, his only one - roughly as much under Mancini as under Hughes. You can see Ireland talking about exactly this here. He hasn't really done it under Mancini - he was very poor in those Stoke and Liverpool home games last month. He is coming back from injury, which would make the transition from one manager's methods to another's even harder. And he remains one of my favourite players. But I can't agree with a claim that Mancini has made things worse for him.