Aston Villa News 24/7In Part I I used a little slight of hand when comparing detailed playing stats for Milner and Ireland by putting two different seasons against each other. I was open about that and it was done with the expressed purpose of illustrating that at their best, they are extremely comparable players. But will we be getting Stephen Ireland at his best?
That remains to be seen, there’s obviously no guarantees, but for what it’s worth, here are their key stats over the last four years. Milner was obviously at Newcastle for the first two seasons and first two games of 2008/09. Ireland has been with Man City since he was 15 and there’s a revealing video at the bottom of the post about that.
Milner turned 24 last January, Ireland will celebrate his 24th birthday this coming Sunday.
| Overview Stats | Milner | Ireland | ||||||
| Starts | Subbed On | Mins | Starts | Subbed On | Mins | |||
| 2006/07 | 31 | 4 | 2,675 | 14 | 10 | 1,338 | ||
| 2007/08 | 25 | 4 | 2,227 | 32 | 1 | 2,547 | ||
| 2008/09 | 33 | 5 | 3,060 | 34 | 1 | 3,030 | ||
| 2009/10 | 36 | 0 | 3,172 | 16 | 6 | 1,453 | ||
| Goals | Assists | Goals | Assists | |||||
| 2006/07 | 3 | 8 | 1 | 1 | ||||
| 2007/08 | 2 | 2 | 4 | 4 | ||||
| 2008/09 | 3 | 9 | 9 | 10 | ||||
| 2009/10 | 7 | 12 | 2 | 2 | ||||
| Shots | On Target | Shots | On Target | |||||
| 2006/07 | 57 | 21 | 13 | 7 | ||||
| 2007/08 | 42 | 26 | 33 | 21 | ||||
| 2008/09 | 67 | 17 | 63 | 26 | ||||
| 2009/10 | 66 | 23 | 16 | 5 | ||||
| Shot Accuracy | Goal:Shot | Goal:On Target | Shot Accuracy | Goal:Shot | Goal:On Target | |||
| 2006/07 | 37% | 5% | 14% | 54% | 8% | 14% | ||
| 2007/08 | 62% | 5% | 8% | 64% | 12% | 19% | ||
| 2008/09 | 25% | 4% | 18% | 41% | 14% | 35% | ||
| 2009/10 | 35% | 11% | 30% | 31% | 13% | 40% | ||
| Yellow Card | Red Card | Yellow Card | Red Card | |||||
| 2006/07 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | ||||
| 2007/08 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 1 | ||||
| 2008/09 | 6 | 0 | 8 | 0 | ||||
| 2009/10 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 0 | ||||
| Per Game Metrics | Milner | Ireland | ||||||
| Goals | Assists | Goals | Assists | |||||
| 2006/07 | 0.10 | 0.27 | 0.07 | 0.07 | ||||
| 2007/08 | 0.08 | 0.08 | 0.14 | 0.14 | ||||
| 2008/09 | 0.09 | 0.26 | 0.27 | 0.30 | ||||
| 2009/10 | 0.20 | 0.34 | 0.12 | 0.12 | ||||
| Shots | On Target | Shots | On Target | |||||
| 2006/07 | 1.92 | 0.71 | 0.87 | 0.47 | ||||
| 2007/08 | 1.70 | 1.05 | 1.17 | 0.74 | ||||
| 2008/09 | 1.97 | 0.50 | 1.87 | 0.77 | ||||
| 2009/10 | 1.87 | 0.65 | 0.99 | 0.31 | ||||
Note: If you were eagle-eyed enough to spot a couple of minor differences where the data overlaps with Part I, well done, this is because I’ve sourced much of this data from season summaries at ESPN. I compiled the data in Part I myself game by game from The Guardian. Both outlets obtain their stats from Opta, so minor differences aside, it’s the same thing. I’m not going to lose any sleep over it and nor should you.
Mood Player?
This Football Focus interview from May 2009 possibly reveals a little of Ireland’s character. He talks about how much confidence played a part in his ’08/09 season and also how he chose City from more than 20 clubs he trialled with as a boy, essentially because he liked the feel of the place. Along the same lines, he also tries to explain why he no longer plays international football and it once again seems to be based on emotion more than anything he can be really specific about.
So, if Villa Park suits him, if he clicks, he’ll undoubtedly be a great player for us. If it doesn’t though, I think we’ll get a glimpse of why City are willing to value him at around £8m to Milner’s £26m.
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5 Comments to “Tale of the Tape: James Milner vs Stephen Ireland Part II – The Bigger Picture”
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One of obvious problem with a character like Ireland is that he needs managing; probably with quite a firm hand. How will he take to a caretaker manager with no experience?
if you watched the video, you might be encouraged that he said this about villa:-
“It is a family club, I’ve seen a lot of happy faces here and a lot of friendly faces, so I am really excited for the future here. “
His interview on the website got a big smile out of me, he seems to really be in a positive frame of mind. If his form really is tied to how he is feeling, then we could see great things from him. Will be great to see him march out onto the field with the team on his own birthday too, I really would like to see Kev play him against Newcastle
Keep up this positive barrage, I think it’s starting to have some effect.
Stephen Ireland will become one of the best players to ever wear the Villa’s Claret and Blue shirt..There are plenty of greats down through the yrs but he has the quality to be another great cult hero at Villa Pk…He’ll settle quickly enough and we’ll get the best of him..I have a feeling he may look at us as a stepping stone to bigger and better things if we don’t push on in the next couple of yrs..I have every confidence in him as a man and a player…Milner is gone and i don’t even want to think about players who showed no loyalty to our great club..WE GOT A GREAT DEAL in getting IRELAND to come to Villa Pk!!! With the young players coming through we have a very bright future on the HORIZON…UTV…UTV…All Villa fans: PLEASE MAKE STEO IRELAND FEEL LIKE A KING WHEN HE TURNS OUT FOR HIS 1ST GAME IN A VILLA JERSEY…PLEASE!!