Aston Villa News 24/7When I saw the teamsheet for today’s derby game I leapt to the assumption that Gérard Houllier was going to use a 5-4-1 system with Collins, Dune and Clark as a three man central defensive team. As it turned out, Ciaran Clark would play just in front of the back line in a holding midfield role that raised just as many eyebrows.
Perhaps not at Clark playing such a role, he’s surely an assured and skillful player with the ball at his feet, but his inclusion in the middle came at the expense of Stephen Ireland. Ireland hasn’t impressed as part of a central midfield duo and when finally given the opportunity to play as the attacking point of a triangle backed by Reo-Coker and Petrov at Sunderland he didn’t fare much better.
In fact, Houllier brought Ireland off after 55 minutes and later said that he “looked lost”.
Today, during the second half, I said in the usual Twitter based match chatter that the game was crying out for some creativity and was set up for Stephen Ireland to come on and deliver on the potential he’s shown. Instead though, and this might have raised eyebrows further, GH decided to bring on Barry Bannan in place of Steve Sidwell just shy of the hour mark.
Naturally, when you leave a player of Ireland’s stature on the bench in favour of a youngster just breaking into the first team (twice) there will be questions asked in the post-match press conference. Houllier didn’t dodge them and was brutally honest:-
Gerard Houllier
He needs to work harder. He played against Chelsea and did well, then played against Sunderland and was not good enough for me.The skill is one thing but you need to compete. It is a difficult period for him but we will support him and back him. He’s come to a new club with a different manager in between.
We know he is a good player but I don’t want to have players who say ‘he’s a good player but…’ If you say: ‘he’s a good player but he doesn’t defend, but he doesn’t run back, but he loses too many balls in crucial areas’ that’s difficult. He needs to get rid of these ‘buts’ and be a good player.
That’s the most complete quote I’ve seen, it’s been broken up and will be used for soundbites, but it’s still pretty brutal. It’s also not unfair in any way I think.
I’ve expressed my frustration with Stephen Ireland here already. He’s clearly a very talented player, although he might be what is frequently described as a “confidence player” and Houllier’s public criticism could go one of two ways.
Ireland will either take it on board, work hard and deliver on his promise, or will go off the rails, end up transferred and disappear into football oblivion. Well, okay, that might be overstating it a little, but it’s easy to see him heading into obscurity if he doesn’t get his act together.
What is most frustrating is that he could be exactly what we’re missing in the middle of the park skill wise, but, while I’d never expect him to be at Milner levels in terms of application, he does need to put himself about an awful lot more.
It’s very much up to him, but it certainly appears that Houllier’s far less likely to stick by under-performing players in the same way Martin O’Neill did and, as Phil McNulty suggests in his blog, that ought to stand as fair warning to everyone in the squad.
Except Richard Dunne. Obviously. Well how else do we explain Carlos Cuellar’s exclusion?
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14 Comments to “Houllier bluntly tells Ireland to stop being a but man”
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no idea on Cuellar, maybe Randy tells Houllier to pick, after all be brought Ireland !
half serious, but think we are in the worse position now than since Randy came to the club
makes no sense at all that dunne plays, nor sidwell and yet fonz gets no minutes at all
table wise? yes, you’ll see in the next ‘this season vs last season’ post, worst first 10 league game record since ’05/06.
but…
we have to remember it is just 10 games and we’re effectively on our 2nd manager in that period. clearly there are plans being put in place for the longer term, time is needed.
what plans ?
maybe I am talking bull but Houllier will never be long term at Villa, he shows no passion for the job at all.
and Dan you know this is not something I say on the back of today.
the technical structure, the scouting network will come, training methodology, i’ve seen enough of houllier to know that he’ll make the job his own, but won’t rush anything.
houllier’s a proud man. a football man. he’ll want to leave a legacy at villa park he can point to as his own. we can look forward to him claiming future success as bearing his fingerprints as he has done with liverpool!
we may have discussed this before, but what is long term in football management? GH is on a three year contract and as long as he’s doing the job to his own and randy’s satisfaction and his health is ok i see no reason why he won’t do those three years, maybe with one or two extra.
is that long term? MON was on a rolling 12 month contract & did 4 years. was he long term? i argued he was based on actions of signing the youngsters the club were bringing in a long time ago to counter claims that his rolling contract meant he had an eye on the door all the time…
http://astonvillacentral.com/2009/01/mon-in-for-the-long-haul/
it’s a post that takes way too long to get to the point (the first four paragraphs are just waffle), but i’m pleased that it mentions lichaj & weimann, two players now in the first team squad.
that’s from january 2009, shortly after when AVC was born btw.
give houllier the time and fair crack he deserves, it’s still early days yet.
all those plus points you mention of Houllier at Liverpool is simply 100% NOT true
Houllier is deeply conservative as a manager, he was at Liverpool and up there he destroyed the youth system so much, it has never produced anyone of note since he left it.
Most of houllier is all about spin and bluster with little substance except for for a fluke first season and a cup win against Blooz
you seem to think i said something i didn’t, ian.
why are you so determined to find the negative in the bloke?
Messy. Very messy. GH is starting to worry me. Not convinced he is in it for the long haul. It’s like he’s playing at it.
my hope is that ireland will be one of those players who gets his head down, works hard, turns into a cracking player and then does one of those “the gaffer was right” interviews.
my fear is the opposite.
hate the lack of passion from the team and on the sidelines, hate Houllier and McAlistair sitting all game
thats me
because simply I do not rate him, I look at what he did at liverpool and see nothing at all to think he can do the job at VP. He had the most money of any manager during his time there and failed to win the title and brought utter shite that makes MON;’s buys of Sidwell et al look good.
too negative as Lawro said today
too long away
Safe to say you wouldn’t have given him the job if it were your choice then. That leaves Sven and Curbs, which one would you have hired?
neither Dan, you go all out for the man you really want, money talks
stop being nice about it
do you believe Houllier was first choice ?
well there we risk sliding into a pointless “debate”.
with respect, i’ll leave it there, ian. you’ve made your mind up in advance, i’ll judge the man on his villa record when he has one worth judging.
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