Ireland criticism uncalled for and complete nonsense

Few members of our support, even those who had watched the academy sides week in, week out for the last few years, could have predicted the transformation we've seen in a certain Irish midfielder over the last twelve months or so. From exciting bit-part youth player said to be unfancied by the current manager, he's turned himself into the most vital cog in the Manchester City engine. Disappointing to hear then that some, albeit a small minority, already seem to be concerned about his form so far this year.

As Ireland has indicated himself during interviews since the start of the current campaign, his role in the side now requires more discipline than previously. He's a central midfielder rather than a marauding box-to-box player, and with that maybe doesn't have the licence to be as explosive as he once did. Whether we agree with him having to play a deeper role is debatable, and ultimately irrelevant. I'm not sure it's particularly necessary, especially when Nigel de Jong is in the side, but the manager knows best and i trust his judgement.

The main reason for his lesser impact on games of late, though, is probably down to the ankle knock suffered during the 1-0 win at Portsmouth a few weeks ago. It was clear to me that Michael Brown had been sent out to, shall we say, 'quieten' our better players, and one challenge on Ireland left a particularly bad taste in the mouth, resulting in the player's withdrawal from the game. Since then he's looked a bit less keen to put his foot in, to grab games by the scruff of the neck, understandably so.

We're not exactly sure what the cause of his substitution last night was, just the fact that he was again relatively quiet by his standards and then brought off after suffering some sort of dizziness. That may well have been from an incident during the game, or could simply be a case of him feeling under the weather. Either way, i think criticism of his performance, both against Fulham and during previous games is extremely harsh.

Football fans are notoriously quite reactionary, i include myself in that, but people getting on the back of our best player after a few unspectacular games is beyond stupid. Last year, in my opinion, he was the best central midfielder in the country, certainly the most improved. Put bluntly, without him we'd have been fucked. As better players join the club it's perhaps fair to say we won't rely on solely him as much, but it's small-minded to suggest he's anything less than vital for us.

Despite the fact that he's transformed himself from squad player to key asset in such a way, we need to remember that he's still a young lad, and this is only his third season as a regular in the side. Even had we not changed our style, brought in several other key players and were he not both injured and ill he'd still have my full support. Some sort of dip in form had to be expected, he did the work of three men last season. The boy, for my money, is still our best and most dangerous player. The few asking questions about his form and commitment are idiots and need to cut him some slack.