Bitter And Blue: Usage Key To Stephen Ireland’s Success At Aston Villa

Bitter and Blue, SB Nation’s Manchester City blog, has its own view on the Milner-for-Ireland swap. Yesterday the site’s manager, Danny Pugsley, talked about Milner. Today, he looked at what Stephen Ireland could mean to Villa:

Looking at the Villa side, a lack of creativity was apparent last season. At times they could be one dimensional, particularly when deploying John Carew and Emile Heskey as outlets. This isn’t to say Villa don’t possess talent and if Ireland has the midfield built around him to a degree, you can see him forging alliances with both Ashley Young and Gabriel Aghbonlahor. If, however, he is constrained within a rigid 4-4-2 formation he could well struggle as much as he did at times last season.For more, you can read Danny’s piece at Bitter and Blue: Milner deal confirmed, fresh start for Ireland.