Ireland fit for Wolves?

Ireland returns to training.
Newcastle could be boosted by the long awaited return to fitness of Stephen Ireland, if the midfielder manages to come through a week of full training first.

Ireland was supposed to be ready for his debut a few weeks back although a thigh injury scuppered any chances of that and his debut was put on hold again. It would appear that the wait could finally be over for Ireland, and with Cheik Tiote out for the next two games due to suspension, the 24-year-old could be thrown in at the deep end.

Pardew told The Chronicle: “We’re hoping he’ll train fully on Monday, which would give him a week’s work going into the Wolves game.”

“He’s got a very good chance, although we’re conscious of what happened the last time, when he pulled a muscle in his thigh. We’ve taken a little bit more time over him. He could probably join in today or tomorrow, but we’ll hold him back until next week.”

“Stephen becomes an important figure for us in the last eight games,” Pardew said. “When Andy Carroll left, we wanted to bring in a quality player, and Stephen’s a quality player. He’s been a little bit unlucky with injury, but we think he’ll be available.”

Whether or not Ireland will be fit to start remains to be seen. In ordinary circumstances I’d have liked him to be introduced steadily with maybe a few substitute appearances to allow him to get back into the swing of things. But needs must, and the need for three points as well as a need for a replacement for Tiote may dictate.

This the midfield I would probably go with, although again much of this depends on the fitness of Ireland. It may well be too much too soon, but we are hardly blessed with other alternatives. We could play Guthrie instead maybe?

The impact of Stephen Ireland been discussed to great extent before, and the general consensus is that he is a player who can be good or bad in equal measure. Still, it’s looks as though he will be featuring heavily in our run in so I guess all that we can do is keep our fingers crossed that we see the good side, or the Manchester City side of Stephen Ireland, as opposed to the Aston Villa side of Stephen Ireland.

What do you think about that midfield? Would you go with something different?

Let us know what you think!

About toonsy

A lifelong Newcastle fan and current webmaster of this very 'blog who has the sole aim of creating a place by Newcastle United fans, for Newcastle United fans.

75 thoughts on “Ireland fit for Wolves?

  1. I wouldnt play him, I like him and i think he would be a good signing if he gets his fitness and form back but against Wolves want to see this:

    ————————Harper———————–
    —Simpson—-Taylor—Coloccini—Enrique—
    —Gutierrez—Barton—Nolan—-Ferguson—
    ——————-Ranger–Ameobi—————-

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  2. CC agree wholeheartedly with your team apart from Besty instead of Ranger and Ranger on for Ameobi around 65 mins. Jobsa’goodun

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  3. Agree with CC. Nolan’s on 9 yellows so Ireland will get his time in the middle anyways, for Blackpool we could see;

    Barton Tiote Ireland Jonas. 😀

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  4. Agree with post 1 and then post 2.
    Following that…post 3 is fine by me too.

    I reckon (and I have said this on the forum too) that Nolan and Ireland in centre mid leaves a gap when we are attacking. If we lose the ball, you have Joey drifting inside to cover as Nolan and Ireland aren’t defensively minded. Or Joey not drifting inside to cover them and there’s no one there. I would love to see 2 decent natural wingers for the first time this season (I dont rate Routledge as decent)

    On the other hand….how important is having a defensive midfielder nowadays, it never used to be that important in the past…did it?

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  5. Depending on how Best is, if he isn’t fit, I wouldnt mind seeing Nolan up top with Ameobi and then put Guthrie in central midfield with Barton. Ireland and Gutierrez can switch flanks throughout the game. Then later look to give Ferguson a good run, as I dont think Ireland will do 90min.

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  6. my team for wolves would be KEEPER – HARPER , LEFT BACK – ENRIQUE , CENTER HALFS – COLO AND TAYLOR , RIGHT BACK – SIMPSON , LEFT WING – GUTIEREZ , RIGHT WING – BARTON , CENTER MIDFIELD – NOLAN AND IRELAND , UPFRONT – RANGER AND AMEOBI AND BRING FERGUSON ON LAST 25-30 MINS FOR GUTIEREZ AND VUKIC FOR IRELAND

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  7. Army- I think your CAPs lock is on 😀

    I agree that your team is what we will see, however, a CM partnership of Ireland and Nolan might be to offensive. I wouldn’t be surprised to see Guthrie in a more defensive role with Ireland coming on as a sub.

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  8. icedog am ganm in 2 c her at 4 mara , shes not so bad 2day but stil getting lds of tightenings , hope the laddy hangs in there lol

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  9. 😆 😳 😛 🙁 😯 🙂 😈 😡 😕 😯 🙄 😛 :mrgreen: 😆 😀 👿 😎 😕 ❗ 😀 😳 🙄 🙂 😈 😡 😮

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  10. why the snide doesnt try jonas on the right i dont know,simpson will need help against jarvis imo

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  11. lads get sum metallica in 2 yous , the shortest straw – metallica , listen 2 it on youtube , class

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  12. Alreet plums, I would defo play him in a 4-5-1

    —————–Harps

    Simpson–Collo–Saylor–Enrique

    —————–Barton

    Jonas—–Nolan—-Ireland—-Fergie

    ————-Best/Ranger

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  13. raffo, like the idea.

    I never believe in playing with one up front against ‘lesser’ opposition at home though!

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  14. Lesser Moreno?!?! Wolves are a dangerous team and as others have said Barton will drift inside and Nolan and IReland are attacking. This negates that by allowing those 2 along with the front man to all interchange, with fergie and jonas providing width and will likely stay out there. Jonas can help simpson with Jarvis and we maintain a fluidity at home, and you would probably find with the players involved it would work out more attacking than an orthadox 4-4-2

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  15. If you had notice the inverted comma’s ‘ – ‘ around the word ‘lesser’

    You would maybe get the context I said it in.

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  16. 😉 No sarcasm intended mate, just wanted to point out that I agreed with you regarding Wolves being a supposed lesser team, before you even pulled me up on it!

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  17. I won’t have a word said against my mother in law bless her, she’s getting a satellite dish installed in Alicante for me….all 2.4m of the fecker 😀

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  18. Rich – **** me. You trying to pick up the space station? You could have borrowed my ears for that if you wanted 😆

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  19. Oh dear,now then i found out that we face Wolves (h) at 3pm. 😥 😥

    Another match deem nt getting 3points. 😕

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  20. Moreno….its a block of flats(10ish floors) so it’ll going on the roof then the cable down to us on the 2nd floor……then we’ll have to move the fecker when we buy our own place.

    Toonsy… they reckon ya need 1.8m minimum in Alicante ‘cos of the weak signal strength and none of these girly mesh ones we have over here either………put ya lugs would have been tekn the **** size wise 😆

    Ice… as long as I’m a 2 faced git that gets what I want, then I’m happy 😀

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  21. Harper

    Simpson Colo Mike Fergie

    Barton Ireland Nolan Jonas

    Best Ranger

    Thats what I want, I know Ranger wont play even though he should considering Shola is even more useless than normal with his mask and Loven offers very little.

    Even if Jose is fit I would give him a rest, have to be careful with hamstrings, make sure hes 100% for the last few games.

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  22. Andy NUFC-

    Yeah, defo agree about givin’ Jose a rest. Hamstrings are bastards like. Get a small tear and it’s there for months. What a pain the ****… 😉

    Hope to see Ireland come out and dominate. We GOTTA win this game. It’s feckin Wolves, ya kna? I mean, Christ, we simply gotta own these chavs.

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  23. OHurley, don’t know where your hamstring is but it shouldn’t be a pain in the **** mate 😉 😆

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  24. I just think that the need for three points against Wolves means it is worth the risk of playing Jose. The quicker we get the points the quicker we can start to tinker.

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  25. I think Oblong’s formation is a good shout actually. Colo has played DM before as well…..

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  26. I just think its a good idea to have Barton in the middle pulling the strings.

    then bring Ireland and Ranger off the bench second half.

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  27. I’ll take ya word for it OH….not my area expertise, but then I’m not from “deliverence” country 😉 😆

    Anyhoo.. I’m away to the gym…..oops, away to the bar to see Jim I meant. later lads 😀

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  28. richietoon – Didn’t know you’re off to Alicante. Got a house up the road just outside Algorfa. Nice bit of Spain, that. Heading out there in 2 weeks for a bit of sun and get the place ready for the season’s rentals.

    If you get sick of the flat in town, you can always rent my place. We’ve got a giant sat dish… but it is shared between all the houses. 🙂

    When you out there?

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  29. Back on subject: unless I’ve misunderstood Ireland’s cv completely, he’s no defensive midfielder. And we NEED to play a defensive midfielder. Guthrie has his critics, but he did a great job covering for Tiote before and he’ll do the same again. Ireland would just be crowding the same bit of turf as Barton and Nolan, leaving a huge gap behind.

    Which raises the obvious point: where do you put Ireland?

    Nowhere. Don’t need him. Silly expense.

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  30. Whumpie..fly out the 4th April, Alicante itself. The flats **** but it’s wor lass’s step dads and its empty so we can live there for nowt ’til our house sells here then we’ll buy our own place….can’t wait…..reet defo off to bar now, laters

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  31. Richie, you douchebag! I’m not from Deliverance Country, mate! Nashville is a very nice, very progressive, open-minded metropolis… that happens to be surrounded on all sides by Deliverance country 😆 :mrgreen:

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