StefanAVFC Posted September 16, 2018 VT Supporter Share Posted September 16, 2018 Should be a week in week out starter 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VILLAMARV Posted September 16, 2018 Share Posted September 16, 2018 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Trickster Posted September 16, 2018 Share Posted September 16, 2018 He scored a set piece, which is great of course, but he is only starting week in week out for me if you can guarantee goals most games because his general play doesn't offer enough. Saying a player is a certain starter because he scored from a dead ball I always find a strange reason. He might deserve his chance to reclaim his spot because of it but it wouldn't change my mind much about him playing every week. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Reivax_Villa Posted September 16, 2018 Share Posted September 16, 2018 Hourihane is a natural deep lying playmaker he has had to change his style since he has joined us to become a box to box midfielder. For me he is one of our most effective players. Hourihane playing under a head coach we would really see him excel. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TRO Posted September 16, 2018 Share Posted September 16, 2018 (edited) I have mixed feelings on him.....love his goals, but have reservations about the mundane aspects of a game......doesn't win enough ball for me.....i know he's not a "ball winner" but players have to chip in with the ugly stuff. Dack is not a ball winner, but displays a defiance on the ball and mixes it with the opposition.....I would like to see Conor do more of that. He needs to seize the initiative more.......We have too many players leaving it to someone else, instead of seizing the initiative. Edited September 16, 2018 by TRO Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Trickster Posted September 16, 2018 Share Posted September 16, 2018 36 minutes ago, Reivax_Villa said: Hourihane is a natural deep lying playmaker he has had to change his style since he has joined us to become a box to box midfielder. For me he is one of our most effective players. Hourihane playing under a head coach we would really see him excel. He has played that deep lying playmaker quite a bit for Villa really. That was an excuse about why he only had 2 assists last season. He does an ok job, but I don't know in what sense he could be one of our most effective players. He'd actually be a very good player if he had more pace but he gets caught out so much because he's a treacle runner, like most of our midfield tbh. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
foreveryoung Posted September 16, 2018 Share Posted September 16, 2018 He has quality all day, unfortunately Bruce has no idea how to take advantage of this, same with Hogan. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Farlz Posted September 16, 2018 Share Posted September 16, 2018 It's very harsh that he's been dropped to the bench this season Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TRO Posted September 16, 2018 Share Posted September 16, 2018 His goals are a real asset.....and he does get them with reasonable regularity. someone has to be really at it.....to keep him out. i don't think anyone really is right now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mikeyp102 Posted September 16, 2018 Share Posted September 16, 2018 2 hours ago, Reivax_Villa said: Hourihane is a natural deep lying playmaker he has had to change his style since he has joined us to become a box to box midfielder. For me he is one of our most effective players. Hourihane playing under a head coach we would really see him excel. Disagree entirely. He is best running into the box getting shots away. More of an attacking midfielder than a cm. Don’t think he is good as a deep lying at all. His long range passing isn’t great, and his positional play is poor. Before he came here I’m pretty sure he was playing an attacking role. The problem we have is that Jack should be playing the attacking role (Bruce gets him to be more of a dm, but that for another thread), so Conor has to play deeper if he wants to be in the team. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zatman Posted September 16, 2018 Share Posted September 16, 2018 7 hours ago, Trickster said: He scored a set piece, which is great of course, but he is only starting week in week out for me if you can guarantee goals most games because his general play doesn't offer enough. Saying a player is a certain starter because he scored from a dead ball I always find a strange reason. He might deserve his chance to reclaim his spot because of it but it wouldn't change my mind much about him playing every week. he has the most assists in the Championship in the last 2 seasons and probably has the most goals from a midfielder in that time as well Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Trickster Posted September 16, 2018 Share Posted September 16, 2018 26 minutes ago, Zatman said: he has the most assists in the Championship in the last 2 seasons and probably has the most goals from a midfielder in that time as well A lot of those assists were for Barnsley. I'm not knocking him as a player but I don't think his performances make him a certain starter. He has played in a whole lot of our dire games where our midfield have been wafer thin where we have been murdered and ran through with ease. He gets the plaudits when he scores, but quite a few of those goals was from average to poor performances. Stats can elevate poor performances too high imo. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Fun Factory Posted September 16, 2018 Share Posted September 16, 2018 8 hours ago, Trickster said: He scored a set piece, which is great of course, but he is only starting week in week out for me if you can guarantee goals most games because his general play doesn't offer enough. Saying a player is a certain starter because he scored from a dead ball I always find a strange reason. He might deserve his chance to reclaim his spot because of it but it wouldn't change my mind much about him playing every week. He averaged about 1 in 4 last season, of which a lot of the time he was asked to play deeper. And Villa last year were hardly a free flowing side. No Villa midfield player since Milner has scored as many goals in a season than Conor last year. I am not sure what you are on about. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Indigo Posted September 16, 2018 Share Posted September 16, 2018 Personally I'd have him over McGinn at the moment. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Trickster Posted September 16, 2018 Share Posted September 16, 2018 (edited) 22 minutes ago, The Fun Factory said: He averaged about 1 in 4 last season, of which a lot of the time he was asked to play deeper. And Villa last year were hardly a free flowing side. No Villa midfield player since Milner has scored as many goals in a season than Conor last year. I am not sure what you are on about. That stat about not since Milner is fair enough, he had a good goalscoring season last year. It has to be said in a poorer league though of course, it's only slightly comparable considering the shocking centre mids we've had since that time. I'd just rather midfielders play very well in midfield rather than needing goals to bump up their performance in a slightly false way. Saying that there'll be no complaints from me if he keeps scoring and gets 10-15 this season. I just think the games when he doesn't score tells more overall. Edited September 16, 2018 by Trickster Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zatman Posted September 16, 2018 Share Posted September 16, 2018 28 minutes ago, Trickster said: That stat about not since Milner is fair enough, he had a good goalscoring season last year. It has to be said in a poorer league though of course, it's only slightly comparable considering the shocking centre mids we've had since that time. I'd just rather midfielders play very well in midfield rather than needing goals to bump up their performance in a slightly false way. Saying that there'll be no complaints from me if he keeps scoring and gets 10-15 this season. I just think the games when he doesn't score tells more overall. different leagues but last season performance from Hourihane was more than we got from Delph, Westwood, Gardner and few others in the entire Villa career Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Villarocker Posted September 16, 2018 Share Posted September 16, 2018 7 hours ago, TRO said: His goals are a real asset.....and he does get them with reasonable regularity. someone has to be really at it.....to keep him out. i don't think anyone really is right now. Was he our second or third highest scorer last season? I agree TRO, until someone's knocking them in regularly from centre midfield he needs to be playing all the time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Czechlad Posted September 16, 2018 Share Posted September 16, 2018 If Hourihane is only good for set pieces, then why does McGinn start over him? McGinn's assists have been from dead ball situations. I'd argue both McGinn and Hourihane are quality at crossing in balls off set pieces, but other than that, what has McGinn done to justify benching Conor? McGinn doesn't create chances from open play. He doesn't get into scoring opportunities, and he isn't great defensively. Other than being a high energy player, what does McGinn bring? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post jackbauer24 Posted September 16, 2018 Popular Post Share Posted September 16, 2018 The Hourihane vs McGinn argument should be a moot subject. Play them both. We don't need, or benefit, from the Jedinak role of a faux fifth defender. Between Hourihane and McGinn there's plenty of energy to defend, hassle, attack, pass and score. They should be the central partnership with Grealish just in front or on the wing like he finished vs Blackburn. In fact the team that finished vs Blackburn is the team that should basically be our starting XI most games (maybe swap Taylor for Hutton and put Elmo in instead). Bring on likes of El Ghazi or Adomah if we need more going forward or Thor/Whelen/Jedinak if we need to tighten up. But can't we, just once, set up to win rather than not to lose?! Play ten games safely a get ten draws gets you ten points, play ten games and go for it and even with only a 50% success rate you're on 15pts. We'd be capable with our team/squad of winning more than we lost if we actually weren't scared of losing - we've recovered so many late points because when we need to we actually can attack, Bruce just sets us up not to do that for eighty minutes or until we're losing. 6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stevo985 Posted September 17, 2018 VT Supporter Share Posted September 17, 2018 I still don't really understand the furore around him being "dropped". I like Hourihane, but he plays as a part of 2 man attacking midfield (assuming we always have 1 DM). The other attacking midfielder is Grealish who I'm pretty sure we all agree should play. So there's only one position to play for. We signed McGinn in the summer who also plays that position and seems to be pretty **** good. So McGinn has gone into that position and Hourihane starting on the bench. But he's still got plenty of minutes, is performing well off the bench (competition helping perhaps) and I'm sure if he outperforms McGinn he'll be starting games again. It's not like he's been bombed out and never used. He's not been shipped off on loan. That's what having money (relatively speaking)is all about. You buy players for positions that you've already got players in (the discussion about we should have spent money on the defence is for another thread) I'd like to see Hourihane getting a few more starts again if he keeps performing like this. But I don't see why it's such a big deal that he hasn't been starting. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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