djdabush Posted January 19, 2019 Share Posted January 19, 2019 Reminds me of Westwood in that his stats look ok but he never seems to have impact on the game. A 'passer' who's passing is particularly hit and miss. On a few occasions today he gave away the ball in our defensive third. McGinn's having to do the job of three men at the moment. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rodders0223 Posted January 19, 2019 Share Posted January 19, 2019 It's either an 8 yard pass backwards to a fullback or an 80 yard punt. Nothing inbetween, nothing into feet and nothing incisive 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post HeyAnty Posted January 19, 2019 Popular Post Share Posted January 19, 2019 Connor ‘The butterfly’ Hourihane. Floats like a butterfly, stings like a butterfly 2 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Davkaus Posted January 19, 2019 Share Posted January 19, 2019 If we could sub him on and off for set pieces he'd be an asset, but he's a wimp. He belongs nowhere near the middle of the pitch. Bottles challenges and headers, and frequently looks like he's marking their players while we're on the ball, so he has an excuse not to receive a pass. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
S-Platt Posted January 19, 2019 VT Supporter Share Posted January 19, 2019 9 minutes ago, Davkaus said: If we could sub him on and off for set pieces he'd be an asset, but he's a wimp. He belongs nowhere near the middle of the pitch. Bottles challenges and headers, and frequently looks like he's marking their players while we're on the ball, so he has an excuse not to receive a pass. one decent set piece the rest was shite! that freekick at the end was utter garbage. Annoys the hell out of me as a player so weak I don't understand why he is being asked to anchor the midfield and Thor to play further forward bizarre. Both fish out of water. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
turvontour Posted January 19, 2019 Share Posted January 19, 2019 Just not very good is he when the onus is on him. Very much an icing on the cake type player when in a strong team e.g. goals v blues, derby etc. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest av1 Posted January 19, 2019 Share Posted January 19, 2019 Did this bloke ever make a Ireland team under Keane? (O'Neill). Dread to think what Keane would make of him. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Villarocker Posted January 19, 2019 Share Posted January 19, 2019 There was a time, towards the end of he game on our attack, where he got the ball and, whilst looking up to play a straight forward pass, one of the Hull players simply lent into him and dispossessed him. They then broke on us and it was panic stations at the back. Like so many have said, he's good on set pieces but in every other way he's just too wimpish and lightweight and we cannot go into every game hoping for a worldy from him. I feel sorry for McGinn because he's carrying the weight of three in that midfield right now! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zatman Posted January 19, 2019 Share Posted January 19, 2019 3 hours ago, av1 said: Did this bloke ever make a Ireland team under Keane? (O'Neill). Dread to think what Keane would make of him. Keane actually signed him for Ipswich Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Indigo Posted January 19, 2019 Share Posted January 19, 2019 It took us going 2 down and him getting in some petty scrap for him to wake up, and even then he wasn't impressive by any stretch. Honestly couldn't wrap my head around his performance today, it smacked of a massive lack of confidence but you can't afford to have your deep-lying midfielder shirking responsibility when you want to play the way Smith does. It's times like this where I can afford sympathy for a manager because Hourihane actively avoiding picking the ball off the centre backs, aka his job, and having so little awareness of what's around him that the crowd has to scream at him to turn in possession when he has about 10 yards of space behind him rather than facing his own goal and knocking it straight back to Chester/Elphick...I'd imagine it has him tearing his hair out. I normally have a bit more time for Hourihane, and despite the frustrations he also adds a useful option to the squad, but that today was shoddy and individual performances that demonstrably hinder the entire team can't be made up for with a good set piece delivery. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GENTLEMAN Posted January 20, 2019 Share Posted January 20, 2019 (edited) 5 hours ago, Indigo said: It took us going 2 down and him getting in some petty scrap for him to wake up, and even then he wasn't impressive by any stretch. Honestly couldn't wrap my head around his performance today, it smacked of a massive lack of confidence but you can't afford to have your deep-lying midfielder shirking responsibility when you want to play the way Smith does. It's times like this where I can afford sympathy for a manager because Hourihane actively avoiding picking the ball off the centre backs, aka his job, and having so little awareness of what's around him that the crowd has to scream at him to turn in possession when he has about 10 yards of space behind him rather than facing his own goal and knocking it straight back to Chester/Elphick...I'd imagine it has him tearing his hair out. I normally have a bit more time for Hourihane, and despite the frustrations he also adds a useful option to the squad, but that today was shoddy and individual performances that demonstrably hinder the entire team can't be made up for with a good set piece delivery. Spot on, I think to play such a role you need to have an excellent tactical awareness and picture of the game, coupled with a robustness and tenacity to win the midfield duels. Unfortunately, I would suggest these traits are his weakest. As you suggest, he very rarely turns or appears to have an adequate mental picture of the game. Furthermore, he's so slight and weak, it would be a dream to oppose him in the trenches of the midfield. His performance was epitomised by the moment when he received the ball from El Ghazi (after a clever bit of footwork and difficult pass well executed). With time to turn and move the play forward, without evening thinking he makes an instinctual pass backwards to one of the CBs (Elphick I think), who was being tightly marked and pressed. Overall leading to panic at the back and undoing the good bit of play by El Ghazi. I wonder given his goals and an assists could we potentially get a decent fee for him, although I do think he's a decent squad option, just not as a holding midfielder. Edited January 20, 2019 by GENTLEMAN Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Keyblade Posted January 20, 2019 Share Posted January 20, 2019 Back when he didn't play for us he was meant to be an all action midfielder. One of the best in the championship if not the best. He's completely different to how he was at Barnsley. Do we just make players worse or do we just break mentally weaker players and managers under the weight of expectation? It's happened too many times to be a coincidence. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
S-Platt Posted January 20, 2019 VT Supporter Share Posted January 20, 2019 3 hours ago, Keyblade said: Back when he didn't play for us he was meant to be an all action midfielder. One of the best in the championship if not the best. He's completely different to how he was at Barnsley. Do we just make players worse or do we just break mentally weaker players and managers under the weight of expectation? It's happened too many times to be a coincidence. I don't know for sure but I assume he played behind the striker for them. Playing in the role of Kante is just not for a piss weak player. I think he scored a hatrick last season playing off Davis against Norwich. Grealish being injured at the time. Opposition know he flaps playing the holding role and will just pass back to our defence no forward thoughts at all. It's easy for them to force mistakes hence the goals we concede. Same when Whelan plays there both slow in mind and body. Conor needs to play further forward where he is suited or not at all for me. Sign a proper holding midfielder that has pace and an eye for a pass with a football brain. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Johnnyp Posted January 20, 2019 Share Posted January 20, 2019 The man is one of the biggest whingers I've ever seen too. Lost the ball to a spot on and well timed tackle from a hull player yesterday that led to the chance Chester cleared off the line and the first thing hourihane does is hands up shouting at the ref. What a wimp. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rodders0223 Posted January 20, 2019 Share Posted January 20, 2019 26 minutes ago, Johnnyp said: The man is one of the biggest whingers I've ever seen too. Lost the ball to a spot on and well timed tackle from a hull player yesterday that led to the chance Chester cleared off the line and the first thing hourihane does is hands up shouting at the ref. What a wimp. The only logic I can think of was the other kids weren't allowed to tackle Conor at school. Everytime he gets caught on the ball the idiot thinks its a foul. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
briny_ear Posted January 20, 2019 Share Posted January 20, 2019 On 01/01/2019 at 16:33, mickjacobjr said: Terrible player an odd good free kick and goal all he does You forgot to mention the assists. Those things make him stand out in the current Villa squad so I’d keep him, thanks. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Farlz Posted January 20, 2019 Share Posted January 20, 2019 I can't stand this bloke. Abysmal footballer. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PieFacE Posted January 20, 2019 VT Supporter Share Posted January 20, 2019 Thought he was really poor yesterday. He's just way too one footed. Even simple things like him receiving the ball and turning with it look awkward because he can only use his left foot. I really want to like him, but he needs to be doing more. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tomaszk Posted January 20, 2019 Share Posted January 20, 2019 He's not abysmal, ability is at his disposal. He's just a total coward. Not interested in playing football under pressure and will happily hide away so he's not the person being blamed. Not the man you want in the trenches. He'll probably be useful when Grealish is back and we're looking good. Due to his goalscoring he's someone I'd definitely look to sell in the summer as we might be able to get £6/7m from some mugs. He could go and score 15 next season for someone else and I wouldn't care, because it's clear the sort of player he is, he'll never change. It'd 15 easy goals lost for a much more control of games and probably 25 goals scored by the rest of the team. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
praisedmambo Posted January 20, 2019 Share Posted January 20, 2019 (edited) His lack of pace is what's getting found out imo. He needs pacy players around him for his positive aspects to really shine. That's obviously not to say we should be building a team around him. Ultimately we need a DM with pace asap—so many attacks just wouldn't happen if the person in that position wasn't getting ghosted past every five minutes. Edited January 20, 2019 by praisedmambo Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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