Conor shocking Again

You were very dismissive of me in October/November time when I pointed out how poor Hourihane was defensively, and when I doubted if he could play in the centre of a 4 man midfield. I remember that you pointed out how many goals and assists he had at that time. Now I find myself in support of your opinion and coming to the defence of Hourihane in the face of those who criticise him after a performance on the right wing, a position that no-one in his right mind could believe that Hourihane could play. Not only was that bonkers, but it also turns out that Crewe were playing 3-5-2, a formation which has a weakness at full back against speedy and direct wingers. Hourihane was substituted not because he was bad. He was substituted because our stand-in manager belatedly realised that he had made a mistake in his original choices for 4-4-2. Four central midfielders in a mid-field four is almost as bad an idea as four central defenders in a back four. As has happened repeatedly lately, because his form has dropped away, Hourihane is the scapegoat that many need to find in order to explain away a poor performance.

 

Played on the right wing ? With a right winger on the bench.

Says more about the temp gaffer than the players.

Let's get a manager in sharpish. Let Bunny get back to the Academy.


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Where would you play Hourihane?

 

Behind the front 2. He can't defend, he's not a wide man but he can pass, shoot and create chances. Currently we're wasting one of our most valuable assets because he doesn't run about a lot and kick people.


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That's good, but how do you set up the rest of the team?

You're (imo) then building a team around hourihane, and I'm not sure he's good enough.

in fact i'm sure he is not good enough

 

Hourihane's in the same boat as Mellis was.

Can't be trusted to play centre mid in a 4-4-2 & the manager wants to play with two strikers so he can't play in a midfield 3 so he's getting pushed out to the wings.

 

Well either a 4-3-1-2 or 4-4-1-1 with Hourihane playing off the lone striker .

He's more than good enough, but it's all about opinions.


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Name the players in their positions.

 

Kin ell you giving marks out of 10 ?

Midfield 3 Scowen in front of back 4, Bailey and Berry then Hourihane off front 2.

Midfield 4 same again but with Lalkovic and Hourihane off striker.

Avoiding loanees.




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Thanks for making the effort! 10 out of 10 for that.

 

lol, cheers.

 

Hourihane will be a quality championship player one day but over the last few months he has been crap, he doesn't have a divine right to play and needs to buck his ideas up, stop sulking and a quality player should be flexible enough to shine in various roles. I don't think we should build a team around him but hopefully he will find form again soon and fit in with the rest of the team if not drop him or let him go because at present others could be doing a better job

 

He was awful today for me but even though I don't rate him due to his poor work rate I wouldn't get shut. He needs a good lesson in how working hard makes even the best players better and I think a run in the reserves (or whatever we call them now) while sitting on the bench will give him that lesson. I certainly don't think he should be gone in the summer though as he has natural ability and should be given a chance to prove he also has the balls for a fight and the work ethic required to turn him from a mediocre player with flashes of brilliance to a brilliant player whose flashes of brilliance look ordinary to him. As for today, well he's not a right winger so like the umpteen players before I'm this season who have been forced to play there out of position he was never going to have a good game.

 

I know I'm a lovely person for referring to his 12 goals and 14 assists, but are we really suggesting he moves on in the summer because he int good enough? For me, he's got so many strengths that we're not using. In fact (and even under Danny) we seem to be stifling his effectiveness.

If we're not playing him central (either in a two, three or as a number 10) then don't pick him.

But we remember the Swindon game don't we? He was dropped. We created **** all. He comes on second half, we could/should have scored and he was key to that. But our centre halves cost us that day.

I digress.

I like Hourihane. I feel he, Berry, Bailey and Scowen are good additions in central midfield, and will hopefully step up to the plate regularly next season. I've no idea why we're picking Pearson. I really like him, he's great, but don't see the point. I feel Scowen can do his job. Then we don't have to waste him out wide, and, and I know this sounds crazy, but we could play a winger, on the wing...

Barmy I know.

 

We aren't good enough to have the luxury of playing Hourihane behind a front two, so he'd have to play behind Waring and I'm not sure how successful that would be. Lalkovic has been the only remotely effective wide man until O'Sullivan played today and had some success. Hourihane would look better in a better side for me and at the moment we have to grind out results because we are mediocre at best. At times he looks to be strolling though and I'd give him a rest...

 

We created and scored more from the Hourihane, Berry, Bailey midfield. granted we also had Winnall to finish the chances. However I felt we were one player short of a decent midfield at that time. Since then Berry has been dropped, Bailey Dropped and Hourihane pushed out wide. We haven't crreated or scored as many. Granted Winnall has also been out. I think we decided to dismantle the formation dabbling with 4-5-1 & 4-3-3. We are in L1 with young players. Right now we don't have the quality of player or squad to vary people positions and formations, and we stil don't know our best side. We need some consistency when the new manager comes in with a clear gameplan and where players can play to their strengths. Confidence grew yesterday after we scored and we looked a much better team last 30 mins. Building means getting progressively better and more competetive. The test for any manager for me is progression.

 

Played some great football too. This idea that we've been ***** all season isn't true. We didn't always get the results, but up until Winnall being injured, I was really enjoying the season. A young striker scoring lots of goals, a young midfield player doing the same and a team that played fast, attacking, one touch football. We just needed a hard tackling midfield player so we were no longer conceding as many as we scored. We were a very good attacking side, but not much cop defensively.

Then everyone started getting injured. It was no longer a case of what formation shall we play, more like can we get a team on to the pitch. And everything went to hell. We haven't recovered from all that, some players have lost form completely, some are still injured and we're playing 4-4-2 which has produced some of the most sterile football we've witnessed for years. Some games we win, mainly due to the fact that the set piece delivery this season has been superb, some we lose, usually down to an individual error from one of our players. Rarely, in home games at any rate, do either side fashion more than one or two chances in the entire game.

I'd like to see us go back to playing how we were earlier in the season. We've got the tough tackler now in Scowen, who will take a lot of the pressure off Bailey. Although, as Wilson found out, maybe it won't work without Winnall's presence up front because we have no other forward at the club with anywhere near his quality.

 

Your correct that we have played some good football this season. Maybe 5 games at the most. The rest of it has been as you state " some of the most sterile football we have witnessed for years".

Winnall will make a difference when he comes back but some of the ***** games iv'e witnessed have included him in the side.

I think that with the correct man appointed we have some players who have the ability to step up to the plate with fresh guidance.

The question is who will be classed as the correct man and will we appoint the correct man?

I look forward to the answer being revealed, sooner rather than later, in an ideal world.

 

With all due respect, you haven't been to the games to judge the performances. Talk about the results all you like, but don't tell me how we played in games I attended that you didn't. Well, do if you like, but I'm obviously not going to listen to you.