Hourihane

I can't remember the last time he had a crack from outside the area. I'm not sure why he isn't getting into those positions at the minute when he was doing it regularly for the first 20 games of the season.

 

We've obviously trained it out of him.

 

More like the kid probably had a load of energy at the start of the season but after a winter of starting every game on heavy pitches has hit the wall. It's a fitness issue for me.

 

Just joking you're right. It's been a long season for him playing at a higher level with a team that has been heavily reliant on him and a fanbase that would rather see cloggers like Dawson than any sort of creative player.

 

Couple of penalties from Conor or ones the goalie should have put his cap on...

http://youtu.be/rIjsj83bRKo

http://youtu.be/hhJLQauXnc0

 

I know what you're saying, but with regard to cutting a team open with a killer pass, who would that pass be to? Over the last 6 months, certainly since Cole went back, we've only had a lone target man ahead of him. His only options are to go square or backwards. JoS gave him a different option and I thought Hourihane's form was better when he was here.

 

Yes he can.

We don't play the game where a killer pass is reqd

Forwards who have struggled to score without his assists even the best forwards need a decent delivery only hourihane has done this on a regular basis,well on a more regular basis than any other squad member anyway.

There's room for improvement of course there is and I would imagine Lee will be working on that but cheering when he is subbed or booing him during game wouldn't help his progress IMO. Of course there are players who would be able to use the negativity to their advantage but I don't think he will be one of those imo

 

A couple of things to remember:

He's playing at a higher level than he ever has before.
He's started every game this season.
He's contributed to the majority of our goals.
He was a bargain, we've done much worse with Premier League loanees or journeymen who we'd be paying a lot more for.

...and perhaps most importantly:

He's playing for a League One team so he's not going to be perfect or we wouldn't have him. We were all worried he might be sold on in January, if he'd have been as good at everything as everyone seems to expect him to be then he'd definitely be gone this summer. Let's have patience and develop him here, he will probably be much improved for his second season.

 

Without him we would be down. At this level his quality from corners and free kicks is vital, yes his form has dropped along with him scoring goals, but his assists have kept up all season long!! He performs best at the front of the diamond, but with this shape we have no width. If we could get a fully fit Declan John and a good attacking right back then we could be onto something with this shape as Bailey could sit as the holder, and Scowen and Berry in the middle!

Without this formation he struggles, maybe in an advanced role of a middle 3 he could do ok, but I don't always like one up front! I'm praying for John O'Sullivan to come back, un-used sub again!! He creates so much width and I thought Connor was just starting to look good again with more space created in the middle!!

 

If Berry or Scowen or whoever was taking virtually every set piece I'd imagine they'd have the same amount of assists. His delivery is nothing special, we justt have some very dangerous big lads in our side at the moment.


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We didnt when Hourihane was racking up most of his assists and goals.

 

We aren't the best in the league at set pieces because we gave a couple of big lads in fact we have one of the smallest squads in the league. We are the best in the league at them because of Hourihane. Admit it be a better person for once. It won't kill you.

 

Nyatanga, Cranie, M'Voto Ramage, Waring even Winnall, all reasonablly big lads, good in the air and score from set pieces. Hourihane floats a ball into a general area in the box, its not like he's whipping them in at a pinpoint position. He's no better then anybody else we've had in recent year on dead balls, penalties aside.


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Dismissing Hourihane's corner assists because it's just "knocking the ball in" is absolutely ridiculous. He is the best set piece taker I've seen since I started going (10 years ago give or take)

And also "because we have big lads" we've had a few big lads before and I don't think I've ever seen us score more than a few goals from corners in a season before this season.

 

95 posts in this thread now. Goals and assists, but has faults. If he was perfect he wouldn't be here. And he's young and learning. Johnson will in no doubt make him a better player and get some more work rate out of him. Enjoy him while he's still here, because when he improves further he will be sold. Then the numb ties will be moaning that we always sell our best players.

 

This

With brass knobs on

 

The whole reason the thread 'Corner Watch' was set up was because we've always been so bad at them. We had M'Voto, Cranie, Nyatanga and Ramage last season but we didn't have Hourihane. We also didn't have as many goals score from corners. If you look at the goals scored from corners this season (courtesy of Corner Watch) we've had:

Crewe (away) - Corner taker Hourihane - Scorer Cranie
Coventry (away) Corner taker Hourihane - Scorer Lita
MK Dons (home) - Corner taker Jennings - Scorer Cole
Rochdale (away)- Corner taker Hourihane - Scorer Ramage
Sheff Utd (away) - Corner taker Hourihane - Scorer Winnall
Colchester (home) - Corner taker Hourihane - Scorer Ramage
Doncaster (home) - Corner taker Hourihane - Scorer Nyatanga
Walsall (away) Corner Taker Hourihane - Scorer Nyatanga
Crewe (home) Corner Taker Smith - Scorer Own Goal
Walsall (home) Corner Taker Hourihane - Scorer Waring

Almost all taken by Hourihane and the majority scored by players who were here last season but for some reason weren't scoring from corners. Maybe they've just had a growth spurt? Also, I don't think Winnall or Lite are all that tall at 5'9" ish who both got one. Pearson has been taking quite a few recently but we haven't scored from any of those yet. Maybe the 'big lads' are all shrinking when he takes them?

 

the reason hourihane sometimes shruggles is because we have no width meaning he has no space in midfield

 

I think that can be attributed to the big gulf in difference between the quality of defences we came up against last year to this.


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And the reason we have no width is because we have to change our shape to accomodate him.


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