The Conor Hourihane Thread | Page 3 | Vital Football

The Conor Hourihane Thread

JP Healy said:
Hi CDX.Can you please settle the Connor Hourihane debate? The old fellah was from a few miles west of Bandon so l would say Connor's surname as Hew-ree- harne. Anywhere near?
Click to expand...

I can't Im up the country and never heard it before, to be honest I would have said Whore-ra-han myself. Like others have said if Connor says its one thing then thats what it is but doesnt mean thats how I'll say it.
 
DeanoVilla said:
How anyone could class Hourihane as a bad player is beyond me.

I get how everyone needs a scapegoat, but his form over the past 3 years has been fantastic for a so called bad player.
Click to expand...
Because he does absolutely nothing for 85 minutes, then he gets the ball at the edge of the area or for a free kick and pops a goal in.

He doesn't dribble, he doesn't tackle, he's not much of a passer unless he has all the time in the world on the ball, he's not great at pressing or marking, he doesn't do much running, he's like the invisible man. He's my favourite bad player of all the bad players we've ever had at Villa though ?
 
DeanoVilla said:
Stopped reading at that point. Just don't agree at all.
Click to expand...
I think Villa fans watch the same player, see all the same attributes then either judge him to be good or bad. I'm more of a John McGinn fan, someone you can see working for 90 minutes box to box with real magic. Hourihane has talent but it's not enough for me. He doesn't have enough technically or pace wise to be advanced like Jack or John and he doesn't possess enough defensively to play in Douglas or Nakambas place. Hes stuck in no man's land.
 
I've been trying to figure out who the one player is who I would compare our Connor to, who does the same kind of job for his club and yet gets adulation rather than criticism.

The name I came up with was Christian Eriksen.

Now before you laugh, look at their goals and assist stats over the past 3 seasons -


Hourihane -

2019/20 - 1 goals and 1 assist in 274 minutes
2018/19 - 8 goals and 11 assists in 3,318 minutes
2017/18 - 11 goals and 2 assists in 3,688 minutes


Eriksen -

2019/20 - 1 goal 1 assist in 515 minutes
2018/19 - 8 goals and 12 assists in 2,772 minutes
2017/18 - 10 goals and 10 assists in 3,226 minutes


Pretty similar overall. But bare in mind Eriksen is playing in a much better team who attack more often and is surrounded by much better players.

If you aren't convinced by simple goals/assists stats, then we can drill a little further -

Taking the last 3 seasons as a whole and averaging out............


Tackles per game -

Connor 1.47
Eriksen 1.33


Clearences per game -

Connor 1.2
Eriksen 0.4


Dribbled past per game -

Connor 0.87
Eriksen 1.07


Blocks per game -

Connor 0.1
Eriksen 0.03


Times dispossesed per game -

Connor 0.37
Eriksen 1.23


Bad Control per Game -

Connor 0.7
Eriksen 1.83


Pass Success Percentage -

Connor 86.53%
Eriksen 81.87%



Now I know you'll throw in the fact they were playing in different leagues but that's besides the point. I'm not saying Connor is better than Eriksen, I'm saying he is a similar type of player and assessing each players worth to their team.

You can't say all Connor does is score and assist but is useless for the other 85 minutes, as if you said that about him you'd have to say the same about Eriksen given the stats above. And I don't hear anyone saying that about Eriksen.

Fact is Connor is a very good player at the role he does.
 
ldgavfc said:
I think Villa fans watch the same player, see all the same attributes then either judge him to be good or bad. I'm more of a John McGinn fan, someone you can see working for 90 minutes box to box with real magic. Hourihane has talent but it's not enough for me. He doesn't have enough technically or pace wise to be advanced like Jack or John and he doesn't possess enough defensively to play in Douglas or Nakambas place. Hes stuck in no man's land.
Click to expand...

I'm more of a McGinn fan too.

And in keeping with the Eriksen comparison is he blessed with pace or defensive acumen? The stats above show Connor is better defensively, and I'm pretty sure Eriksen isn't pacey.
 
If he can keep up his effort like the last game he'll be ok.
1 assist, 1 drive into the box to win a penalty and a worldy goal.
Plus all the other tidy stuff he did. Not a bad contribution.
 
DeanoVilla said:
I've been trying to figure out who the one player is who I would compare our Connor to, who does the same kind of job for his club and yet gets adulation rather than criticism.

The name I came up with was Christian Eriksen.

Now before you laugh, look at their goals and assist stats over the past 3 seasons -


Hourihane -

2019/20 - 1 goals and 1 assist in 274 minutes
2018/19 - 8 goals and 11 assists in 3,318 minutes
2017/18 - 11 goals and 2 assists in 3,688 minutes


Eriksen -

2019/20 - 1 goal 1 assist in 515 minutes
2018/19 - 8 goals and 12 assists in 2,772 minutes
2017/18 - 10 goals and 10 assists in 3,226 minutes


Pretty similar overall. But bare in mind Eriksen is playing in a much better team who attack more often and is surrounded by much better players.

If you aren't convinced by simple goals/assists stats, then we can drill a little further -

Taking the last 3 seasons as a whole and averaging out............


Tackles per game -

Connor 1.47
Eriksen 1.33


Clearences per game -

Connor 1.2
Eriksen 0.4


Dribbled past per game -

Connor 0.87
Eriksen 1.07


Blocks per game -

Connor 0.1
Eriksen 0.03


Times dispossesed per game -

Connor 0.37
Eriksen 1.23


Bad Control per Game -

Connor 0.7
Eriksen 1.83


Pass Success Percentage -

Connor 86.53%
Eriksen 81.87%



Now I know you'll throw in the fact they were playing in different leagues but that's besides the point. I'm not saying Connor is better than Eriksen, I'm saying he is a similar type of player and assessing each players worth to their team.

You can't say all Connor does is score and assist but is useless for the other 85 minutes, as if you said that about him you'd have to say the same about Eriksen given the stats above. And I don't hear anyone saying that about Eriksen.

Fact is Connor is a very good player at the role he does.
Click to expand...

I think you're actually spot on there. He's a championship level Eriksen.
 
DeanoVilla said:
I'm more of a McGinn fan too.

And in keeping with the Eriksen comparison is he blessed with pace or defensive acumen? The stats above show Connor is better defensively, and I'm pretty sure Eriksen isn't pacey.
Click to expand...
You're actually very shrewd to pick out the similarities and I think you're very right but there's a very obvious step in quality from Eriksen to Hourihane. Eriksen can do what Hourihane does while balancing on the edge of a needle, Hourihane needs a lot of space to do what he does.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.