Conor Hourihane - thanks and farewell

[Risso]

He's a very limited player at this level.  Got a great shot on him, but when he's not doing that, he's too slow and weak to really help the team out any other aspect of the game.  When he starts you really don't notice that he's even playing for the most part.

[garyshawsknee]

Too limited to get time on the ball in this league to shoot or spray out long passes, doesn't break up play or gets stuck in. His dead ball distribution is second to none, but that doesn't warrant a starting place. But his involvement shows the limitations of our squad.

[AsTallAsLions]

He's a very limited player at this level.  Got a great shot on him, but when he's not doing that, he's too slow and weak to really help the team out any other aspect of the game.  When he starts you really don't notice that he's even playing for the most part.

Accurate summary.

[Bad English]

He's a very limited player at this level.  Got a great shot on him, but when he's not doing that, he's too slow and weak to really help the team out any other aspect of the game.  When he starts you really don't notice that he's even playing for the most part.

Accurate summary.

I swear to McGrath that I didn't see him do a single thing while watching on TV the other day. He's just invisible.

[Rudy Can't Fail]

He's no use against the top teams, they just pass the ball around him but can be useful especially when at home against bottom half sides. Obviously he's being asked to play a position that doesn't suit his strengths, he's far better further up the field. Another example of Smith's round holes, square pegs.

[VILLA MOLE]

He would be great if you could bring him on for set pieces like in hockey

[pauliewalnuts]

He would be great if you could bring him on for set pieces like in hockey

Yep.

I like him but I’m just not sure he adds enough over the course of ninety minutes. Unless there’s a free kick opportunity of course.

[old man villa fan]

He's no use against the top teams, they just pass the ball around him but can be useful especially when at home against bottom half sides. Obviously he's being asked to play a position that doesn't suit his strengths, he's far better further up the field. Another example of Smith's round holes, square pegs.

I do not think it is fair to blame Smith for Hourihane's lack of ability at this level. With Grealish in the team, there is no place for him to play further up the field.  He has one strength at this level and that is his ability of striking the ball.  He does not warrant a place in the side on that alone. Of the 5 fit midfield players we had before Drinkwater came in, I think he is the 4th best and the only reason he gets in the team is because 2 of the 3 ahead of him need resting from the team at times or, as is the case now, we have to bring in the extra midfield player.

I think if we are being honest, Hourihane and Lansbury should have been replaced but we only had so much money to spend in the summer with a lot of places to be filled.

[brontebilly]

Let's be honest Hourihane should realistically be where Lansbury currently is in the squad. When we have plenty of possession against the bottom 12 teams or so he can be a very useful asset. Impact sub or starter but never regular starter at this level. In saying that his painful inability to even compete without the ball is unacceptable. Gareth Barry was slow, others weren't the strongest but they made a go of it. As the season has gone on Hourihane is doing less without the ball. In marked contrast to his efforts towards of last season where he got increasingly combative.

In fairness to both Hourihane, and to an extent Lansbury who should be nowhere near a top division club, the fact they keep getting chances is because the midfield pair we bought are very much approaching flop territory. Luiz was an utter disgrace yet again at the weekend while Nakamba resembled a pub player v Leicester. Same goes for Taylor, miles out of his depth at this level but his big money replacement has been as bad if not worse.

[Risso]

I hardly noticed him when he came on to be honest, not really his sort of game when we don't have much possession.

[john e]

I thought he was on for the set piece deliveries corners and any free kicks towards the end of the game as we were chasing and that was probably our best chance of scoring
I don’t mind using him like that

but in open play he’s invisible

[KRS]

Pretty much all of our midfield were invisible yesterday when we had the ball as we kept bypassing them by hoofing it long and giving away possession cheaply.

[john e]

Pretty much all of our midfield were invisible yesterday when we had the ball as we kept bypassing them by hoofing it long and giving away possession cheaply.

no they weren’t
Luiz, Nakamba had good games against one the best teams in Europe
and Grealish wasn’t as poor as is  being made out either imo

[paul_e]

I thought Luiz had a good game other than a couple of loose passes, I thought his defensive work in particular was much better. It looked to me like he was more used to how they play and was reading the game better than he has in other matches, which is probably expected because he has been around their tour squads and training camps a fair bit.

[KRS]

Absolutely agree when we didn’t have the ball, but they were bypassed most of the time when we did (haven’t checked the possession stats but it wasn’t a lot).

Edit:
Possession: 30% < 70%
Passes: 285 < 669

I know I wasn’t imagining it when we kept losing possession or the ball was lumped long from the back towards Samatta time and time again.