Conor Hourihane - thanks and farewell

[brontebilly]

Hourihane mistake for Giroud goal. Gave the Frenchmen space , stepped off him. And then too late to close down.
That's not the first time defensively he's been found wanting he was also beaten all ends up by Mason Mount I think wide left.
Does have a struggle at times on his position play.

Forward and attacking he's far better.
Likely to be captain and probably break some goal and assist records next season with us in the championship if we go down

Houris feet arent quick enough to play regularly at the top level, international level he has this problem too. Other players dance around him far too easily like Mount yesterday. He is unable to shift his body position quickly enough for tackles, being completely one sided he can't even trust turning onto his right side with or without the ball. Not physically strong enough either.

Tidy ball player with a great left foot when given space and time on the ball but you don't get that at the level he currently operates.

[LeeB]

Hourihane mistake for Giroud goal. Gave the Frenchmen space , stepped off him. And then too late to close down.
That's not the first time defensively he's been found wanting he was also beaten all ends up by Mason Mount I think wide left.
Does have a struggle at times on his position play.

Forward and attacking he's far better.
Likely to be captain and probably break some goal and assist records next season with us in the championship if we go down

Houris feet arent quick enough to play regularly at the top level, international level he has this problem too. Other players dance around him far too easily like Mount yesterday. He is unable to shift his body position quickly enough for tackles, being completely one sided he can't even trust turning onto his right side with or without the ball. Not physically strong enough either.

Tidy ball player with a great left foot when given space and time on the ball but you don't get that at the level he currently operates.

I love him to bits, but that assesment is spot on.

[David_Nab]

If you had a poll on here to decide who to play in a MF where the game plan was sit back Hourihane is not going to be an option people go for so gods knows what Dean was thinking.

He is a player that in some games will be effective but others utterly abysmal so you need to pick accordingly .Yesterday was a game he should of been on bench for

[Toronto Villa]

Conor is a super squad player at this level. That we are relying on him, and others like Hause, Konsa, Trez, AEG, Davis, Elmo, Targett, Nakamba etc at this level tells you why are struggling as much as we are. You could even stretch that argument to McGinn and Mings. Both mid table PL players. Only Jack is legitimately top level. And the truth is many of the sides above us having been accumulating PL level players and paying the required prices for several years. I look at how solid Palace look. They are an established PL team with an established and experienced PL manager. They will never have enough to break into the top 4 or 6, and even if they flirt with trouble they will find a way out. Even Burnley now. We outplayed them earlier in the season, but over the long haul they have the set up to get out of trouble. The teams that don't are either like us or Norwich that came up, or teams that have made a series of poor decisions over a few years that may now cost them.

[brontebilly]

Conor is a super squad player at this level. That we are relying on him, and others like Hause, Konsa, Trez, AEG, Davis, Elmo, Targett, Nakamba etc at this level tells you why are struggling as much as we are. You could even stretch that argument to McGinn and Mings. Both mid table PL players. Only Jack is legitimately top level. And the truth is many of the sides above us having been accumulating PL level players and paying the required prices for several years. I look at how solid Palace look. They are an established PL team with an established and experienced PL manager. They will never have enough to break into the top 4 or 6, and even if they flirt with trouble they will find a way out. Even Burnley now. We outplayed them earlier in the season, but over the long haul they have the set up to get out of trouble. The teams that don't are either like us or Norwich that came up, or teams that have made a series of poor decisions over a few years that may now cost them.

But look at Sheff Utd's squad list in comparison to ours as another example. There are no stars in that squad but a collection of journeymen really like Enda Stevens who have worked their way through the leagues. But Wilder has them fit, organised and every player clearly knows their role. That's where Smith has failed very badly. Strength and conditioning wise our squad looks miles off the required level too, we aren't able to physically compete. That's the starting point for a player at this level, ability comes next.

[Rudy Can't Fail]

Hourihane mistake for Giroud goal. Gave the Frenchmen space , stepped off him. And then too late to close down.

Watch again and tell me how Conor is supposed to mark both players. What did you expect him to do, ignore the player with the ball in our box?

[CT]

Conor is a super squad player at this level. That we are relying on him, and others like Hause, Konsa, Trez, AEG, Davis, Elmo, Targett, Nakamba etc at this level tells you why are struggling as much as we are. You could even stretch that argument to McGinn and Mings. Both mid table PL players. Only Jack is legitimately top level. And the truth is many of the sides above us having been accumulating PL level players and paying the required prices for several years. I look at how solid Palace look. They are an established PL team with an established and experienced PL manager. They will never have enough to break into the top 4 or 6, and even if they flirt with trouble they will find a way out. Even Burnley now. We outplayed them earlier in the season, but over the long haul they have the set up to get out of trouble. The teams that don't are either like us or Norwich that came up, or teams that have made a series of poor decisions over a few years that may now cost them.

But look at Sheff Utd's squad list in comparison to ours as another example. There are no stars in that squad but a collection of journeymen really like Enda Stevens who have worked their way through the leagues. But Wilder has them fit, organised and every player clearly knows their role. That's where Smith has failed very badly. Strength and conditioning wise our squad looks miles off the required level too, we aren't able to physically compete. That's the starting point for a player at this level, ability comes next.

It’s was interesting looking at SJM. He looks absolutely miles off the pace. Now thinking back, he was due back around March 14 for the original Chelsea game and would assume he’d been on a rigorous fitness regime during lockdown.

Obviously he hadn’t played a competitive game for six months, I get that, but he even looks a little out of shape.

[David_Nab]

Conor is a super squad player at this level. That we are relying on him, and others like Hause, Konsa, Trez, AEG, Davis, Elmo, Targett, Nakamba etc at this level tells you why are struggling as much as we are. You could even stretch that argument to McGinn and Mings. Both mid table PL players. Only Jack is legitimately top level. And the truth is many of the sides above us having been accumulating PL level players and paying the required prices for several years. I look at how solid Palace look. They are an established PL team with an established and experienced PL manager. They will never have enough to break into the top 4 or 6, and even if they flirt with trouble they will find a way out. Even Burnley now. We outplayed them earlier in the season, but over the long haul they have the set up to get out of trouble. The teams that don't are either like us or Norwich that came up, or teams that have made a series of poor decisions over a few years that may now cost them.

But look at Sheff Utd's squad list in comparison to ours as another example. There are no stars in that squad but a collection of journeymen really like Enda Stevens who have worked their way through the leagues. But Wilder has them fit, organised and every player clearly knows their role. That's where Smith has failed very badly. Strength and conditioning wise our squad looks miles off the required level too, we aren't able to physically compete. That's the starting point for a player at this level, ability comes next.

It’s was interesting looking at SJM. He looks absolutely miles off the pace. Now thinking back, he was due back around March 14 for the original Chelsea game and would assume he’d been on a rigorous fitness regime during lockdown.

Obviously he hadn’t played a competitive game for six months, I get that, but he even looks a little out of shape.

Match Sharpness is missing , Loftus-Cheek for Chelsea was the same after being out for months though on flip Side Pogba has been out for months also and was on the pace straight away for Man U

[themossman]

Special mention for Conor. He was probably meant to be a squad player this season - how many of us expected him to be a fixture in a team trying to scrape survival at the end of the season?

He did a lot of important dirty work in these last few games.

[PaulWinch again]

I think Conor is a useful squad player.

[Toronto Villa]

Absolutely, and he’s just a really good person to have about the club. We need players like him to do a job when asked. But if we are to progress we need him to only be a squad player and not someone who starts on a regular basis.

[Steve67]

I'm not quite sure what happened to the quality of his set pieces after the restart but agree with all that he became a really useful player to Villa and didn't let us down at all in the run-in. I hope he plays less next season because we have other players in.  He was an absolute bargain and has been great since he joined Villa.

[eamonn]

The quality of his set pieces set-up most of our goals post-lockdown, I thought?

Definitely improved off the ball in the last ten games. He was clearly listening to the Defensive Zoom calls. Great attitude, I'd be happy for him to be an important sub/occasional starter (bottom half teams at home) next season.

[AsTallAsLions]

The quality of his set pieces set-up most of our goals post-lockdown, I thought?

Definitely improved off the ball in the last ten games. He was clearly listening to the Defensive Zoom calls. Great attitude, I'd be happy for him to be an important sub/occasional starter (bottom half teams at home) next season.

Agree completely

[PeterWithesShin]

Fun fact, Conor had a goal/assist rate better than Jack's this season.

Conor scored or assisted every 191 mins
Jack was every 216 mins
Keinan was every 3 Halley's Comets.