Aston Villa journalist Mat Kendrick has been singing the praises of Villa midfielder Conor Hourihane.
This comes after Kendrick recently made an appearance on the Birmingham Mail’s Claret & Blue Podcast to reflect on Villa’s 1-1 draw against Everton on Thursday.
On the topic of Hourihane, Kendrick had this to say on the midfield man:
“I’d like to heap quite a bit of praise on [Conor] Hourihane, because I’m probably one of his harshest critics at times in terms of saying he is this kind of one-game player and then disappears.
“I think he is playing with a bit of fire in his belly at the moment. I think he’s found that the snub of always being the fall guy – why should it always be him? I think that’s shown a little bit more energy, a little bit more snap about his performances.”
Have you been impressed with Hourihane since the restart?
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Hourihane first signed to the club back in the 2017 January transfer window from Barnsley for a fee of £3.15 million.
Since then, the 29-year-old has gone on to make 143 appearances for Villa in which he has managed to score 28 goals and provide 21 assists along the way (per Transfermarkt).
So far this season, Hourihane has made a total of 25 appearances for Dean Smith’s side in the Premier League so far this season.
His performances in those appearances have earned him a season rating of 6.7/10 (per WhoScored).
Hourihane’s performance against Everton resulted in him being awarded a match rating of 7.04/10, making him Villa’s fourth-highest rated player on the day.
TIF Thoughts…
It’s nice to see Kendrick praising Hourihane and recognising the efforts he made against Everton and in other matches for Villa in recent weeks.
Despite only taking a point at Goodison Park, Hourihane still managed to put in a good shift for Villa who are still in the relegation zone of the Premier League table.