When watching Hoolahan.....

[Gingerpele 0]

Can you all please (i''m sure some of you do) look at the players around him, before getting on his back for giving the ball away.....So many times, he does something wonderful with the ball at his feet, but then there is know one in a good enough position afterwards, the movement of our players off the ball seems very poor at the moment......

[jimbob 0]

spot on

[Largey 0]

Unfortunately sometimes we cannot keep up with his skills, however he did (on a number of occasions) have an easier option to take and instead dribbled into 3 Watford players.

[McNamees attitude 0]

Very true but at least once in the game he did bypass an easy pass in order to turn with the ball or do a little trick that he didn''t pull off. For the most part spot on though.

[morty 0]

I think we have been guilty in the past of just passing it to him and expecting magic every time.

[W-H 0]

Totally agree. Wes is key for our season and there needs to be more work done on the training ground to give him more options once he has disected the opposition midfield. I thought that Jackson was a nearly man in this respect last night - perhaps a bit more game time might see an improvement.

[Largey 0]

This is where I see Surman offering another attacking threat in much the same way Hoolahan does, so we dont just have one player to look for for some inspiration in midfield.

[Lincs CR 0]

I completely agree Gingerpele, I think for the the first 60 or so minutes of the match whenever Hoolahan was working his magic there was a distinct lack of players making runs or coming short to collect the ball from him. Sadly, when this happens and he''s left with another 2 defenders closing him down he simply has to try and force the pass rather than lose it.

I thought Wes was decent last night, severely lacking supporting players or strikers making runs off the shoulder.

[Big Slob 0]

I thought Hoolahan and Crofts were the two only real positives of the night. Thought he was always available and looking for the ball, showed at times great skill to beat his man, and pick out a great pass. Yes he over hit a few passes, and kept the ball too long on occasions, but the others didn''t exactly do much to help or support him. Everytime he had the ball we looked dangerous. Did brilliantly for the first goal, and put in a few great crosses. Thought he was the best player on the pitch

[Mello Yello 2,573]

Hoolahan thinks ahead and plays like a Grand Chess Master.....Unfortunately, the rest of our squad are still struggling to learn how to play checkers.... 

[Power Hamster 0]

[quote user="Lincs CR"]I completely agree Gingerpele, I think for the the first 60 or so minutes of the match whenever Hoolahan was working his magic there was a distinct lack of players making runs or coming short to collect the ball from him. Sadly, when this happens and he''s left with another 2 defenders closing him down he simply has to try and force the pass rather than lose it.

I thought Wes was decent last night, severely lacking supporting players or strikers making runs off the shoulder.[/quote]Exactly. And this is what we used to do when Huckerby was here too - give him the ball and expect him to perform miracles without any support. Creative players like Hux and Wes are only useful if the rest of the team work their socks off to keep up with them. You can''t just be lazy and expect this kind of player to win matches single-handed.

[I am a Banana 0]

He is too good for us, thats it.

[Boyo 0]

When Hoolahan had the ball last night on either the left or right hand side most of the time R.Martin and Drury were availible in acres of space.  Quite a few times he had the oppurtunity to spread the play out to them but instead he tried to dribble past another two or three players or thread the ball through the eye of a needle.  Drury and R.Martin are two good attacking full backs but we didn''t use them at all last night.

Also I don''t think it is a case of the rest of the team not keeping up with him, it is more us being in full flow and then giving it to him and because he always takes on at least two players and never seems to play a one touch ball we lose the flow, therefore losing the good runs which makes us become static, making it very hard for him to play a pass.  So next time look at the players when he first recieves the ball then look how much flow he takes out. 

[G 0]

I do like to scream ''MOVE'' when Hoolahan is skinning players while everyone stands and watches instead of finding space.

[Syteanric 1]

When watching Hoolahan.....please encourage him to use his right foot thus cutting down on the number of wasted chances from the most 1 footed footballer i have ever seen.

[CDMullins 498]

More of a liability than an asset, will be found out this season, final pass was terrible last night.

[Gingerpele 0]

[quote user="CDMullins"]More of a liability than an asset, will be found out this season, final pass was terrible last night.[/quote]Who was he mean''t to be passing to? the static strikers?

[grantroederdisaster 0]

Yes Hoolahan can be frustrating but thats what hes all about. He can be a matchwinner but at times he can be an enigma. Some moves will work out, some not, sometimes he''ll be over elaborate!

 

Fans should have worked that out after 2 full seasons!

[Buncey 1]

The players move into space for him, but by the time he passes they have been marked out. So do the other players need to find a space, then find another one, or should Wes just pass the ball?

[CDMullins 498]

[quote user="Gingerpele"][quote user="CDMullins"]More of a liability than an asset, will be found out this season, final pass was terrible last night.[/quote]Who was he mean''t to be passing to? the static strikers?[/quote]

Well yes, Id rather him pass it to a static striker and keep possesion, than give it away!

Honestly, I dont how you can rate him him. Its time to be realistic, this is his 3rd season for us,

Would he really be playing for us if he were ''that'' good?

Would he really be kept out of the Republic of Ireland squad by Keith Andrews, Keith Fahey, Paul Green, Keith Tracey if he were ''that'' good?

For his one piece of magic, he''ll give the ball away a dozen times, we might have got away with that in League One, we wont in the Championship.