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FOr a young manager who has already enjoyed impressive majority wins in testing circumstances barnsleyConor Hourihane is finding one aspect of his new career more challenging than others.
“It’s like dealing with a loss,” says the 34-year-old. “The feeling is tough. Hopefully, the more experience I get, I’ll be able to cope a little better.”
Hourihane explains that it is not just the sting of defeat or the loss of points. It’s everything that this represents, which shows how all-consuming management already is for the former midfielder.
“It’s all the preparation that goes into it. You want the game to look a certain way and then it looks nothing like you planned. You’re not guessing things. It’s an interesting process, and I’m probably just trying to figure out what’s really the best thing for me.”
As Hourihane says, you can really feel the passion for the work. “Fire”, as he says.
“It’s relentless, you’re analyzing yourself day after day, or looking at a game you’ve just played – an amazing, amazing job.”
He started feeling that fire a few years before his playing career ended.
“We’ll go through pre-game or post-game, how we played, how we set up, and I’ll start thinking whether that was right or wrong,” Hourihane said. “Will I do this formation? Where will I do this formation? Where will I look to exploit the opposition?
“I probably started looking at meetings a little differently, which engaged me in a way.
“But for my actual football performance, was it the right thing?”
Like Hourihane, this has served him well in his managerial career so far barnsley Showing promise in League One and with hopes of reaching the play-off places. And as he flips through the list of team meeting ideas as a player, you can start to see how his brain works now as a coach.
In a remarkable step in his journey, he also has a deep understanding of the game. While Hourihane was still a Derby County player and recent Irish international, he began helping out with Stourbridge in the Southern League.
He recalls, “I was getting to that age in my career where my body was struggling a little bit, my fire was going down a little bit, coaching was bringing that fire back.”
“When I was getting my A Licence, I got the opportunity to go to Stourbridge, through a friend who was an analyst at Aston Villa, and the assistant manager at Stourbridge. I stayed there for the season. I loved it, learned on the job. I had about six or seven balls and I organized a session for 14 players… and then two can’t get out of work because it’s part-time football so you suddenly have to change it.
“I learned how to adapt sessions and maybe how to handle players with lower ability. So I was developing as a coach more than anything.
“Then I’ll come home at night and analyze my session and write things down. I won’t come home and forget about it. It’ll be another process to see how the session went and how I can improve it next time.
“At the end of my time at Derby [County]I was 33 years old and I thought if the opportunity to become a coach came I would jump at it. If not, I will continue playing.”
That opportunity came at Barnsley, with whom he already had an association, having spent the three best years of his playing career there between 2014 and 2017. After initially rejoining as a player-coach, Hourihane retired as a player in December 2024 to become an assistant, before being appointed head coach earlier this year.
“It was three years that turned into a seven-year period where I kept moving in the right direction,” he says of his playing career at Oakwell. “I was captain, got promoted from League One, won the Football League Trophy, then spent four years at Aston Villa, got to the Premier League.
“Those two clubs were my clubs in a way. You know, you want to feel the fans and the connections and everything that comes with it.”
That deep connection has probably helped in a situation where Hourihane has had to rely on a young team who are showing flashes of brilliance.
“There are five or six really talented players in the first team who are 22 and under,” he said. “It is really important to develop them.
“We know there will definitely be a little bit of inconsistency, because that comes with age. But it’s exciting to see them flourish and develop. It’s really finding that balance.”
Hourihane applies a similar approach to his actual football. He is arriving as a coach at a tactically interesting time, given that the positional play that Pep Guardiola has dominated for a decade is beginning to weaken and more variability is returning. Dogmatism is giving way to flexibility.
“It’s definitely changing,” he says. “Over the last two years of analyzing teams, I’ve noticed there’s definitely a lot going on, all a little bit different from the possession-based game.
“I’m a big believer that there is no right or wrong way to play.
“It’s like, ‘What can you do with your crop to win the game’, whether it’s possession, direct, low blocks, high pressing, a little bit of both. Obviously you want to keep control, but do you want to be a transition team? It’s about what players you have.
“That’s probably what I believe in, strategic flexibility rather than a set approach.”
Hourihane explains how strategies have evolved to respond to pressures becoming more sophisticated. Teams have no option but to incorporate how the opposition puts pressure on them.
“It again depends on what you believe in – do you touch the opposition too much, or do you focus more on bringing out your best strengths and touch the opposition less?”
Again, it’s balance. And being able to respond.
Hourihane laughs and points to the example of his first game: away to Mansfield in March.
“It was a really proud moment. I got the role on Wednesday night, then Thursday and Friday were two very good days of training, felt really good… Then we lost 2-1 and the game was looking very bad. It was looking nothing like I had expected.
“It was a quick reminder that you can feel good on the training ground, but also cons. It was a quick learning curve.”
You can feel that “fire” again when Hourihane talks about how much effort he puts into preparation.
In that sense, it doesn’t seem like he misses playing at all.
“I don’t do that, to be honest,” he says. “The funny thing is, that’s the only time I’ve ever missed it.” irelandLast World Cup qualifier. This is the only time I’ve seen a game and said ‘Oh my God, this is going to be amazing’! But I haven’t missed any club game or Super Sunday. I’m so busy I can’t do anything!”
Hourihane played alongside Irish hero Troy Parrott, and he is thrilled that the AZ Alkmaar forward is living up to his potential.
“He’s moved away from the English landscape and it’s come together nicely for him,” says Hourihane. “He was always a talented guy and a really nice guy. It just clicked at the right time.”
From this, an obvious question arises. Does Hourihane have ambitions of coaching his country? He is part of a new group of Irish coaches that includes Keith Andrews at Brentford and Brian Barry-Murphy at Cardiff City.
“Brian is doing really well, another Cork man! I had Keith as a coach in Ireland under Stephen Kenny and he was really good. He’s thriving,” says Hourihane. “I don’t think there’s been a big crop for a while. There was also Noel Hunt at Reading and Alan Sheehan at Swansea City. There’s no doubt they’ll get new roles.
“I’m not sure what my journey will be like but I’m an aspiring head coach who wants to succeed.”
So, since he’s talked about how he feels when he loses, how about a win?
“A wonderful feeling for a few hours, and you enjoy it, but suddenly you’re thinking about the next game; what can get you closer to victory? It’s relentless.”
And, as he says, “that fire is burning”.