There is a reason Derby County made this Conor Hourihane decision: View | OneFootball

Highlights

For any club to be successful, it is paramount that the dressing room is littered with strong personalities alongside the talent displayed on the pitch.

In Derby County's case, they definitely have both in the form of the experienced Republic of Ireland international midfielder, Conor Hourihane.

How has Conor Hourihane fared in his time at Derby County?

Hourihane has vast experience from differing scenarios at a multitude of clubs, including time in the Premier League with Aston Villa, and is one of many seasoned campaigners in this Rams side alongside the likes of James Collins, Nathaniel Mendez-Laing, and Korey Smith.

Since arriving at Pride Park, the 32-year-old has been a linchpin in Paul Warne's midfield, making 65 appearances since his arrival following the club's drop into the third tier, and accumulating 21 goal contributions in that time.

Why is Conor Hourihane Derby County captain?

As previously mentioned, Warne has an array of different options as to who could be the man to take over the armband from Curtis Davies after his contract expired in the summer.

One thing to note with Warne is his man-management, and therefore it's not that much of a shock that ahead of 2023/24, the Rams boss gave full confidence in this group of players to choose their own captain via a voting system, of which Hourihane was the clear winner after sporting the captaincy across pre-season outings.

“Conor Hourihane will be the captain. He was the convincing winner in the vote and his leadership in the off-season and pre-season, and how he talks on the pitch, makes him a very good captain," Warne told club media.

"Conor will be there for all the captaincy stuff like the coin toss and that sort of thing, but I expect everyone to be a leader and be vocal on the pitch.”

How has Hourihane demonstrated these capabilities perfectly?

Derby's season has been well-documented among the clubs in the third tier, such is their prestige at the level, but so far there have been murmurings of discontent among the fanbase based on recent results.

Prior to a 1-0 defeat at Shrewsbury Town last weekend, the Rams had only been beaten in one of their previous seven games, which included clashes with fellow promotion hopefuls Peterborough United, Bolton Wanderers, Portsmouth, and Blackpool.

However, the defeat at the hands of Shrewsbury and the manner of the performance led to scenes of anger from the well-traveled supporters, which included Hourihane being the main man who fronted up on behalf of the squad.

This defeat was followed by a comfortable 2-0 victory against an out of form Exeter City side, but this wasn't backed up as another away loss was recorded at the hands of Stevenage on Saturday, with Hourihane yet again understanding of the frustration.

What did Conor Hourihane say after Derby County's latest defeat?

“It just didn’t fall for us, wasn’t to be and look it’s frustrating of course everyone knows that, there’s no getting away from it," the midfielder told Rams TV.

“Obviously they have got something to hold on to and then they catch us with a couple of counters. Everyone is disappointed, there is lots of frustration there, we know that, we get it. We wanted to come here today and get the right result and it’s just not fell for us.

“The game on Tuesday night when you are at home against Exeter, when you have lots of possession, it’s going to be completely different when you come here on a Saturday. We spoke about that before the game, it’s not like it was a surprise to us, we knew coming into the game what it was going to be like, we need to battle, to win the fight in there and then show our quality. I think we did it in spells but we didn’t do it for long enough and ultimately we came undone,” Hourihane added.

Where do Derby County go from here?

There seems to be a split among supporters as to whether Warne is the man to take Derby back into the Championship, despite masterminding two previous League One promotions.

This situation feels very similar to that of Sunderland's in the not-too-distant past, where it took the Black Cats a handful of seasons to get the wheels fully in motion. There's no disputing that supporters will feel they deserve better, such is the club's reputation. However, patience is needed as the club remain just five points behind Stevenage in 6th.

It would be expected that in the second half of the season that Derby are to fully click into gear, and if not then there would be a case for a potential change in the dugout.

The Rams will look to narrow the gap on the play-off places tomorrow as they welcome Northampton Town.