No real surprise
McLeish knew Livi would do well
by John Campbell
THEY
MIGHT BE THE SURPRISE PACKAGE of the SPL this season but Hibs boss Alex
McLeish was already aware that Saturday's opponents Livingston are more
than capable of holding their own at the higher level. McLeish had
watched them a couple of times last season and recognised their potential
whilst realising that on gaining promotion they would invest in
strengthening their squad.
Ahead
of what is a crucial game for Hibs, McLeish said, "We've
done well at home and I want that to continue tomorrow. OK, we've
lost a couple of games but I didn't think we really deserved too,
especially against Dundee. Livingston has a good outfit and they've
started really well but I'm not really that surprised having watched them
a few times last season and this. Their form away from home has also
been very good and they are where they are on merit."
Hibs
will start the game without the injured Sauzee and Fenwick but look as
though they will be welcoming Ulises De La Cruz back to the starting line
up. Eck was concerned that Paul Fenwick's ankle has not healed as it
had looked as though he might be fit in time to face both Livingston on
Saturday and Dundee United on Tuesday.
Ulises - back in the starting line up (sns)
Speaking
about his likely line up, McLeish said, "De
La Cruz has trained with us all week and will start the game. He
played in the second half last Saturday at Pittodrie and that was after
travelling for 22 hours to get back from Ecuador where he'd played in a
World Cup Qualifier. Sometimes players don't tell you until after
the event that they were tired but that's the nature of the beast.
Ulises has been described by his National Coach as one of the best full
back's in the world which is high praise indeed and I'll be looking for
the lad to start showing that for Hibs"
The
question of Hibs' current form and position being somewhere below where he
would like it to be was summarised when he said, "There's
never ever just one reason for these things. It's a number of
reasons like we have a lot of new players still to settle and gel; we've
not had the momentum which comes with being able to field an unchanged
side week in week out, as was the case last season; a heavy playing
schedule means having to rest players on occasion. There are other
reasons too so as you can see it's not a question of putting just the one
thing right to be back on track."
Take
the monumental effort of the home tie against AEK, and recall that Hibs
played Livingston just three days later and lost. Factors for that
loss included coming down from the high of a superb atmosphere on a superb
night; drained because the Club was out despite a superhuman effort and
the need to change the team yet again because of injury and tiredness and
you start to understand that football is pretty complicated for a game
which is best played simple!
Costly
errors have been made along the way with Hibs having fallen victim to a
few late goals, which have cost them dear. That's all the more
ironic when you consider that Hibs actually scored a fair percentage of
late goals themselves last season. Those errors have included the
variety of both collective and individual mistakes and McLeish was
realistic in his assessment of these.
"Against Aberdeen we were as poor as we've been in a while,
especially in the second half when the players collectively seemed to
decide they would settle for a point which is contrary to my way. We
are a better side when we are up against them rather than trying to defend
deep."
No
huge team changes are planned but McLeish will alter things a bit.
De La Cruz will start but it's not clear at whose expense although McLeish
did confirm that one or two players are suffering a bit of a loss of form
at the moment and that he is keen to deal with that before it becomes
problematic. "One or two
are having a wee problem and I want to address that before it becomes a
problem for them, supporter wise, or whatever so I'll be freshening things
up a wee bit"
The
same squad, which travelled to Aberdeen, will be on duty again for the
Livi match, which means that the young French central defender, Mathias
Doumbe is in the 18. Here until the end of the season, the former
PSG starlet has every chance of making it in the game according to
McLeish. "He's got a
chance having showed some good form with the Under 21's. He's quick,
got good recovery and he's very competitive. I need to see more of
him in different situations as he's young yet and he's got experienced
centre-back's in front of him in the queue here so he'll have to work hard
to get ahead of them"
Action from earlier this season (sns)
Speculation
has been rife this week that Hibs have been looking at a couple of players
and McLeish was asked specifically for his thoughts on the talk
surrounding Scott Wilson of Rangers. "We've
not approached Rangers or Scott's Agents but we are aware of him. I
really don't think Hibs could afford the kind of fee Rangers wanted but
maybe he could be a free agent in the summer and we could get him for
nothing!! Of course, his wages might turn out to be something we
couldn't handle. As I say, I'm aware of him but that's all.
There are one or two situations we're looking at but nothing in the
immediate pipeline."
Clearly
McLeish would like to see Hibs launching the rest of their season from a
winning platform at Easter Road tomorrow, with a very difficult December
on the horizon and there's no doubt the Lions will be hell bent on
stopping that happening so it will be a tough and tight game but I feel we
are due a decent result and am tipping Hibs to win by the odd goal in
three. As always, Hibs.net will be there to bring you details of the
action just as quickly after the final whistle as possible.
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