The Result Was Awful, How Does The Performance Look?

[Speedway]

Here's the highlights. Do Hibs look like a team on a downward spiral?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/scotland/14609572.stm

[truehibernian]

I'm afraid speedway the highlights didn't show how comfortable saints were in both halves retaining possession and being slick in their passing. Fair enough they didn't carve out many chances, but as they proved, they were clinical.

I was impressed with them, but our passing and general play was awful. The worry was that heads went down after the equaliser. Free fall no, but very much off form and lacking in fight and confidence yes in my opinion.

[smurf]

No disrespect but I have no interest in the highlights again...

The first half was no better than ok. At home v St Mirren and as a reaction to a hammering v Killie it was disappointing.

The second half 'reaction' to the first half was what gives me greatest concern. A pathetic Wotherspoon effort was the best we could muster....

On the subject of highlights was it just me after watching 'Sportscene' and 'Match of the day 2' who concluded that we appeared more pedestrian and devoid of energy than any other team?

Not been highlighted anywhere else I don't think but for me St Mirren were by far the fitter side on Saturday.

[horseflesh]

even the poor(ish) Hibs teams from the past would have been camped inside the St Mirren box for the last half hour. We never seemed to have any sustained possesion or pressure. Having missd the Kilmarnock game it is difficult to say whether the performance was an improvement

[keekaboo]

I wish someone could explain Hibs' tactics to me. As far as I could see, outside of a good spell by Ivan in which time he laid on the goal, it seemed to amount largely to a big boot up towards G'OC from the GK.

[blackpoolhibs]

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I wish someone could explain Hibs' tactics to me. As far as I could see, outside of a good spell by Ivan in which time he laid on the goal, it seemed to amount largely to a big boot up towards G'OC from the GK.

You are spot on with your assessment, we lack creativity all over that midfield, and apart from Booth none of our back 4 are the type who are comfortable on the ball, and can drive forward with the ball dictating play.

Because of that, the ball normally gets passed along the back 4, sometimes making it into Murray or Osbourne, but the lack of movement and only having 1 up top normally means its played back to either Stack or the pair in the middle of the defence to hit long towards O'Conner.

St Mirren a team put together on a fraction of ours,managed to get a team together that are comfortable on the ball, and did not mind passing it around.

[patlowe]

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even the poor(ish) Hibs teams from the past would have been camped inside the St Mirren box for the last half hour.

Love him or loath him, I yearn for the days when Caldwell would drive hibs forward relentlessly in the second half of games at ER.

[churchy]

The harsh reality suggests that Hibs are probably the worst team in the league at the moment, the players need to be reminded why they have reached the level of becoming professionals, with that comes responsibilty, effort for 90 minutes is the basic requirement, they need to start believing in themselves and what better place to start than Tynecastle, the level of performance is not as important as a restoration of pride which can be achieved with the team collectively working their socks off, we can`t rely on O`Connor to keep scoring goals out of nothing, individuals have to focus on their strengths and acknowledge that they will have weaknesses, the mindset can be changed, we have to be prepared when we cross the white line, training all week can only take you so far, Hibs need to be focused and not distracted by a hostile crowd or results that have gone against them up till now.
The scoreline and set backs can`t be seen as an excuse to down tools, IF we were to lose the derby at least let us be disciplined and concentrated for the entirety of the match, who knows we might even realise that our opponents are not that good and that a victory can be achieved.

[Stevie Reid]

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Here's the highlights. Do Hibs look like a team on a downward spiral?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/scotland/14609572.stm

Having sat through the 90 minutes at ER on Saturday, the last thing I'm going to do is watch any of it again - I want it put out of my mind, it's just yet another bad memory. The goal was a good finish but fairly fortunate, and we didn't have a single passage of play that I want to see again.

That tells you all you need to know about going to Hibs games at the moment.

[smurf]

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Love him or loath him, I yearn for the days when Caldwell would drive hibs forward relentlessly in the second half of games at ER.

You are thinking of a certain Killie game.

[patlowe]

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You are thinking of a certain Killie game.

In particular, yes! But I seem to remember that hibs side completely dominating teams as they pushed for an equaliser/winner in the second half at ER on a regular basis. When did we last dominate or control a game? Serious question.

[hibsbollah]

Interesting the two best passes of the game were by thornhill and spoony, who were otherwise woeful.The first 40 minutes we were comfortable and i think played quite well, albeit in a conservative formation. Osborne linked things well. From the moment they scored the heads went down, we were hopeless and it was clearly psychological, we never thought we could turn it round. Negativity breeds negativity and it was there for all to see.The same thing happened v celtc, a decent first half performance, a defensive/keeper howler and from then on nothing. Which tells me its not the quality of player but the state of their heids.

[Stevie Reid]

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In particular, yes! But I seem to remember that hibs side completely dominating teams as they pushed for an equaliser/winner in the second half at ER on a regular basis. When did we last dominate or control a game? Serious question.

The only really quite commanding performance I have seen from Hibs in all of Calderwood's time was ICT at home on Green Day - they still had their chances, but we played well that day and it was the last enjoyable day I had at ER.

Prior to that, it was probably St. Mirren at ER when the last minute own goal won it for us. That was January 2010.

[blackpoolhibs]

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The only really quite commanding performance I have seen from Hibs in all of Calderwood's time was ICT at home on Green Day - they still had their chances, but we played well that day and it was the last enjoyable day I had at ER.

Prior to that, it was probably St. Mirren at ER when the last minute own goal won it for us. That was January 2010.

Ah the yogi years. (dreaming of better times smiley)

[Stevie Reid]

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Ah the yogi years. (dreaming of better times smiley)

The celebration when that goal went in was wild, probably the last time I celebrated a goal that much at ER. That was to top off a week where we beat Hamilton 5-1, Celtic away 2-1, and then St. Mirren.

9 points in a week. Seems like a lifetime ago.

[blackpoolhibs]

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The celebration when that goal went in was wild, probably the last time I celebrated a goal that much at ER. That was to top off a week where we beat Hamilton 5-1, Celtic away 2-1, and then St. Mirren.

9 points in a week. Seems like a lifetime ago.

Yip it was wild, that was an own goal if my memory is correct. Saying that we murdered them that day, we were on top all game and deserved the win 100%.

It was often said we were lucky to win some of those games, even when that was complete bull. Well i'd take that now, any win lucky or not.

[Stevie Reid]

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Yip it was wild, that was an own goal if my memory is correct. Saying that we murdered them that day, we were on top all game and deserved the win 100%.

It was often said we were lucky to win some of those games, even when that was complete bull. Well i'd take that now, any win lucky or not.

[Andy74]

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Yip it was wild, that was an own goal if my memory is correct. Saying that we murdered them that day, we were on top all game and deserved the win 100%.

It was often said we were lucky to win some of those games, even when that was complete bull. Well i'd take that now, any win lucky or not.

[Dashing Bob S]

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Interesting the two best passes of the game were by thornhill and spoony, who were otherwise woeful.The first 40 minutes we were comfortable and i think played quite well, albeit in a conservative formation. Osborne linked things well. From the moment they scored the heads went down, we were hopeless and it was clearly psychological, we never thought we could turn it round. Negativity breeds negativity and it was there for all to see.The same thing happened v celtc, a decent first half performance, a defensive/keeper howler and from then on nothing. Which tells me its not the quality of player but the state of their heids.

Just as well CC retained strong upbeat body language.

[basehibby]

Watching those highlights pretty much confirmed what I thought at the time...

1) St Mirren's 1st goal should NOT have stood - Booth is clearly fouled, barged over in possession as he was with a shoulder into his back - how the commentator can call that a Booth error is completely beyond me.

2) Up to that point Hibs were the dominant team

3) St Mirren's 2nd was down to Palsson's error - he had time to clear it and dawdled on the ball allowing their winger to rob him.

4) Considering the referee's woeful blunder in allowing Saint's 1st it should really have been a draw - all in all still not good enough at home to St Mirren.

[Stevie Reid]

Having read some of the comments on this thread I decided to put watch the highlights to see if my judgement was clouded by disappointment after the game - but I wrote this at 7pm on Saturday night and wouldn't change a word: -

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I thought the game was even up until we scored, but that St. Mirren looked more dangerous than us up to that point and had the better chances. They missed two good opportunities at the back post (one each side), where more composure from the player involved would have punished us - both chances were the product of poor defending by us, we cannot handle crosses into the box. Given that both chances missed the target, you're right that Stack didn't have a save, but then surely the St. Mirren keeper could've had a nap to, no?

Before we scored, Wotherspoon blasted a shot well over the bar and Thornhill had a drive straight into the keeper's arms. The goal was quite fortunate but well finished, immediately after Stack had a save down to his left (where I think he could've done better than to paw it out into the goal mouth), and Ivan missed a good chance after a great pass by Wotherspoon. Even after we took the lead we played at the same tempo and didn't look very good - the two St. Mirren goals were obviously from individual mistakes and the lead was more than they deserved, but they punished us effectively and took their chances.

The second half was a complete non event - even though they went a goal down, St. Mirren will never get an easier away win than that in the SPL; we got in behind them a couple of times but our final ball was nowhere as near as clinical as theirs was for the second goal. They are the only SPL team that finished below us last season and they were far more accomplished than us in every department - we failed to seriously trouble them and didn't have a spell of concerted pressure at any point, which is unforgivable in a home fixture against the second bottom team from last season's SPL. They produced a couple of bits of football that we are nowhere near capable of, and generally looked better than we were overall, with a pattern to their play with the ball, and real desire to win the ball back when not in possession.

Most worrying though, was the complete lack of urgency and desire shown by Hibs at any point throughout the game - and that's ignoring the complete lack of quality in that starting 11 today. Apart from GOC's goals, we are weaker in every single department since Calderwood took over. Where do you think he has improved us?

[Hibercelona]

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Watching those highlights pretty much confirmed what I thought at the time...

1) St Mirren's 1st goal should NOT have stood - Booth is clearly fouled, barged over in possession as he was with a shoulder into his back - how the commentator can call that a Booth error is completely beyond me.

2) Up to that point Hibs were the dominant team

3) St Mirren's 2nd was down to Palsson's error - he had time to clear it and dawdled on the ball allowing their winger to rob him.

4) Considering the referee's woeful blunder in allowing Saint's 1st it should really have been a draw - all in all still not good enough at home to St Mirren.

The perfect "clutching at straws" example.

[lyonhibs]

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Yip it was wild, that was an own goal if my memory is correct. Saying that we murdered them that day, we were on top all game and deserved the win 100%.

It was often said we were lucky to win some of those games, even when that was complete bull. Well i'd take that now, any win lucky or not.

I ended up a full 5-6 seats away from my starting position in the old East. Absolutely mental, partly through relief as we'd just beaten Celtc at Porkheid, and to have dropped point to St Mirren at home would have been such a typical Hibs thing to do - witness, for example, last weekend.

Re: the highlights, always bear in mind that a carefully constructed Youtube video made Zarabi look like the Algerian Roberto Carlos.

It sounds like we were rank, and the gaping holes in the home stands, not to mention our defence, would indicate that we were.

[keekaboo]

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Watching those highlights pretty much confirmed what I thought at the time...

1) St Mirren's 1st goal should NOT have stood - Booth is clearly fouled, barged over in possession as he was with a shoulder into his back - how the commentator can call that a Booth error is completely beyond me.

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The perfect "clutching at straws" example.

Maybe he is clutching at straws with his conclusion but I felt the same about the first goal. I was in the West Stand Lower at the same end of the ground and had a very clear view of the incident. Booth maybe could have done better but it really should have been a foul, as he was clearly barged over by the St Mirren player.

[hibsbollah]

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Just as well CC retained strong upbeat body language.

I noticed that Bob, his posture was upright and consistent. Good to see him getting his 'non-verbals' right for a change.

[WindyMiller]

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Maybe he is clutching at straws with his conclusion but I felt the same about the first goal. I was in the West Stand Lower at the same end of the ground and had a very clear view of the incident. Booth maybe could have done better but it really should have been a foul, as he was clearly barged over by the St Mirren player.

I was in the East, pretty much in line with it, and I thought it was a foul at the time and haven't changed my mind.

Yes it was a poor performance, but if that goal doesn't stand the end result may have been different.

[ancient hibee]

There's no leadership on the field and precious little from the touchline.After the first goal lost Murray should have gone up to Booth and put his arm round him so that the crowd could see it and said something like-"OK it's a mistake-get over it-you're a good player-go and show it"-instead zilch.Similarly with Paalsson.In the rugby match when Italy got to within 1 point of Scotland the captain got the team together and said we're better than them let's go -and they did.

[truehibernian]

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There's no leadership on the field and precious little from the touchline.After the first goal lost Murray should have gone up to Booth and put his arm round him so that the crowd could see it and said something like-"OK it's a mistake-get over it-you're a good player-go and show it"-instead zilch.Similarly with Paalsson.In the rugby match when Italy got to within 1 point of Scotland the captain got the team together and said we're better than them let's go -and they did.

Totally agree regards leadership ancient and also to an extent about Boothy. But sorry ancient, can't agree with putting arms around Palsson.....if it were me my hands would have been around his neck for his nonchalant, disinterested, ineffective performance both on Saturday and last weekend. Prior to his mistake he offered nothing when going forward and we relied heavily on Ivan taking the ball up the pitch right side, with Victor nowhere to be seen. When we lost possession in that area, there was a huge gap for Saints players to get into because Victor was quite hopelessly lazy pushing up. He stood off continually and allowed players space and time on the ball. From my position Stacky had already warned him twice before the mistake to sharpen up and close down space, as two crosses had been whipped in (one which Hanlon left across the 6 yard box with Stacky rooted, and the other which created a chance at the back post).

He is a so called versatile player, who is physically fit and has pace. He has also had decent coaching. For me he looked so disinterested and heartless it had my blood boiling. That for me is when your 'captains' should be right in their face and giving them it tight. Booth up to his mistake had been composed, good on the ball and got himself involved up and down the left flank.

Every footballer has had to bite the bullet and play out of position to help the team - they may not like the position, but you put your whole efforts into it and give it your all. I honestly think VP hasn't been giving 100%........really sad to say it, but true IMHO.

[Andy74]

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Totally agree regards leadership ancient and also to an extent about Boothy. But sorry ancient, can't agree with putting arms around Palsson.....if it were me my hands would have been around his neck for his nonchalant, disinterested, ineffective performance both on Saturday and last weekend. Prior to his mistake he offered nothing when going forward and we relied heavily on Ivan taking the ball up the pitch right side, with Victor nowhere to be seen. When we lost possession in that area, there was a huge gap for Saints players to get into because Victor was quite hopelessly lazy pushing up. He stood off continually and allowed players space and time on the ball. From my position Stacky had already warned him twice before the mistake to sharpen up and close down space, as two crosses had been whipped in (one which Hanlon left across the 6 yard box with Stacky rooted, and the other which created a chance at the back post).

He is a so called versatile player, who is physically fit and has pace. He has also had decent coaching. For me he looked so disinterested and heartless it had my blood boiling. That for me is when your 'captains' should be right in their face and giving them it tight. Booth up to his mistake had been composed, good on the ball and got himself involved up and down the left flank.

Every footballer has had to bite the bullet and play out of position to help the team - they may not like the position, but you put your whole efforts into it and give it your all. I honestly think VP hasn't been giving 100%........really sad to say it, but true IMHO.

I think Palsson has been like this since his second game which was the highlight of his time here so far.

He showed an incredible range of passing, outside of the foot, short stuff, cross field passes. as well as going into several brilliant tackles.

I thought we'd signed a guy who could play like Franck Sauzee.

Alas, he either had the game of his life and over produced spectacularly or he has been somehow coached to play completely differently from his natural game.

Even when playing in midfield he seems to think that after that game he can stroll through games here, so he literally tries strolling.

A huge disappointment so far.

[truehibernian]

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I think Palsson has been like this since his second game which was the highlight of his time here so far.

He showed an incredible range of passing, outside of the foot, short stuff, cross field passes. as well as going into several brilliant tackles.

I thought we'd signed a guy who could play like Franck Sauzee.

Alas, he either had the game of his life and over produced spectacularly or he has been somehow coached to play completely differently from his natural game.

Even when playing in midfield he seems to think that after that game he can stroll through games here, so he literally tries strolling.

A huge disappointment so far.

I think you have hit the nail on the head andy...........VP needs time on the ball and is no doubt used to that in the reserve league where the games are of course competitive but not played at SPL pace.

He looked very composed in the 2-2 derby, however Hearts were a man down and there was acres of space to play. His range of passing is good, and he has almost Bamba-esque athleticism when he can be jiggered closing a man down. Just not often enough, he switches off too easily, head goes down, and he is one of those 'I'm too good for this' type players............that's when you need a Roy Keane or Neil Lennon, folk who have won things and actually achieved, to get torn into him. He's a very young boy who to me thinks he has made it. That needs challenged IMO.