Progress Made but We Have to Push on

[Wellbankhibby]

I feel we have made good progress this season better product on and off the park. No doubt in my mind when we play we are by far the best footballing side in the league. The old failings are still there though we continue to be a soft touch, not enough dig in the team and our failure to be ruthless in front of goal cost us promotion and another cup final place. We must sign some pacey players and goalscorers and retain the good players we have. I still feel our confidence is still fragile but good results will see this return. We have to Push on now and gain automatic promotion. I feel St Mirren will be weaker and Sevco need a huge rebuilding job. If we retain our good players and sign the right type of players we certainly have a lead on our nearest competitors. GGTTH :flag:

[IanM]

Considering we stayed down, even this place never went to pieces! Genuinly feel positive about what's happened and what's about to happen. This coming season results are the only thing that matters. I feel we'll get results and performances to match.

Rangers are now in Hibs position 12 months ago. Manger less, team less and a lot going on behind the scenes. I'm in no doubt they'll come good but not right away, that's why it's more important than ever to win every game we can right from the start.

Started paying into HSL a few months ago and myself and another will be getting a ST after not having one this year (although went to most games).
Onwards and upwards

[Love the Green]

I feel we have made good progress this season better product on and off the park. No doubt in my mind when we play we are by far the best footballing side in the league. The old failings are still there though we continue to be a soft touch, not enough dig in the team and our failure to be ruthless in front of goal cost us promotion and another cup final place. We must sign some pacey players and goalscorers and retain the good players we have. I still feel our confidence is still fragile but good results will see this return. We have to Push on now and gain automatic promotion. I feel St Mirren will be weaker and Sevco need a huge rebuilding job. If we retain our good players and sign the right type of players we certainly have a lead on our nearest competitors. GGTTH :flag:Last May championship statusThis May championship status.Add to thate a semi final defeat from lowly Falkirk.How can that justify progtress?"keep the faith"

[Dashing Bob S]

Pretty much agree with this assessment. Stubbs did well in his rookie year, to arrest seven years of decline. They did better than I thought.

But more will be expected of him and the team next season, and this is what we need to do:

1. Sign new goalscoring talent or develop existing talent. Our strikers scored goals but that obscured that our goals-to-chances-created ration was poor. We just didn't have the quality to turn those chances into goals.

2. More flexible formation, including greater pace and width. I like the diamond formation, but Stubbs has to show that he can build a more flexible team and mix it up a bit. Gray can get up for 45, but not 90, and Stevenson is the same. Asks a lot of full backs and we need a natural winger and for AS to be more prepared to change things.

3. A hard *astard in the middle. We need somebody who the other sides hate and detest playing against. A midfield enforcer.

I think there are lazy myths about this Hibs team, which need dispelled. They're not 'bottlers' they compete well and don't hide, or don't freeze in the bigger games. We have just lacked quality to put teams away. It's nothing to do with courage, it's experience and ability. But the other is that we don't have the striking power we imagine.

[Wellbankhibby]

Pretty much agree with this assessment. Stubbs did well in his rookie year, to arrest seven years of decline. They did better than I thought.

But more will be expected of him and the team next season, and this is what we need to do:

1. Sign new goalscoring talent or develop existing talent. Our strikers scored goals but that obscured that our goals-to-chances-created ration was poor. We just didn't have the quality to turn those chances into goals.

2. More flexible formation, including greater pace and width. I like the diamond formation, but Stubbs has to show that he can build a more flexible team and mix it up a bit. Gray can get up for 45, but not 90, and Stevenson is the same. Asks a lot of full backs and we need a natural winger and for AS to be more prepared to change things.

3. A hard *astard in the middle. We need somebody who the other sides hate and detest playing against. A midfield enforcer.

I think there are lazy myths about this Hibs team, which need dispelled. They're not 'bottlers' they compete well and don't hide, or don't freeze in the bigger games. We have just lacked quality to put teams away. It's nothing to do with courage, it's experience and ability. But the other is that we don't have the striking power we imagine.

My Sentiments exactly 100% correct lets just hope it will happen.

[Steve20]

Football might have been easier on the eye, but results were still poor. Look at our results against QOS, Falkirk and Raith to see that. And results are all that count when trying to get promoted.

Stubbs underachieved this season but hopefully he can improve next year.

[Gatecrasher]

Pretty much agree with this assessment. Stubbs did well in his rookie year, to arrest seven years of decline. They did better than I thought.

But more will be expected of him and the team next season, and this is what we need to do:

1. Sign new goalscoring talent or develop existing talent. Our strikers scored goals but that obscured that our goals-to-chances-created ration was poor. We just didn't have the quality to turn those chances into goals.

2. More flexible formation, including greater pace and width. I like the diamond formation, but Stubbs has to show that he can build a more flexible team and mix it up a bit. Gray can get up for 45, but not 90, and Stevenson is the same. Asks a lot of full backs and we need a natural winger and for AS to be more prepared to change things.

3. A hard *astard in the middle. We need somebody who the other sides hate and detest playing against. A midfield enforcer.

I think there are lazy myths about this Hibs team, which need dispelled. They're not 'bottlers' they compete well and don't hide, or don't freeze in the bigger games. We have just lacked quality to put teams away. It's nothing to do with courage, it's experience and ability. But the other is that we don't have the striking power we imagine.
Agree with all that, the bold part in particular.

[SquashedFrogg]

Football might have been easier on the eye, but results were still poor. Look at our results against QOS, Falkirk and Raith to see that. And results are all that count when trying to get promoted.

Stubbs underachieved this season but hopefully he can improve next year.

Results poor?

We came 2nd to a Yam team that head been preparing for the Championship for 18 months.

We finished above QOS, Falkirk, Raith and The Rangers?

Yes results are what count, but that's an incredibly poor analysis (lazy post) based on the OP...

[Northernhibee]

I think Djedje is going to be an important player this coming season with a pre-season to sharpen us up. Has pace and good in the air and can also play out wide.

[easty]

Results poor?

We came 2nd to a Yam team that head been preparing for the Championship for 18 months.

We finished above QOS, Falkirk, Raith and The Rangers?

Yes results are what count, but that's an incredibly poor analysis (lazy post) based on the OP...

I'm fed up hearing that *****. Prepared for it how? By taking a beating every week in the premier league? Hearts adapted better to the championship than us or Rangers, simple as that. They had a load of new players (Alexander, Eckersley, the big Turkish diddy centre half, Gomis and Buaben, Pallardo, Sow, El Hassathingy, Keatings) joining, in the pre-season, after they'd spent '18 months preparing' (so how does that work out?), they picked up results from the off, and didnt look back.

And aye....results were poor.

[B.H.F.C]

Stubbs was given a pretty easy time this year because of what he inherited. Well Rangers are in a mess this year with hardly any contracted players and it remains to be seen who their manager will be. We need to take advantage of that and get of to a fast start. No excuses this time round.

We need to get the bulk of our business done early doors and be ready for the season. Hopefully they already know what out of contract players are going to be signing new deals. I'm sure I read that Craig had a contract offer taken off the table as he was taking too long to sign it. If that's true I find it quite encouraging as it shows they aren't going to mess about.

[CraigHibee]

Pretty much agree with this assessment. Stubbs did well in his rookie year, to arrest seven years of decline. They did better than I thought.

But more will be expected of him and the team next season, and this is what we need to do:

1. Sign new goalscoring talent or develop existing talent. Our strikers scored goals but that obscured that our goals-to-chances-created ration was poor. We just didn't have the quality to turn those chances into goals.

2. More flexible formation, including greater pace and width. I like the diamond formation, but Stubbs has to show that he can build a more flexible team and mix it up a bit. Gray can get up for 45, but not 90, and Stevenson is the same. Asks a lot of full backs and we need a natural winger and for AS to be more prepared to change things.

3. A hard *astard in the middle. We need somebody who the other sides hate and detest playing against. A midfield enforcer.

I think there are lazy myths about this Hibs team, which need dispelled. They're not 'bottlers' they compete well and don't hide, or don't freeze in the bigger games. We have just lacked quality to put teams away. It's nothing to do with courage, it's experience and ability. But the other is that we don't have the striking power we imagine.

i think the fact that stubbs will have a full preseason this year i think he will get the striker part bang on, or at least i hope he will :aok: would be happy to keep most of the team together, a few departures expected and a few new guys coming in

[SquashedFrogg]

I'm fed up hearing that *****. Prepared for it how? By taking a beating every week in the premier league? Hearts adapted better to the championship than us or Rangers, simple as that. They had a load of new players (Alexander, Eckersley, the big Turkish diddy centre half, Gomis and Buaben, Pallardo, Sow, El Hassathingy, Keatings) joining, in the pre-season, after they'd spent '18 months preparing' (so how does that work out?), they picked up results from the off, and didnt look back.

And aye....results were poor.

You've more or less backed up my opinion. Thank you. :aok:

My point (and thanks for backing it up) is that they knew they were going down for a long time and made plans accordingly. They scouted players for the season ahead, bled younger players in the Premier League and reviewed the structure of the backroom staff etc

Hence they picked up results 'from the off' and 'didn't look back'...

Last year we had to wait until early summer before starting the process (new CE, manager, backroom staff etc)

We are far better placed now to go for promotion than we were this time last year.

Do you disagree?

If we came 5th for example, I'd say our results were 'poor'. For me, coming 2nd suggests our results (and considering the time to build a new team) were slightly better than 'poor'.

[easty]

You've more or less backed up my opinion. Thank you. :aok:

My point (and thanks for backing it up) is that they knew they were going down for a long time and made plans accordingly. They scouted players for the season ahead, bled younger players in the Premier League and reviewed the structure of the backroom staff etc

Hence they picked up results 'from the off' and 'didn't look back'...

Last year we had to wait until early summer before starting the process (new CE, manager, backroom staff etc)

We are far better placed now to go for promotion than we were this time last year.

Do you disagree?

If we came 5th for example, I'd say our results were 'poor'. For me, coming 2nd suggests our results (and considering the time to build a new team) were slightly better than 'poor'.

They didnt build a team to win the championship, they built a team to win games. Thier team wont be much different this season coming. The fact they knew they'd be playing in the championship wasn't relevant.

We had to wait longer to build a team for this season, aye, but our patchy results weren't just at the start of the season, they littered almost the whole campaign.

I'm not looking for you to agree with me anyway, you and anyone else, are entitled to think what you want about the results. For me, results were, far too often, poor.

That all said, I'm confident of promotion this time round. I like Stubbs.

[tamig]

Football might have been easier on the eye, but results were still poor. Look at our results against QOS, Falkirk and Raith to see that. And results are all that count when trying to get promoted.

Stubbs underachieved this season but hopefully he can improve next year.
Lol. To the last bit. First managerial appointment and an inherited mess? I think he did very well.