Our opponents squads

[PatHead]

I keep reading that our opponents have all strengthened their squads. I just don’t get it.

Celtic are definitely weaker and there seems to be a lot of player unrest.

Aberdeen are much weaker having lost their star midfielders, McLean and Christie which followed a weaker squad last year than the one before. They have also lost a regular goal scorer.

The Rangers appear a bit stronger with their new management team but if they lose today it is the worst start to a season for a team from Ibrox since 98/99.

Kilmarnock have lost their star midfielder and Boyd is a year older.

Hearts are a funny one. Lost their goalkeeper and star striker and their centre half is out long term. Signed a bunch of nobodies and are flying.

Motherwell have lost their centre back and looked mince at Easter Road.

Am I missing something?

[ryantaylor]

Not really sure you can say hearts haven't improved when they have started very strongly. Myself for one is pretty glad we don't play them till the end of October, when hopefully we've got all our players returned from injury.

[Jones28]

Hearts have gelled instantly, for which they deserve some kudos.

With European games and losing the best midfield since brown/Thomson/boozy it was always going to be a difficult time.

IMO we were always needing to bring in another defender, which we didn't do. We already have two injured defenders, another one down and we look very very bare.

Get Milligan in the side for some solidity and allow the two other midfielders to run the game. I thought Whittiker was solid against Aberdeen but have read some reviews from yesterday that would suggest he is past it.

[R'Albin]

Not really sure you can say hearts haven't improved when they have started very strongly. Myself for one is pretty glad we don't play them till the end of October, when hopefully we've got all our players returned from injury.

I always expected them to start strongly given they got their men in so early (admittedly not this strongly). I still think they'll end up being much and such the same as last season.

[where'stheslope]

I always expected them to start strongly given they got their men in so early (admittedly not this strongly). I still think they'll end up being much and such the same as last season.

Not if you look at their game stats!

Their strike rate is up to nearly half of the first half of last season already, and seem to be scoring goals for fun!

They appear to be knocking the ball about on the deck more, just like we always try to do!

The big man up front Ouchie will cause all teams bother, he's not a prolific goal scorer, but it seems to take 2 or 3 to stop him at times so frees up space for others!

Once we get our full team back, I feel we can give them a game, but they are building confidence with 4/4 wins and we know how much that helps!!

[IberianHibernian]

Weekly matches in Europe are probably not great preparation for league season . Different type of opposition , tiring travel , not enough time for friendlies and not knowing till Thursday night when and where next match will be . Wonder if Linlithgow and Berwick plus Blackburn testimonial plus European matches was really ideal preparation for league . Not as big a factor as weakened squad but still one more reason for dropping so many points .

[PatHead]

Not really sure you can say hearts haven't improved when they have started very strongly. Myself for one is pretty glad we don't play them till the end of October, when hopefully we've got all our players returned from injury.
I wasn't saying Hearts haven't improved, other than commenting that on paper at least they looked weaker.

The irony is that the team that looked to have improved the most, Sevco, haven't got off to a great start either.

I stand by my questioning of posters who keep saying we are weaker while every one of our opponents have strengthened.

By the way I acknowledge we are weaker.

[Borderhibbie76]

Hearts have gelled instantly, for which they deserve some kudos.

With European games and losing the best midfield since brown/Thomson/boozy it was always going to be a difficult time.

IMO we were always needing to bring in another defender, which we didn't do. We already have two injured defenders, another one down and we look very very bare.

Get Milligan in the side for some solidity and allow the two other midfielders to run the game. I thought Whittiker was solid against Aberdeen but have read some reviews from yesterday that would suggest he is past it.Our summer recruitment was also dreadfully slow for a variety of reasons...I think mainly due to the Dylan will he won't he stay saga which was allowed to drag on too long, and then the SJM saga. Hearts got a lot of signings in early in time for pre-season and it's showing at the moment as they've gelled. Things will get better for us when we hopefully get a settled first 11 fit and ready...but Summer recruitment could and probably should have been done quicker as a lot of us where saying and getting shot down for at the time.

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[PatHead]

Our summer recruitment was also dreadfully slow for a variety of reasons...I think mainly due to the Dylan will he won't he stay saga which was allowed to drag on too long, and then the SJM saga. Hearts got a lot of signings in early in time for pre-season and it's showing at the moment as they've gelled. Things will get better for us when we hopefully get a settled first 11 fit and ready...but Summer recruitment could and probably should have been done quicker as a lot of us where saying and getting shot down for at the time.

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I don't want to get into yet another discussion about this but I do not think we could have done our recruitment much quicker.

Players we were after had other options as well. They would have been targets for an number of other clubs.... Barker being an example. Him not coming and going to Preston rather than us or Hull, that in turn freed up Horgan who had previously been unavailable.

We could have accepted Celtic's bid for SJM in June so we knew where we would stand in regard to our squad for the new season. Would that have made sense?

Milligan initially didn't want to come to Scotland but hopefully will prove to be a good signing. It took time to get him over the line, should we have got a hard midfielder from Macclesfield or AFC Wimbledon so we had enough players for the beginning of the new season?

Our recruitment team were not sitting on their hands, holding back on signings just to annoy supporters like you. So it was not surprising "you lot" were getting shot down for your daily rants about a lack of signings.

[Borderhibbie76]

I don't want to get into yet another discussion about this but I do not think we could have done our recruitment much quicker.

Players we were after had other options as well. They would have been targets for an number of other clubs.... Barker being an example. Him not coming and going to Preston rather than us or Hull, that in turn freed up Horgan who had previously been unavailable.

We could have accepted Celtic's bid for SJM in June so we knew where we would stand in regard to our squad for the new season. Would that have made sense?

Milligan initially didn't want to come to Scotland but hopefully will prove to be a good signing. It took time to get him over the line, should we have got a hard midfielder from Macclesfield or AFC Wimbledon so we had enough players for the beginning of the new season?

Our recruitment team were not sitting on their hands, holding back on signings just to annoy supporters like you. So it was not surprising "you lot" were getting shot down for your daily rants about a lack of signings.Things could have been done differently I'm sorry we will agree to disagree there. I did say due to many factors and not all were within our control, but we are now in many ways paying the price for the slow start to our summer recruitment. We still dont really know why Scott Allan wasnt re-signed when i think its fairly obvious we were holding out for him till last week.
Granted we haven't been helped by injuries or work permit farces with 2 players...but I still don't think Lennon knows what our best formation or starting 11 is to be honest and that's a concern considering we've been back in competitive action for almost 2 months now.

Once we do get that settled side things will surely improve for us...but I fear yesterday won't be the only blip in the coming weeks until we arrive at that settled 11.

The manager is not helping either with certain decisions and selections which he admitted himself post match yesterday

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[PatHead]

Things could have been done differently I'm sorry we will agree to disagree there. I did say due to many factors and not all were within our control, but we are now in many ways paying the price for the slow start to our summer recruitment. We still dont really know why Scott Allan wasnt re-signed when i think its fairly obvious we were holding out for him till last week.
Granted we haven't been helped by injuries or work permit farces with 2 players...but I still don't think Lennon knows what our best formation or starting 11 is to be honest and that's a concern considering we've been back in competitive action for almost 2 months now.

Once we do get that settled side things will surely improve for us...but I fear yesterday won't be the only blip in the coming weeks until we arrive at that settled 11.

The manager is not helping either with certain decisions and selections which he admitted himself post match yesterday

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The amount of injuries we have had doesn't help. I am sure NL has a good idea of his best line up but hasn't been able to set it out.

[Borderhibbie76]

The amount of injuries we have had doesn't help. I am sure NL has a good idea of his best line up but hasn't been able to set it out.Let's hope so and that yesterday was our "Hamilton of last season

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[PatHead]

:agree:
Let's hope so and that yesterday was our "Hamilton of last season

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[Ozyhibby]

It’s too early to say, all clubs who sign players claim they have strengthened. As this can’t actually be true for everyone we just have to wait and see over the next couple of weeks.
I think the signing we have made are all decent players but we have not signed a combative midfielder(Milligan might turn out to be that guy) which makes us weaker in that area of the pitch. It appears obvious to me so I’m not sure why no (successful) attempt was made to bring in that type of midfielder.


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[MacGruber]

Lets not pretend it is something else.

We are weaker. Hearts are stronger. We are bumping our gums.

You can be in denial about Hearts as long as you want. They have invested heavily and improved significantly. You can say you don't understand people obsessed with Hearts, that it is sad and just focus on Hibs and on what we do.

It's called rivalry. It's a major part of football. One of the best parts too and wouldnt have it any other way. Rivals always judge themselves against the other in some respect.

In short. Hearts doing well, Hibs not = unhappy hibees

[Borderhibbie76]

Lets not pretend it is something else.

We are weaker. Hearts are stronger. We are bumping our gums.

You can be in denial about Hearts as long as you want. They have invested heavily and improved significantly. You can say you don't understand people obsessed with Hearts, that it is sad and just focus on Hibs and on what we do.

It's called rivalry. It's a major part of football. One of the best parts too and wouldnt have it any other way. Rivals always judge themselves against the other in some respect.

In short. Hearts doing well, Hibs not = unhappy hibeesExactly when we have to share a city with them it's natural....and it's not great go in to work again on Monday mornings at the minute

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[The_Horde]

Hearts have gelled instantly, for which they deserve some kudos.

With European games and losing the best midfield since brown/Thomson/boozy it was always going to be a difficult time.

IMO we were always needing to bring in another defender, which we didn't do. We already have two injured defenders, another one down and we look very very bare.

Get Milligan in the side for some solidity and allow the two other midfielders to run the game. I thought Whittiker was solid against Aberdeen but have read some reviews from yesterday that would suggest he is past it.

Hearts haven't gelled instantly. They got the players they wanted in early and had friendly matches and then the league cup matches to bed them in before the league campaign started.

They stole a march on the likes of us and got their main players in and up to speed. We've still got players yet to get up to speed (Hyndman, Maclaren, Kamberi, Milligan and Agyepong) and haven't worked out a settled side yet whilst spending half of pre season with a player we knew we weren't going to have at this stage making all of our play.

No surprise the sides who've been in Europe have had slow starts in the league.

[A Hi-Bee]

I keep reading that our opponents have all strengthened their squads. I just don’t get it.

Celtic are definitely weaker and there seems to be a lot of player unrest.

Aberdeen are much weaker having lost their star midfielders, McLean and Christie which followed a weaker squad last year than the one before. They have also lost a regular goal scorer.

The Rangers appear a bit stronger with their new management team but if they lose today it is the worst start to a season for a team from Ibrox since 98/99.

Kilmarnock have lost their star midfielder and Boyd is a year older.

Hearts are a funny one. Lost their goalkeeper and star striker and their centre half is out long term. Signed a bunch of nobodies and are flying.

Motherwell have lost their centre back and looked mince at Easter Road.

Am I missing something?

Thats a bit like saying two wrongs make a right kind of thing, I dont care what the rest are doing I do care what Hibs are doing, and perhaps the only way we can make sure we get better players in is to invest as much as we supporters can in whatever way we can before we get left behind, we cant afford to be saying but, but they have bigger or better etc.(outside of the 2 cheecks of course as we could not compete financialy with them, just to many bigots around)
:flag::flag::flag:

[Lago]

The amount of injuries we have had doesn't help. I am sure NL has a good idea of his best line up but hasn't been able to set it out.
Injuries & suspension are part & parcel of the game, these eventualities have to be covered through proper recruitment.