Defending Defensiveness

[judas]

Hibs should have played an ultra defensive team against Villa. 10 or 11 men behind the ball, denying Villa playing space and keeping the score down would have been a justifiable approach.

We were NEVER going to win that game due to the disparity of resource. Absolute delusion to think otherwise.

Why do so many recoil at the thought of playing a highly defensive game when faced with such odds?

Negative? Or a positive tactic, blunting a showboating opponent?

Discuss.

[easty]

We don’t have the players to sit in and be tight, in my opinion.

We’re just not a hard team to break down just now.

[judas]

We don’t have the players to sit in and be tight, in my opinion.

We’re just not a hard team to break down just now.

Agree with this. In a sense LJ was playing his best cards.

But the strategy would still have worked better than the cavalier one he chose, no?

[Bostonhibby]

I kind of get the point but Villa would have been putting even more crosses in and if we put the entire first team squad in our box we'd still concede soft goals from crosses and free headers.

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[Skol]

I thought to an extent we did play that way. Next to no pressure on the ball until it came into our half and hopping to keep it tight then benefit from a break using the pace

However miller seems to tuck into much giving acres of space to Digne and that was a big mistake.

[Tyler Durden]

Absolutely we should have been more defensive. Totally pointless to play Vente for example.

And if Boyle was playing wide right then he should have been asked to track back. The narrow back 4 only works if you have wide midfielders to make it a 6 when needed.

We just didn’t have a game plan full stop

[Skol]

Absolutely we should have been more defensive. Totally pointless to play Vente for example.

And if Boyle was playing wide right then he should have been asked to track back. The narrow back 4 only works if you have wide midfielders to make it a 6 when needed.

We just didn’t have a game plan full stop

We did have a game plan, there were just some flaws in it as you point out. Youan up front with vented behind was strange as was miller tucking in and Boyle not helping out.

Removing obita at half time when he was one of our better players also seemed an odd move.

Jeggo should either of started or been brought on if we had a score we wanted to defend. Not to shore up at 3-0 down

[WestStandMoaner]

Absolutely we should have been more defensive. Totally pointless to play Vente for example.

And if Boyle was playing wide right then he should have been asked to track back. The narrow back 4 only works if you have wide midfielders to make it a 6 when needed.

We just didn’t have a game plan full stop

I agree but the simple truth is we just cant defend cross balls if Livingston have done their homework expect a lot of cross balls going into the box today

[SChibs]

Should have been 3 cb with Miller and obita wing backs imo. Boyle and youan up to and try to play quick balls over to them. Had we done that we still would have been beaten but we maybe would have made a couple more chances

[gaz1875]

442 should have been the set up. Doidge and 1 other up front, he wins headers and puts himself about. Doidge also defends corners and free kicks, and when he does defend he wins a good amount of the aerial balls.

[SeanWilson]

Hibs V villa is a 451, Doidge on his own type of game, we just dont have the players to even try and stifle an opposition of that level (or any level at the moment).

[evy]

I think it was a kind of pick your poison night due to the obvious difference in quality of the sqauds:

Allow them the space we did and get undone with ***** defending and the quality of balls whipped in.

Press them all over the park and then pass around it us and get a ball trough the defence.

Sit-in with 11 men behind the ball and it would eventually have been death by 1,000 cuts.

[lyonhibs]

Because if you don't offer even a sniff of something to keep their defenders occupied, absolutely no way will you keep a team like Villa quiet for 90 minutes by just crowding the box and praying