The Midfield

[crash]

In my opinion the midfield is where games are won and lost. Lets take a look at our midfield which we started with on Sunday: Ian MurrayAlways gives 100% but his best days are behind him, more suited to a back four position. Lewis Stevenson Again cant fault the effort, but lacks the skill and stature to be a first pick. Matt Thornhill Doesn't look he can handle spl football, looks one paced. David Wotherspoon A promising player with the under 19s,but has not shown the necessary improvement.
For me none of these players are good enough if we have aspirations of a top six, indeed collectively it is probably the weakest midfield in the league. So I would be putting the highest priority on bringing in at least 3 quality midfielders before the window shuts.

[coco22]

agree mostly with comments on stevenson and murray but think thornhill will be a good player for us. likewise i think that wotherspoon, given time and the correct guidance / protection, will go on to be a hibs star. we need a 'number 10' with a bit of flair, of the latapy mould, to lighten up our side - not many of them kickin about on our budget though...

[Albion Hibs]

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In my opinion the midfield is where games are won and lost. Lets take a look at our midfield which we started with on Sunday: Ian MurrayAlways gives 100% but his best days are behind him, more suited to a back four position. Lewis Stevenson Again cant fault the effort, but lacks the skill and stature to be a first pick. Matt Thornhill Doesn't look he can handle spl football, looks one paced. David Wotherspoon A promising player with the under 19s,but has not shown the necessary improvement.
For me none of these players are good enough if we have aspirations of a top six, indeed collectively it is probably the weakest midfield in the league. So I would be putting the highest priority on bringing in at least 3 quality midfielders before the window shuts.

Dont agree with any of that. Ian Murray was probably our best midfielder on Sunday, I would be chosing my team for the next match based on the performance I have seen, rather than our non medical, non informed view on whether or not he is "past it" or the fans favorite "legs have gone" nonsense. I thought Lewis Stevenson was excellent for the first 45 mins of the game on Sunday. I missed all of the pre-season games in which Thornhill was suposed to be very good, I will reserve judgement on that basis. Wotherspoon has shown he can be a good player, I thought he was poor on Sunday, part of me says his best positon is right back, unfortunatly for him Palsson did well there on Sunday and he provides a bit more height and build at the back.

I thought our midfield competed well on Sunday, and I think they will be a decent match for most SPL teams, I think when you throw in a bit of pace from Sproule and also Galbraith we are looking not to bad.

We must remember on Sunday they were playing the best team in the league and had little or nothing to work with up front, having another striker up there i.e. more to pass to will give more options to work with.

[Scouse Hibee]

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Dont agree with any of that. Ian Murray was probably our best midfielder on Sunday, I would be chosing my team for the next match based on the performance I have seen, rather than our non medical, non informed view on whether or not he is "past it" or the fans favorite "legs have gone" nonsense. I thought Lewis Stevenson was excellent for the first 45 mins of the game on Sunday. I missed all of the pre-season games in which Thornhill was suposed to be very good, I will reserve judgement on that basis. Wotherspoon has shown he can be a good player, I thought he was poor on Sunday, part of me says his best positon is right back, unfortunatly for him Palsson did well there on Sunday and he provides a bit more height and build at the back.

I thought our midfield competed well on Sunday, and I think they will be a decent match for most SPL teams, I think when you throw in a bit of pace from Sproule and also Galbraith we are looking not to bad.

We must remember on Sunday they were playing the best team in the league and had little or nothing to work with up front, having another striker up there i.e. more to pass to will give more options to work with.

Hmmm I knew what you were going to post before I read it regarding our midfield and your love of Ian Murray, non informed view blah blah blah. However it's all about opinions and you are entitled to yours. I lost count of the number of times Stevenson lost possesion or gave away the ball on Sunday with a misplaced pass, Palsson gave us nothing at right back apart from the fact that he couldn't be as bad as Hart and his distribution was awful. Full backs need to be able to move forward and provide width which he never did. Ian Murray had a rare half decent game. All in my non informed opinion of course!

[Albion Hibs]

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Hmmm I knew what you were going to post before I read it regarding our midfield and your love of Ian Murray, non informed view blah blah blah. However it's all about opinions and you are entitled to yours. I lost count of the number of times Stevenson lost possesion or gave away the ball on Sunday with a misplaced pass, Palsson gave us nothing at right back apart from the fact that he couldn't be as bad as Hart and his distribution was awful. Full backs need to be able to move forward and provide width which he never did. Ian Murray had a rare half decent game. All in my non informed opinion of course!

I think you will find I started with my view i.e. "I do not agree" alas my opinion, as you say we are all entitled.

I would agree Stevenson gave the ball away a lot in the second half, alas I said he was good in the first half.

I dont believe, IMO, that every full back has to overall / get forward, naturally booth is going to do that, so if Palsson sits in and defends I have no issue with that, it perhaps just allows a more central midfielder to move forward.

But non the less you are of course entitled to your non informed opinion!

[Scouse Hibee]

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I think you will find I started with my view i.e. "I do not agree" alas my opinion, as you say we are all entitled.

I would agree Stevenson gave the ball away a lot in the second half, alas I said he was good in the first half.

I dont believe, IMO, that every full back has to overall / get forward, naturally booth is going to do that, so if Palsson sits in and defends I have no issue with that, it perhaps just allows a more central midfielder to move forward.

But non the less you are of course entitled to your non informed opinion!

Thank You

[sunshine1875]

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Dont agree with any of that. Ian Murray was probably our best midfielder on Sunday, I would be chosing my team for the next match based on the performance I have seen, rather than our non medical, non informed view on whether or not he is "past it" or the fans favorite "legs have gone" nonsense. I thought Lewis Stevenson was excellent for the first 45 mins of the game on Sunday. I missed all of the pre-season games in which Thornhill was suposed to be very good, I will reserve judgement on that basis. Wotherspoon has shown he can be a good player, I thought he was poor on Sunday, part of me says his best positon is right back, unfortunatly for him Palsson did well there on Sunday and he provides a bit more height and build at the back.

I thought our midfield competed well on Sunday, and I think they will be a decent match for most SPL teams, I think when you throw in a bit of pace from Sproule and also Galbraith we are looking not to bad.

We must remember on Sunday they were playing the best team in the league and had little or nothing to work with up front, having another striker up there i.e. more to pass to will give more options to work with.

I think CC picked a midfield (and a team) not to lose on Sunday and I agree that they did ok for most of it as a defensive unit. However, as an attacking force they were pretty toothless. It will be interesting to see how they will do on Saturday at ICT against a poorer team, as I think CC will pick the same team again. The ICT game will be a better indication of where we are at this moment in time.

[Albion Hibs]

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I think CC picked a midfield (and a team) not to lose on Sunday and I agree that they did ok for most of it as a defensive unit. However, as an attacking force they were pretty toothless. It will be interesting to see how they will do on Saturday at ICT against a poorer team, as I think CC will pick the same team again. The ICT game will be a better indication of where we are at this moment in time.

I think he is likely to go with the same team, and I think ICT will be more of a battle than a game of football. Key will be wider players getting something into the box for O'Connor / getting into the box themselves.

One things was clear from saturday in losing riordan we have lost any decent delivery into the box from set pieces. I think we need to take more from these situations, Jones was good for circa 5 goals a season with the right service and I am sure O'hanlon will be as well.

[Jonnyboy]

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I think he is likely to go with the same team, and I think ICT will be more of a battle than a game of football. Key will be wider players getting something into the box for O'Connor / getting into the box themselves.

One things was clear from saturday in losing riordan we have lost any decent delivery into the box from set pieces. I think we need to take more from these situations, Jones was good for circa 5 goals a season with the right service and I am sure O'hanlon will be as well.

Two things really AH - we need a dead ball striker who can shoot direct free kicks at goal from around the penalty area - another thing Deek excelled at

[Albion Hibs]

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Two things really AH - we need a dead ball striker who can shoot direct free kicks at goal from around the penalty area - another thing Deek excelled at

True, who is our free kick taker this season?

[Jonnyboy]

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True, who is our free kick taker this season?

Not sure they know yet. Have seen Booth, Spoony and GOC all having unsuccessful attempts

[mon the cabbage]

Spoony is good player with great potential

Ian Murray is decent but he is getting old now.

Stevenson passes the ball well but makes too many mistake

Thornhill has a great pass, I only think he was not as good on saturday because was up against the cm's in the league



If we get towell we play pallson instead of stevenson and thats not too bad.

[basehibby]

I think our midfield has good defensive qualities and a good bit of pace and energy about it - what we lack is creativity - a player with the guile and skill to put the opposition on the back foot.

[WellingtonHibby]

[QUOTE=Jonnyboy;2871437]Two things really AH - we need a dead ball striker who can shoot direct free kicks at goal from around the penalty area - another thing Deek excelled at[/QUOTt in my humble opinion, our set pieces were pish last season and deek has to shoulder a lot of the blame for that, i would wager, without checking, that we didnt score very many at all from free kicks/corners last season..

[soproni1]

[/QUOTt in my humble opinion, our set pieces were pish last season and deek has to shoulder a lot of the blame for that, i would wager, without checking, that we didnt score very many at all from free kicks/corners last season..[/QUOTE]

100% agree - maybe we will see some invention from set-pieces this season as opposed to deek shooting from all places (which became a tad ineffective when he stopped scoring, the only one i remember was Bamba heading in a rebound against Dundee Utd). Did Hanlon not score a good one at Falkirk or was it a mis-hit?

[blackpoolhibs]

I think a midfield with Stevenson and Murray will see us comfortably in the bottom 6 for another season. Both lack the qualities needed to create, both give the ball away far too easily and need to be nowhere near the team. Murray is so slow these days, the only thing he does well is clatter into players.

We surrender the ball to easily with them in the team. They are just not up to the task of playing in a team that needs to be challenging for europe.

Throw in Ed De Graff and you can see why i think we will struggle in that department.

[Speedway]

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In my opinion the midfield is where games are won and lost. Lets take a look at our midfield which we started with on Sunday: Ian MurrayAlways gives 100% but his best days are behind him, more suited to a back four position. Lewis Stevenson Again cant fault the effort, but lacks the skill and stature to be a first pick. Matt Thornhill Doesn't look he can handle spl football, looks one paced. David Wotherspoon A promising player with the under 19s,but has not shown the necessary improvement.
For me none of these players are good enough if we have aspirations of a top six, indeed collectively it is probably the weakest midfield in the league. So I would be putting the highest priority on bringing in at least 3 quality midfielders before the window shuts.

For a start it is not our first choice midfield. Secondly, Murray is regarded as a defender first and foremost this season. Thirdly we have 12 midfielders on the books and you want another three in, in a month?

Let's have a look at what's actually going on.

Sproule backed by Wotherspoon backed by Taggart. Ivan's good enough, David currently isn't. Taggart - Murder.
Palsson backed by Horner. See above
Thornhill backed by EDG. Again see above.
Scott backed by Stevenson backed by Welsh. None of them are good enough
Galbraith backed by Crawford. Crawford might have something.

So basically, we need 1-2 new midfielders and we need to punt at least 1 out permanently and two or more on loan.

Amateur fitba' internet messageboard lunchtime analysts making things up ken whit's goan oan.

[Andy74]

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For a start it is not our first choice midfield. Secondly, Murray is regarded as a defender first and foremost this season. Thirdly we have 12 midfielders on the books and you want another three in, in a month?

Let's have a look at what's actually going on.

Sproule backed by Wotherspoon backed by Taggart. Ivan's good enough, David currently isn't. Taggart - Murder.
Palsson backed by Horner. See above
Thornhill backed by EDG. Again see above.
Scott backed by Stevenson backed by Welsh. None of them are good enough
Galbraith backed by Crawford. Crawford might have something.

So basically, we need 1-2 new midfielders and we need to punt at least 1 out permanently and two or more on loan.

Amateur fitba' internet messageboard lunchtime analysts making things up ken whit's goan oan.

So why didn't we play our first choice midfield last week?

Agree with thread, Thornhill has looked good pre season but give me Miller and McBride even above what we currently have there.

[delbert]

The guy who said Saturday will probably be a battle hit the nail on the head, and that's what worries me. When did our midfield last out fight or dominate another teams midfield, basically take the game by the scruff of the neck and boss it, we are very one paced in there, and often other teams simply seem to stroll past our midfield. I don't think we have many in there who have much in the battling qualities department, it would be nice if it was all won by good football every game, but this is the SPL, skill is definitely at a premium in the majority of games, and its usually the team that gets stuck in the most who wins..............and that has'nt been us very often for almost 18 months.

[blackpoolhibs]

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The guy who said Saturday will probably be a battle hit the nail on the head, and that's what worries me. When did our midfield last out fight or dominate another teams midfield, basically take the game by the scruff of the neck and boss it, we are very one paced in there, and often other teams simply seem to stroll past our midfield. I don't think we have many in there who have much in the battling qualities department, it would be nice if it was all won by good football every game, but this is the SPL, skill is definitely at a premium in the majority of games, and its usually the team that gets stuck in the most who wins..............and that has'nt been us very often for almost 18 months.

You can have all the players who will give 100% in the world, if they cant retain the ball once winning it its a waste of time. Those ball winners, have to also be able to play a bit. Our hod carriers cant, and they are also bullied off the ball too much imo too.

We have too many players who struggle to win their individual battles in the middle of the park, but when they do win the odd challenge, dont have the ability to either drive on, or pick a decent pass.

I personally cant for the life of me see why Stevenson got a new contract? I cant see how Murray is anywhere near a first team shirt. And De Graff is just as bad as he was last season. Wotherspoon should be our right back at the minute, and Galbraith needs to start going past players and putting in some crosses very soon, as his displays so far since signing have been average at best.

This leaves us Thornhill Scott and Paulson With Ivan on the right, A midfield 4 that i wouldn't want to rely too heavily on, especially when you see whats behind them on the bench.