Case for the defence...

[Wheat Hound]

Our lack of defensive options is one of several concerns to me. With Forster out injured, we have no other centre halves at all. Even at full back, other than untried laddies. Even discounting the lack of cover for injuries, there is no competition for places. Fontaine and Hanlon looked off the pace and had no urgency about their play. Both Gray and Stevenson were likewise pale shadows of their performances last season. We need at least two defenders in soon in my opinion.

As for Goalkeeper, Oxley inspires zero confidence and his ratio of goals conceded to shots is terrible. Not sure Reguero is the answer but he deserves a shot.

[Ringothedog]

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Our lack of defensive options is one of several concerns to me. With Forster out injured, we have no other centre halves at all. Even at full back, other than untried laddies. Even discounting the lack of cover for injuries, there is no competition for places. Fontaine and Hanlon looked off the pace and had no urgency about their play. Both Gray and Stevenson were likewise pale shadows of their performances last season. We need at least two defenders in soon in my opinion.

As for Goalkeeper, Oxley inspires zero confidence and his ratio of goals conceded to shots is terrible. Not sure Reguero is the answer but he deserves a shot.

We will continue to struggle as long as we have Oxley, Stevenson and hanlon in the team. They are just not good enough.

[PISTOL1875]

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We will continue to struggle as long as we have Oxley, Stevenson and hanlon in the team. They are just not good enough.

You're bang on mate.. Oxley is bogging where Hanlon is never a centre half.. Far too weak and bullied by bigger and stronger forwards.. Stevenson tries his best and is a nice guy but that's the problem.. He's been there over the years and suffered a relegation.. Just not good enough I am afraid..

[SteveHFC]

Defence hase been awful for the last 2 weeks.

[Hermit Crab]

As long as oxley is in goals and Stevenson is at left back we are going to concede goals every week. I still can't get over how horrendous oxleys keeping was today for the goals. I think we will lose more games this season than we did last season.

[Not In The Know]

I find it hard to criticise Stevenson as he has been one of our better players for the last few seasons. But the other common denominator linked to our piss poor defenice is Paul hanlon. Stats don't lie. his whole Hibs career has coincided with us losing soft goals.

[theonlywayisup]

I'm thinking the Fontaine / Hanlon pairing doesn't work. I've always had a problem with two left sided centre halfs.

[Ringothedog]

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I'm thinking the Fontaine / Hanlon pairing doesn't work. I've always had a problem with two left sided centre halfs.

The opposition don't.

[PISTOL1875]

Paul Hanlon has not improved as a player in the last 5 years.. He is stuck a level and doesn't seem to be pushing on from it.. Maybe it is time we sold him.

[Ringothedog]

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I find it hard to criticise Stevenson as he has been one of our better players for the last few seasons. But the other common denominator linked to our piss poor defenice is Paul hanlon. Stats don't lie. his whole Hibs career has coincided with us losing soft goals.

Every team plays on Stevenson. They know he is a weak link. Going forward his crossing/passing is abysmal. One good pass or cross in a game does not make him a good player, giving plenty of effort does not make him a good player. Hanlon is terrible on the ground and when someone runs at him, he gets bullied off the ball, he is just too "nice". Oxley does not inspire confidence and so far is culpable for at least 5 of the goals we have lost this season.

[Del Boy]

Hanlon is just a very average defender. But we seem to accept that.

Would he get a game in the premier league for another team? Not in my opinion.

We need better.

[KWJ]

Some seriously knee jerk stuff here. Hanlon's decent in my view and we wouldn't have been relegated had he not been injured towards the end of the season.

Turnbull's Tornadoes had 2 left footed centre halfs.

Not huge on Oxley but we've had worse and the others in the league and many in Premiership aren't any better. Concede every week? It's the same back 5 that kept 16 clean sheets last season.

We all wanted to hit the ground running this season but if the fans get on top of our players like many of our last few years then we'll be scraping the barrel for confidence once again and in another rut.

[DH1875]

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Not huge on Oxley but we've had worse and the others in the league and many in Premiership aren't any better. Concede every week? It's the same back 5 that kept 16 clean sheets last season.

Really wish people would start getting over this. We were/are playing in the 2nd tier of Scottish football FFS. Of course our defence was always gonna have a good record.

[Brooster]

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We will continue to struggle as long as we have Oxley, Stevenson and hanlon in the team. They are just not good enough.

Absolutely spot on. The 3 worst players on the pitch yesterday which is some accolade considering how bad some of the others were. Oxley is horrendous, I cant believe we couldnt find a better keeper. Hanlon never won a high ball all day despite being taller than his opponent and where do I begin with Stevenson?

[B.H.F.C]

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Absolutely spot on. The 3 worst players on the pitch yesterday which is some accolade considering how bad some of the others were. Oxley is horrendous, I cant believe we couldnt find a better keeper. Hanlon never won a high ball all day despite being taller than his opponent and where do I begin with Stevenson?

Hanlon got absolutely bullied today. Stevenson was just Stevenson. Oxley is a very, very poor goalie.

I thought Fyvie beat them all for being the worst on the park today though.

[Brooster]

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Hanlon got absolutely bullied today. Stevenson was just Stevenson. Oxley is a very, very poor goalie.

I thought Fyvie beat them all for being the worst on the park today though.

Yes. Fyvie, Gray and Fonts were very poor as well but we know they are capable of much more.

[Kaiserclem]

Could not agree more on the original post. We basically have 4 defenders at the moment, and 5 when Forster is fit. Shocking and we have had all summer to fix this. No excuses if we want to "hit the ground running" as quoted. Hope we sign a centre half and left back this week but no doiubt will either be injured or 4 weeks away from match sharpness lol Synical, who me?

[Thecat23]

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Some seriously knee jerk stuff here. Hanlon's decent in my view and we wouldn't have been relegated had he not been injured towards the end of the season.

Turnbull's Tornadoes had 2 left footed centre halfs.

Not huge on Oxley but we've had worse and the others in the league and many in Premiership aren't any better. Concede every week? It's the same back 5 that kept 16 clean sheets last season.

We all wanted to hit the ground running this season but if the fans get on top of our players like many of our last few years then we'll be scraping the barrel for confidence once again and in another rut.

We would have 100% been relegated even with him back. One player doesn't make a team and Butcher's tactics sent us down.

[Thecat23]

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Hanlon got absolutely bullied today. Stevenson was just Stevenson. Oxley is a very, very poor goalie.

I thought Fyvie beat them all for being the worst on the park today though.

You have just said word for word what my mate said who was at the game. Said Fyvie was terrible. Hanlon and Stevenson very poor and he actually laughed when telling me about another one of Oxley's nightmares.

[Borderhibbie76]

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You have just said word for word what my mate said who was at the game. Said Fyvie was terrible. Hanlon and Stevenson very poor and he actually laughed when telling me about another one of Oxley's nightmares.

The fact we have lost 2 goals from direct free kicks in the first 3 matches concerns me...Oxley is frankly sh###. Even the header he saved in the first half...he pushes the ball right back into middle of 6 yard box...utterly dreadful keeper and I've no idea why Stubbs re-signed him tbh!! Hanlon was bullied all day by Craig of Dumbarton and Stevenson time and again when in good positions was wasteful. All 3 need replacing and fast! And your mate was right, Fyvie was very poor also..but tbh I'd struggle to give anyone pass marks. Worst match I've seen from Cummings also

[coldingham hibs]

Defence starts from the forwards, with Malonga & Cummings we have no defence, both with poor work rate.

Midfield generally all over the place, slow & no closing down. It's embarrassing how easily we allow teams to play the ball about.

I've watched Hanlon ever since he broke into the team and I've never ever thought he was a competent centre back, far too weak. Fontaine & Gray living off the good performances last season & need to get the finger out.

Oxley, is a very poor keeper & should never have been given a contract. There must be better keepers out there costing less in wages.

[Onion]

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Hanlon is just a very average defender. But we seem to accept that.

Would he get a game in the premier league for another team? Not in my opinion.

We need better.

Don't disagree but average Hibs players should still be good enough to beat Dumbarton. The problem yesterday was much bigger than one or two players playing badly. Stubbs needs to take responsibility for that.

[The Leith Dutch]

Defence isn't the problem.

Not saying it's great and yes it should be doing better given the quality of the opposition but the real problem is that we're not scoring anything like enough goals.

We shouldn't need to be worrying about keeping the opposition to 0 or 1 goal because we should be putting in 3 or 4 a game.
I'd much rather we didn't lose goals like the stupid ones we lost against Dumbarton but on our budget we will continue to lose daft goals because we're not going to get defenders who don't make mistakes.
Flipside is that for our budget we should comfortably have a team that can stick 3 or 4 past part timers which totally negates the daft goals we might lose.

We have plenty possession and create a good *number* of chances - they're just not good chances generally.
The style should be one or two nasty ball winners in midfield and the other 4 or 5 are guys who go at the opposition with purpose rather than trying to pass it into the net. One or more guys who can ping them from distance and a decent crosser of the ball would help a lot in keeping teams guessing rather than knowing we're going to try to pass our way through them.

[Tom Hart RIP]

I wasn't at the game, but the guy on the Bounce who writes the Just Back Articlefor the St Pats website had Paul Hanlon as our man of the match.
It's all about opinions I suppose

[Brightside]

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I wasn't at the game, but the guy on the Bounce who writes the Just Back Articlefor the St Pats website had Paul Hanlon as our man of the match.
It's all about opinions I suppose

Indeed. I was told he missed out on a couple of headers. So I guess that means bullied all day. Fontaine made a couple of howlers but we await the Fontaine thread. Always the same. Many fans just want CH's that just batter through players. If Hanlon is as poor as some on here think Im sure he will be first dropped with Forster is fit or the new CH joins.

[carnoustiehibee]

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Indeed. I was told he missed out on a couple of headers. So I guess that means bullied all day. Fontaine made a couple of howlers but we await the Fontaine thread. Always the same. Many fans just want CH's that just batter through players. If Hanlon is as poor as some on here think Im sure he will be first dropped with Forster is fit or the new CH joins.

Does your pager beep every time someone mentions Paul Hanlon on this forum?

[BoomtownHibees]

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Indeed. I was told he missed out on a couple of headers. So I guess that means bullied all day. Fontaine made a couple of howlers but we await the Fontaine thread. Always the same. Many fans just want CH's that just batter through players. If Hanlon is as poor as some on here think Im sure he will be first dropped with Forster is fit or the new CH joins.

You were told? So you weren't there? Why not listen to a poster (BHFC) that was at the game? There were more than a couple of headers that your mate Paul lost and Steven Craig bullied him all afternoon.

[Brightside]

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You were told? So you weren't there? Why not listen to a poster (BHFC) that was at the game? There were more than a couple of headers that your mate Paul lost and Steven Craig bullied him all afternoon.

Yep - I wasn't there. Same goes for the majority on the thread who put down every Hibs defeat to Hanlon or Stevenson. As ive said time after time. If he is as poor as some on here think (and I must watch a different player at Easter Rd) why is he never replaced, why is he pushed back in as soon as half fit?

In the first 30 v Rangers he was pretty much the best player on the park. Then he had to go back and cover the CH role and we lost all shape in midfield and got over powered on the flanks. Yet - this was a Hanlon issue according to some posters on here.

Again having watched the goals we conceded yesterday I fail to see which one was Hanlons fault? I'll happily discuss the mistakes he makes but how on earth can he be blamed for shipping two goals he wasn't involved in??

[Brightside]

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Does your pager beep every time someone mentions Paul Hanlon on this forum?

Nah - ive tried to ignore the thread all weekend tbh. But I look forward to the examples of why PH is at fault for us losing two games.

[Smartie]

I really like Hanlon as a player but he sometimes struggles in physical encounters.

On Saturday he was bullied by a guy that wasn't even that physical.

I thought he had a howler but he had a couple of moments when he looked decent (he dummied their forward nicely at one point) so I suppose if you want to focus on those moments you could give him motm.

I thought he was terrible on Saturday but he normally performs to a far higher standard.