SPFL - Hibs vs Dons

[manc_don]

Hibs will be after blood given the result at the semi final. Hopefully the starting XI will be closer to what we're used to seeing, but that said, i'd still like Sokler to be alongside Miovski for all the reasons we've been talking about this week. November saw them draw 2, win 2 and lose 1 (cup semi to us), so their form isn't too bad.  Obviously last time down there was part of the week of hell, so surely we'll be doing better than January!  Regardless, this is absolutely a must win game, we really need to start putting a bit of a run together, especially given how many games we've got coming up. 

If we don't really see any more of Gueye, I won't be sad. I genuinely didn't understand the clamour online to see him start. It didn't work.

Out
Bed
Bed
work
2-0 hibs, no dons scorer

[Jute]

Hibs are charging £34 for this which is way too much for Scottish Football. If this wasn’t being played in my back garden I would not be going.
 

With McKenzie being injured would expect McGarry to get start at left wing back. Hopefully he is better than he was on last visit to Edinburgh. Agree with Manc that I would like to see Sokler and Miovski get more time as front pairing as thought they looked liked they could form a good partnership. Hibs will be desperate to get revenge for the semi final and most of their fans still feel they should have won the game. New manager seems to have them playing well and this would have been a difficult game without the mid week trip.
 

In

flat 

away end

flat

1-1 Sokler

[BigAl]

I'm a part timer so I'm out of this one

Out

Hopefully home from Helsinki

IPTV

No idea

1-2 Sokler & McGrath

[manc_don]

Match day! Hope to fuck this is the start of a positive run.

[redordead]

On 01/12/2023 at 07:43, Jute said:

Hibs are charging £34 for this which is way too much for Scottish Football. If this wasn’t being played in my back garden I would not be going.
 

With McKenzie being injured would expect McGarry to get start at left wing back. Hopefully he is better than he was on last visit to Edinburgh. Agree with Manc that I would like to see Sokler and Miovski get more time as front pairing as thought they looked liked they could form a good partnership. Hibs will be desperate to get revenge for the semi final and most of their fans still feel they should have won the game. New manager seems to have them playing well and this would have been a difficult game without the mid week trip.
 

In

flat 

away end

flat

1-1 Sokler

Funnily enough I was considering it with my youngest and then seen the price. I'm not encouraging it.

If I took the 3 boys it would cost £118 !!

[BigAl]

47 minutes ago, redordead said:

Funnily enough I was considering it with my youngest and then seen the price. I'm not encouraging it.

If I took the 3 boys it would cost £118 !!

That is just fucking mental

The product simply isn't value for money at that price or indeed any close to that cost 

[Jute]

 

[Goldie03]

I got offered last minute hospitality but was out getting a Christmas tree so couldn't make it 

Edited December 3, 2023 by Goldie03

[Elgindon]

Tasty looking line up,let's play fitba this time 

[RicoS321]

16 minutes ago, Elgindon said:

Tasty looking line up,let's play fitba this time 

Agreed, that's the lineup I'd have gone with. Only really question marks over McGarry in that, but hopefully another week to get fit has helped. I assume it's a 3-4-1-2, with McGrath pressing high almost in-between Miovski and Sokler in defence.

[OrlandoDon]

Poor in center mid so far, on the defensive side. Hibs wide open too often infront of our back 3. McGrath and clarkson don’t provide the graft/defensive competitiveness , something we’ve seen all year. Back 3 haven’t been great but it’s infront of them we have to tighten up.

we’re creating chances, just got to fix the back 3 long ball and the holding mid/space in front of them.

Edited December 3, 2023 by OrlandoDon

[redordead]

Seriously. I can't believe the hype miovski gets. Anonymous then misses that chance. I've never been a fan but I'd swap him for Boyle in a heartbeat. 

Never looks like he has the heart to get to the ball first. 

 

[redordead]

Clarkson has been pish all season. He should've moved on as he's set himself back.

We carry no threat going forward. We knock it about the sides and then fire in a cross which miovski will never win 

So easy to play against. No control of a game. Dave had spent a fortune backing Barry but he's not being rewarded.

[dons8321]

1 hour ago, redordead said:

Seriously. I can't believe the hype miovski gets. Anonymous then misses that chance. I've never been a fan but I'd swap him for Boyle in a heartbeat. 

Never looks like he has the heart to get to the ball first. 

 

And now misses a pen.

 

[OrlandoDon]

I actually don’t think we played that badly in attack. We created a few chances and on our day win that scoring 4 or 5. 
two shit goals to lose, thought mcgarry was weak, and I still feel if we play two up top, be that bojan and one other, we cannot afford McGrath and clarkson, we need two grafters. Too powderpuff in center mid and we exposed the back 3 way too much plus too vulnerable to the counter.

[Panda]

I don't think we played all that badly to be honest.

Miovski - not really sure where the bizarre criticism above is coming from. On another day he nets a hat-trick; hits a post twice and has a penalty saved. Just wasn't his day. Surely no-one thinks we're a better side without him in it.

Other than that we had an xG of 3.83 which shows you how many chances we created. We had 23 shots on goal (that's more than both Celtic and Rangers had against us). Only five on target is the disappointment, as above it didn't happen for us in the box today.

You can see what Robson was trying to do, I think he got his personnel wrong though. Asking Shinnie to go press high and wide because he wanted essentially a front five all pressing Hibs, which did work to an extent, but it meant we left big gaps in midfield and Hibs passed through that. It also meant Shinnie was often being asked to put crosses in which isn't his game.

Rubezic was at fault for both goals. We can't keep making excuses that he's young, he's costing us too often. He was booked near the end and I actually wanted Collum to send him off.

 

[Jute]

Going forward we actually looked alright today but a combination of an off day for Miovski and Marshall playing out his skin meant we didn’t score. Agree with comments above on not being able to have Clarkson and McGrath together in this formation. Barron has to start in place of one of them. If McKenzie is out long term then we need to get in another left back as we cannot continue with McGarry. He has no clue what he is doing defensively and causes other defenders to be out of position covering for him. Was not that impressed with his forward play either. 
 

Meant to add is that Shinnie suspended after the yellow card?

[RicoS321]

1 hour ago, Panda said:

You can see what Robson was trying to do, I think he got his personnel wrong though. Asking Shinnie to go press high and wide because he wanted essentially a front five all pressing Hibs

Really? I didn't see the game, but he didn't go for a 3-1-4-2 with Clarkson as number six again did he? How many times is he going to try that nonsense before he realises that McGrath is not Ramadani? It's not just Shinnie not being able to cross, it's expecting him to do twice the work when we've got a fixture every three days and no alternative midfield. It's like he's trying to break the guy. It's zero use having a high xG, if they can run a bus through our midfield.

[Jute]

31 minutes ago, RicoS321 said:

Really? I didn't see the game, but he didn't go for a 3-1-4-2 with Clarkson as number six again did he? How many times is he going to try that nonsense before he realises that McGrath is not Ramadani? It's not just Shinnie not being able to cross, it's expecting him to do twice the work when we've got a fixture every three days and no alternative midfield. It's like he's trying to break the guy. It's zero use having a high xG, if they can run a bus through our midfield.

Liar you clearly did see the game. 

[OrlandoDon]

I’ll also add, as much as I don’t think Robson is the man to take us long term, we’re 10 points off third and a game in hand. Get to the cup final and win, gives you a boost. Go on a run similar to last year and third is ours. However, obviously, we could go on a January Goodwin run too.

rethinking today, I don’t see us much these days, but today wasn’t that bad. It wasn’t purely long ball and we created a lot. Defensively we’ve been shaky all year, not just today, think it’s time to switch ruby for Macdonald. As mentioned too, miovski had a rare off day, he alone could have easily scored 3 or 4 and he wasn’t the only guilty party. We missed very good chances, played better today than the hibs game at pittodrie for sure, and better than a number of games this season. At the same time, it’s all about winning and it’s another game under Robson where we failed.

Edited December 3, 2023 by OrlandoDon

[Elgindon]

Rubezic is an awkward one.Lots of folk thinking he's come on leaps and bounds,but still costing us something in a lot of games. Theres an argument for persisting with him,but we're in dire need of points,and a spell on the bench might be for the best.

    Is our midfield sortable with the personnel we have? Could an existing player be utilised as a Rama type player til the Jan window,eg Duncan,McKenzie,McGarry? Were a bit physically lightweght in midfield IMO

[redordead]

1 hour ago, Elgindon said:

Rubezic is an awkward one.Lots of folk thinking he's come on leaps and bounds,but still costing us something in a lot of games. Theres an argument for persisting with him,but we're in dire need of points,and a spell on the bench might be for the best.

    Is our midfield sortable with the personnel we have? Could an existing player be utilised as a Rama type player til the Jan window,eg Duncan,McKenzie,McGarry? Were a bit physically lightweght in midfield IMO

I think the issue is that we are now a selling club. We will persist with young players in the hope of selling them on for a big profit. Meaning ruby will play until he improves to be sold. There's no value in Angus.

[Panda]

5 hours ago, RicoS321 said:

Really? I didn't see the game, but he didn't go for a 3-1-4-2 with Clarkson as number six again did he? 

It was better than it has been. At times we had a four behind the striker and stretched Hibs. Clarkson orchestrated everything behind the four.

But the deliveries into the box were poor because like I said, it was the wrong personnel, and defensively Clarkson was exposed and the back three - despite playing numerous games together - still don't function as a unit. No-one back there doing any organising. Rubezic takes the brunt of the criticism but Gartenmann and Jensen aren't exactly winning awards either.

Robson looks like he's changing his mind every few weeks and trying something different, which sometimes you might think is a manager evolving, but it also shows a bit of a scatter gun approach. I still don't know if we're a good side or not or whether Robson is going to last the season.

4 hours ago, OrlandoDon said:

I’ll also add, as much as I don’t think Robson is the man to take us long term, we’re 10 points off third and a game in hand. Get to the cup final and win, gives you a boost. Go on a run similar to last year and third is ours.

Hearts have just won four games in a row, they could be on that run now. They have the Old Firm either side of coming to Pittodrie, but if they win at Pittodrie next weekend and take anything from the old firm, they could be uncatchable.

28 minutes ago, redordead said:

Meaning ruby will play until he improves to be sold. There's no value in Angus.

Only if Cormack is picking the team, and even then, finishing third brings in more money than whatever they expect to sell Rubezic for.

[RicoS321]

9 hours ago, redordead said:

I think the issue is that we are now a selling club. We will persist with young players in the hope of selling them on for a big profit. Meaning ruby will play until he improves to be sold. There's no value in Angus.

There's probably a bit of that, but there's also the fact that Rubezic offers something different to the other two, in that he's aggressive and strong in the air*. MacDonald is very similar to the other two in that he'll be comfortable sitting and watching the play in front of him and mop up behind. There's a lot of value in having the mix of both (McLeish and Miller). In theory, Rubezic should be slightly advanced of the other two, and be the one aggressively attacking the ball, closing the gap between midfield and defence. That means that he should be allowed more mistakes than the other two as he's the proactive one. It also means Jensen and Gartenmann should be constantly on their toes for slip-ups. It's a little bit easier to make no mistakes when you're not throwing your body in the mix nearly as often, so Rubezic probably deserves a little slack at times. Gartenmann is clearly a class player, but I'm not as convinced by Jensen. He's not a poor player, but he's a downgrade on Scales. Last season, Robson could play with just MacDonald sweeping behind two players playing aggressively in Scales and Pollock, whereas we're a bit lopsided this season with a distinct lack of aggression on that left (which is probably why McKenzie adding that at left back has returned our best performances). That's why I think, for now, it's still best to persist with Rubezic and have MacDonald as cover for all three roles. 

*Whilst being great in the air, he does seem to have got under the ball a lot this season, which is fairly basic for a guy like him.