Hibernian V Aberdeen

[Elgindon]

  Wouldnt be surprised,assuming Mckenna is still with us,that if the defence becomes more reliable,McInnes  feels more justified in continuing with game management.

    "Looking to see the game out at 1 - 0" with 45 mins left,goes against instincts,and the object of the game.Going by yesterday,the players dont seem to be comfortable with it.If you have too fixed a mindset like that,does it allow for opportunities in the game when the opposition defence look vulnerable and might be worth going at.

  Attack is a problem for us.If we dont look to attack with intent regularly enough,we surely take the edge off how we do it effectively.

    Am hoping, as a McInnes fan,he negotiates a bit more with his ideas,both to grow as a manager,and to avoid him (and us) becoming stale doing the same old year in/out,...despite the relative success of recent years.A stable defence should be an opportunity to loosen the reins a bit.

[manc_don]

You should check our record in games where we take the lead over the last 2/3 seasons and see if it really doesn’t work.

 

Not talking about teams outside of the top 5. It doesn't work. Even my hibby mate said we'd defend as soon as we went 1 up. It's obvious and invites attack which we eventually buckle at. We're not savvy enough. Don't think we even got into that position often last season mind.

[Ramperbamper]

Not talking about teams outside of the top 5. It doesn't work. Even my hibby mate said we'd defend as soon as we went 1 up. It's obvious and invites attack which we eventually buckle at. We're not savvy enough. Don't think we even got into that position often last season mind.

 

Last season we won every game we took the lead in against Celtic, Hibs (x2) and Hearts. Only exception was the draw at home to Sevco on the second last day of the season.

 

It's not how I'd have set it up, but Hibs rarely penetrated us and were mainly reduced to long rang efforts. We were 5 minutes away from scraping it on Saturday.

 

Not saying it's a flawless masterplan either, but blanket "it doesn't work" statements are off the mark.

[manc_don]

Last season we won every game we took the lead in against Celtic, Hibs (x2) and Hearts. Only exception was the draw at home to Sevco on the second last day of the season.

 

It's not how I'd have set it up, but Hibs rarely penetrated us and were mainly reduced to long rang efforts. We were 5 minutes away from scraping it on Saturday.

 

Not saying it's a flawless masterplan either, but blanket "it doesn't work" statements are off the mark.

 

Fair enough, I did only have a brief look at results but had remembered it differently. Guess it just bugs me we sat and invited pressure when we were only one up.

[wee toon red]

Last season we won every game we took the lead in against Celtic, Hibs (x2) and Hearts. Only exception was the draw at home to Sevco on the second last day of the season.

 

It's not how I'd have set it up, but Hibs rarely penetrated us and were mainly reduced to long rang efforts. We were 5 minutes away from scraping it on Saturday.

 

Not saying it's a flawless masterplan either, but blanket "it doesn't work" statements are off the mark.

 

Thanks, that was my point exactly. It quite clearly does work, even if it isn't quite as attractive a style of play as most of us would like it to be.

[rocket_scientist]

Ok, points taken and one point taken. Was just in and boiling with rage.

 

What infuriates me the most is that they were there to be beaten and had we not been handicapped by very poor management (once again), it would've been 3 points (plus a shocking referee error). Coming second doesn't get a trophy but we have no chance of being second come May, whatever happens in the January window as we will be too far behind by then. The only reason AFC got 2nd was how badly organised the rest of them were. That's not the case in 2018/19. McInnes continues to defy logic and common sense in his deployment of personnel and doesn't even set them out to win against the bigger teams. He's getting found out now and the one player who has the most heart, he's one of our own, is quite clearly getting more and more frustrated.

 

If the goal is to win then it's not working. If the goal is to get a point at Easter Road against a team weakened by the loss of their best players then it did work. All depends on what the goal is and that is a mentality and ambition issue.

[Ramperbamper]

Fair enough, I did only have a brief look at results but had remembered it differently. Guess it just bugs me we sat and invited pressure when we were only one up.

 

More than one way to skin a cat I guess, and I agree that clinging on wouldn't be my default setting in a situation like that. We got way too panicky and way too harum scarum way too quickly.

 

If the plan was to effectively hit them on the break, then it was poorly executed IMO. Gleeson looked like the one who could hold it up in the middle and distribute it to our quicker/creative players, so I wouldn't have taken him off.

[RicoS321]

I didn't see the game, or listen to it as I wasn't about on Saturday. I haven't watched the highlights yet, but it sounds quite typical of our approach. As others have pointed out, the tactic of "game management" does actually work and is clearly drilled into the players despite how horrendous as it is. I also think that there's a vast difference between game management of passing the ball about and retaining possession - which we've done very successfully in the last few seasons and the backs-to-the-wall approach which sounded as if it were the case at the weekend. I think McInnes would recognise the distinction and would want to aim for the former. I mentioned after the huns game that we deserved a draw as they sat in when there was no real evidence that they needed to (they could easily have continued the way they had for most of the match and won), and this is no different. Whilst we've held out in a lot of games, you deserve to lose a goal if you play specifically not to lose a goal (for a long period of time).  Claims by McInnes about a penalty decision earlier in the game are irrelevant too, that had zero bearing on our tactics.

 

The above said, I do still think we have personnel issue when trying to win games comfortably. I think Wright may be the answer to that this season unless we can get likes of Christie (a Christie-like player) from the Tim. Either one of those allows that bit of breathing space further up the pitch and means that May isn't the only one preventing a defender walking out of defence with the ball. None of the midfielders at the weekend fitted that bill. It is also very worrying that Shinnie is still our best midfielder (hibs game aside it seems) and it means that we'll be having the left back discussion all season.

[Ten Caat]

Game management might "work" the majority of the time but it relies on us retaining possession for large chunks of the time remaining in any given game when we are ahead. It sure as fuck didn't work on Saturday as whenever we got the ball we immediately launched it forward handing possession straight back to Hibs. We then sat right back allowing all of their backline to stride forward unchallenged and effectively over-running our midfield.

 

It was absolutely horrendous to watch as a spectator and the near £100 quid I spent on tickets, transport etc will make me think twice about doing it again......of course I will do but right now I feel a bit cheated. I would probably feel the same even if we had clung on for a win. It is on paper a decent result getting a point at Easter Road but had Hibs taken nothing from that it would have been a travesty. Lennon is an odious cunt of a human but at least he sets his teams out to play football the right way.

 

Scott Wright would have had a field day against Hibs' defence as they are almost as bad as sevco in that department. Afraid playing Frank Ross as a straight replacement just did not work. The best I can say for him is that he was anonymous. We do badly need an experienced number 10 in but those still shouting for Christie I fear are in for a disappointment. Jack Ross wants to add him to his ever growing list of Scottish recruits at Sunderland who would easily  be able to pay him at least double what we could.