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Is this the best squad we’ve ever assembled?


gashauskis9

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1 hour ago, Doc Rob said:

TBH what our squad lacks right now is an X-factor player. Naismith could become that player for us, but currently I can’t see anyone else turning a game with something created out of nowhere, a la Skacel.

 

Re: the John Millar discussion, I really liked him as a player. The team of 1991-92 doesn’t get a lot of love compared to some of the others as they never won a trophy, but just look at the players:

Henry Smith

Alan McLaren

Tosh McKinlay

Craig Levein

Gary Mackay

Dave McPherson

Scott Crabbe

Derek Ferguson

John Robertson

John Millar

John Colquhoun

 

Millar and Crabbe were the only two of that 11 not to get full Scotland caps.

 

X-factor players?

 

Perm one from (or all of):

 

Mitchell

Clare

Vanacek

(Yep - none yet proven as x-factor but early days and all have potential to provide it)

 

Not ignoring the form, skill and intelligence of Naismith.

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34 minutes ago, Gorgiewave said:

We're not even playing especially well. Ikpeazu has lost form and we're reliant on Bobby and Naismith.

 

This shows the ignorance of some fans.

 

Ikpeazu has not lost form, and it has been discussed by both him and Levein after recent games.

 

He’s basically been asked to do a certain job - basically chase, run, harry, hold the ball, bring others into play due to nature of the last couple of games for the benefit of the team.

 

Levein even said about 3 weeks ago - he doesn’t care particularly if Uche doesn’t score as long as he continues to perform to the benefit of the team - as he did at the weekend when it was him that created the opportunity for our only and winning goal.

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Sub4TiddlerMurray
2 hours ago, Enzo Chiefo said:

Short memory JJ..Djoum is an imposter imo. Never kicked a ball for months after the African Nations Cup and should have been shown a red card with his first touch of the ball a fortnight ago . Comparing Millar to a 17 year old laddie that may or not make it along with a guy who was originally brought in as cover for  CH??? Fair enough , have the discussion in May or after we've played against the majority of the top teams but now??? Nah.

 

So, in your world, John Millar. ....John Millar was a better player than Djoum is now :facepalm:

 

...Djoum, an African National Cup winner, seriously?!

 

... John Millar ...was a great servant as they say, but please don't make him out to be something he wasn't

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50 minutes ago, Sub4TiddlerMurray said:

 

So, in your world, John Millar. ....John Millar was a better player than Djoum is now :facepalm:

 

...Djoum, an African National Cup winner, seriously?!

 

... John Millar ...was a great servant as they say, but please don't make him out to be something he wasn't

 

Actually yes, seriously. Millar was nowhere near Djoum at his best, but we haven’t seen his best since he won the aforementioned African Cup of Nations. Right now I’d take Millar over him every day of the week.

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I realize this is saying it's incomplete -- the current squad has enormous potential, but much of it remains untested.

 

We have the youngsters like Souttar, Cochrane, Morrison, McDonald, Wighton, and Mitchell -- each might take off to enormous potential but might flame out. (Souttar and Mitchell are starting to look like dead certs but even they might hit a bad patch.) We have old hands like MacLean and Hughes -- who knows when their knees might give out. We have players with enormous flashes of brilliance like Uche and Djoum, the latter of whom I think still could be a top-five player in this squad, as well as Haring who seems to have locked down the holding mid position but that's not something he's shown much of before, so he might be found out yet.

 

And then we have Berra, who I still think is our best player. If he comes back in January at close to 100%, that's enormous for us. If he's gimpy, that's a huge loss.

 

This may sound simplistic but I think if this team does end up being better than 05/06, we'll win the league. And I think we have that potential. But we have yet to reach it.

 

And I wasn't a Hearts fan yet in 05/06 or any of the other leagues, but in reading retrospectives it's hard to see past 57/58 as our best year. Dave MacKay was an all-time great not just in Hearts or in Scotland, but in Europe. Put three strikers with well over a goal every two games while playing together and that's an incredible team. There's always the "fitness and training" argument for more modern players but if those players played in our era they'd get modern training and fitness and would have been even better than they were.

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rudi must stay
18 hours ago, Gashauskis9 said:

Was thinking about this last night, when looking at another thread on our best 11.  

 

Whilst I reckon you could argue that the strongest 11 in 85/86, 97/98 and 05/06 was probably on par if not better, I can’t remember us having this much depth and quality as a squad.  Our subs bench is going to be ridiculous, especially when players come back from injury and Vanacek arrives.

 

85/86 - no depth.  We were pretty much reliant on fielding the same 11 and same approach each week.

 

97/98 - no offence, but Grant Murray and Jose Quitongo weren’t in the same league as Weir and Adam.  That said, I see huge similarities in the starting 11 to our current starting 11 in terms of passion, team spirit and determination.

 

05/06 - no question, the most talented team I’ve ever watched wear the maroon.  However, when Janny and Bednar got injured, we trundled and lost momentum.  In addition, the subs bench for half the season still had Simmons and McCallister. Yes we signed 11 players in January, but most of them were utter keek and didn’t even make the bench half the time.  I dread to think what would have happened that year if Pressley, Hartley and Skacel had missed a number of games.

 

I think it's 2nd best behind 05/06.

 

Yes we had Simmons, but I think he played once and scored. McAllister was the same (didn't play very much) and he was decent that season when called upon. It seemed like every week we were signing quality for a couple of months, that was higher than the quality we are signing right now, guys like Bednar you can't even compare to Uche. Our league has decreased in standard considerably and I fully believe the team in 05/06 would win this league easily.

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  • 1 year later...
On 19/09/2018 at 07:45, Gashauskis9 said:

How?  Did I mention us winning the treble?  Still waiting for someone to point out a stronger squad.

What’s your thoughts now? 😅

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14 minutes ago, Natural Orders said:

What’s your thoughts now? 😅

That’s creepy patter chief, especially from someone with a username representing a phrase coined by Levein himself.
 

FWIW, The squad at that time, pre injuries, was the strongest.  Since then, we’ve just filled it with shite and vanity projects.  
 

 

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