Passing Football......

[Martin_T]

Would be lunacy in those conditions. Is Sergio smart enough to change?

[N User]

Passing football is achieveable.

 

Slow passing football is ineffective in any weather.

[davemclaren]

Would be lunacy in those conditions. Is Sergio smart enough to change?

 

Never, ever change a winning tactic.

[Gambo]

Passing football is achieveable.

 

Slow passing football is ineffective in any weather.

 

Being able to make/receive a pass has more of an effect than the speed of the move.

[Jambo Forever]

Problem is we are playing a team who can pass the ball better than we can. get in their faces tactic would be much better today

[Gambo]

Would be lunacy in those conditions. Is Sergio smart enough to change?

 

Defo not a day for passing it across the back 4.

[IMA MAROON]

We will not play hoofball.

[I.J]

Great stuff. Whining about the style of play BEFORE the game.

 

 

[ToadKiller Dog]

We were passed off the park one wet muddyfield night

[Victorian]

Defo not a day for passing it across the back 4.

 

that's where our 'passing game' is based... because we don't have any decent movement to play it around higher up the pitch.

 

we'll get found out if we attempt to tippy-tappy ###### about at the back.

[Tiberius Stinkfinger]

I intend to boo every pass.

[vegas-voss]

The best and most exciting football is mixing it up between short and and direct passes.Except for Barca of course as no one can get the ball off them so they don't need to mix it up.

[N User]

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Being able to make/receive a pass has more of an effect than the speed of the move.<br />

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If you're too slow in passing/ moving with the ball - the opposition have all the time in the world to get back into spaces and comfortably mark players.

St. Johnstone did that last week which made it harder for us to make the passes.

[CMc]

We were passed off the park one wet muddyfield night

The night Robbie kept trying to rugby tackle his man every time he went past him?

[Ryan Gosling]

Bravo Mr Sergio.

[Seymour M Hersh]

Would be lunacy in those conditions. Is Sergio smart enough to change?

 

Yes.

[Martin_T]

Yes.

 

Yup and full credit to him for doing so. The only style Hearts should play, is the one that wins matches with the players available.

[Drylaw Hearts]

Yup and full credit to him for doing so. The only style Hearts should play, is the one that wins matches with the players available.

 

Correct.

[amadjambo]

Played old School today and the game was brilliant apart from sitting a wee bit too deep after the 2nd goal. Mince and tatties, the only way to go against the opposition getting in aboot them.

 

 

Sergio got his tactics absolutely spot on, and his team selection was great too (although I'd personally prefer if Mrowiec didn't play).

 

We got right in the faces of the Celtic players, chased, harried, and fought for every ball, and we attacked with pace, urgency and belief.

 

the test for Sergio is to get us playing like this every week. If he succeeds then 2nd place could be ours.

 

I've been highly critical of Sergio but today I am full of nothing but praise for the man. Fantastic.

[south morocco]

Sergio got his tactics absolutely spot on, and his team selection was great too (although I'd personally prefer if Mrowiec didn't play).

 

We got right in the faces of the Celtic players, chased, harried, and fought for every ball, and we attacked with pace, urgency and belief.

 

the test for Sergio is to get us playing like this every week. If he succeeds then 2nd place could be ours.

 

I've been highly critical of Sergio but today I am full of nothing but praise for the man. Fantastic.

 

perhaps Gary Locke had some influence today,great perfomance today

[Debut 4]

We DID get it pretty well spot on today. Celtic came out to press us high but we had set up to knock it a bit longer and work from there.

 

Nothing wrong with that. I`ve always been a fan of variety and not sticking to a strict style.

 

You obviously need a game plan and a style to work around but football is about improvising and having players who can do so, you need someone who can see a pass, do something different.

 

Puting Temps and Rudi in the team today made a big diff on that front ...no doubt about it.

[amadjambo]

We DID get it pretty well spot on today. Celtic came out to press us high but we had set up to knock it a bit longer and work from there.

 

Nothing wrong with that. I`ve always been a fan of variety and not sticking to a strict style.

 

You obviously need a game plan and a style to work around but football is about improvising and having players who can do so, you need someone who can see a pass, do something different.

 

Puting Temps and Rudi in the team today made a big diff on that front ...no doubt about it.

 

The 2 players that scored or created most of last seasons goals. Essential we get them playing, and playing well like today, if we are to have a good season.

[The White Cockade]

The 2 players that scored or created most of last seasons goals. Essential we get them playing, and playing well like today, if we are to have a good season.

 

Zal said in his tv interview that the gaffer told them before the game to lump it up the park and not

pass it about in those conditions

Good news that Paulo can adapt his tactics when required

[Mr Romanov Saviour of HMFC]

For me, Man U play the most exciting football in the world and it's because they are the masters at mixing play up and won't think twice about long balls into the channels.

 

If we can get a good balance between short passing and knowing when to go long we'll be an exciting team to watch and the fans will be on the managers side.

 

We got it pretty much spot on today. Good football in the final third and doing what needs to be done in our third.

[Debut 4]

For me, Man U play the most exciting football in the world and it's because they are the masters at mixing play up and won't think twice about long balls into the channels.

 

If we can get a good balance between short passing and knowing when to go long we'll be an exciting team to watch and the fans will be on the managers side.

 

We got it pretty much spot on today. Good football in the final third and doing what needs to be done in our third.

spot on.

[Charlie-Brown]

Celtic came out to force the game today which suited us not having to be the dominant team trying to make all the play, we were able to hit Celtic on the break and when Commons got sent off there was a wee bit more space and time for our players so we created more chances. I think it definitely suited Black & Mrowiec trying to thwart Celtic instead of us being the play-makers.

[jamboinglasgow]

I felt today that Paulo got his tactics spot on, it was not the best pitch to play quick passing football, so he allowed the players to make passes along the ground when nessecary but also loft it up when suited. This caught Celtic out as they couldn't get to grips with the conditions and stuggled with the 3 of Black, Mrowiec and Jonsson who cut out their midfield well (Ki Sung Yung, Celtic's key playmaker, being very quiet in the game demonstrates this.)

 

I am sure that long term PS wants to get Hearts to play a quicker passing game, but I think after a quick lesson over the past month or two he has learnt that players that will play this style (the younger players) are not quite ready yet for the first team, so it will be a long term change. But today demonstrated that Sergio does know when to change his tactics and style when the game needs it.

[All roads lead to Gorgie]

When we did play the passing game today I noticed we weighted the passes better. Less passes were going behind the supporting players so that kept us going forward. One or two silly offsides though. We have to time the through ball better sometimes.

[portobellojambo1]

For me, Man U play the most exciting football in the world and it's because they are the masters at mixing play up and won't think twice about long balls into the channels.

 

If we can get a good balance between short passing and knowing when to go long we'll be an exciting team to watch and the fans will be on the managers side.

 

We got it pretty much spot on today. Good football in the final third and doing what needs to be done in our third.

 

Correct, there are very few teams (in fact in all honesty there is only one I can think of, Barcelona) who don't have to mix their style of play to suit the opposition. Any other team who sticks to a rigid style of play each week will come unstuck. We all thought Spurs were incredible to watch when they came to Tynecastle (which they were on the night), they adopted the same style at Old Trafford a few days later and took a severe pasting, they then came up against a Manchester City side who are better at doing what Spurs do and again took a humping. You need to adapt your style and personnel to cope with the opposition you are playing on any given week.

 

We didn't stop passing the ball today (it is a basic requirement of the game after all) but we played with Stevenson in the channels, and Templeton and Skacel in wide postions. It means we were able to hit longer passes to three potential forward outlets, which increases the chances of getting the ball into the box, and decreases the time it takes. We also let the midfield players do what they do best today, which is spoiling rather than being overly creative. Even if your own players have certain limitations those limitations are in a round about way their individual strengths. If you play to those strengths/limitations you get the best out of such players.

 

 

No complaints at all about today, looked more like HMFC, and long may it continue.

[Deans Jambo]

Correct, there are very few teams (in fact in all honesty there is only one I can think of, Barcelona) who don't have to mix their style of play to suit the opposition. Any other team who sticks to a rigid style of play each week will come unstuck. We all thought Spurs were incredible to watch when they came to Tynecastle (which they were on the night), they adopted the same style at Old Trafford a few days later and took a severe pasting, they then came up against a Manchester City side who are better at doing what Spurs do and again took a humping. You need to adapt your style and personnel to cope with the opposition you are playing on any given week.

 

We didn't stop passing the ball today (it is a basic requirement of the game after all) but we played with Stevenson in the channels, and Templeton and Skacel in wide postions. It means we were able to hit longer passes to three potential forward outlets, which increases the chances of getting the ball into the box, and decreases the time it takes. We also let the midfield players do what they do best today, which is spoiling rather than being overly creative. Even if your own players have certain limitations those limitations are in a round about way their individual strengths. If you play to those strengths/limitations you get the best out of such players.

 

 

No complaints at all about today, looked more like HMFC, and long may it continue.

Spot on.

[Charlie-Brown]

People are missing the point that today Black, Mrowiec & Jonsson basically set out to nullify more creative-threatening opponents and it worked well. Playing that way will work less well against the likes of Inverness, St Johnstone, Dunfermline etc where we'd expect to be the more dominant team trying to break down well drilled opponents and how we played today will be less suited to those types of games.

[Homme]

People are missing the point that today Black, Mrowiec & Jonsson basically set out to nullify more creative-threatening opponents and it worked well. Playing that way will work less well against the likes of Inverness, St Johnstone, Dunfermline etc where we'd expect to be the more dominant team trying to break down well drilled opponents and how we played today will be less suited to those types of games.

 

Yep. Unsure how we will line up against the pars but i guarantee it'll be a similar team for Rangers. Quite rightly too..

[portobellojambo1]

People are missing the point that today Black, Mrowiec & Jonsson basically set out to nullify more creative-threatening opponents and it worked well. Playing that way will work less well against the likes of Inverness, St Johnstone, Dunfermline etc where we'd expect to be the more dominant team trying to break down well drilled opponents and how we played today will be less suited to those types of games.

 

Playing the way we chose to play against the above two worked an absolute feckin bundle right enough. Today we looked like HMFC, what the manager has to do is tweak that formation to ensure we can go more positive when we need to do (i.e. take out one of the spoilers and put in a more attacking midfield player (Robinson/Smith for example)), but as long as we don't revert to the type of shit we had to suffer up at McDiarmid last week (and Ayr and Inverness prior to that) then we should get back on track.

 

Agreed with Gary Locke's comments on Sportscene tonight, where he said there is no point in getting a decent result against Celtic and then failing at places like Dunfermline. With the players available to him the manager should now have a better idea of what we can and cannot do, and he has to focus on what we can do and make us do that better.

[Charlie-Brown]

Playing the way we chose to play against the above two worked an absolute feckin bundle right enough. Today we looked like HMFC, what the manager has to do is tweak that formation to ensure we can go more positive when we need to do (i.e. take out one of the spoilers and put in a more attacking midfield player (Robinson/Smith for example)), but as long as we don't revert to the type of shit we had to suffer up at McDiarmid last week (and Ayr and Inverness prior to that) then we should get back on track.

 

Agreed with Gary Locke's comments on Sportscene tonight, where he said there is no point in getting a decent result against Celtic and then failing at places like Dunfermline. With the players available to him the manager should now have a better idea of what we can and cannot do, and he has to focus on what we can do and make us do that better.

 

We won't be able to play that way against the lesser teams PJ1 because they won't be trying to control the game as Celtic do, if anything they will be the ones looking to contain us and pick us off on counter attacks as we did to Celts today. Today we played a defensive game - simply swapping out 1 of Mrowiec, Black or Jonsson won't transform it into an attacking game. We already seen how we can struggle to break down stuffy opponents who can quite easily nullify us. We will need to be completely different to draw these kind of teams out and beat them with a bit of guile & skill.

[IMA MAROON]

We won't be able to play that way against the lesser teams PJ1 because they won't be trying to control the game as Celtic do, if anything they will be the ones looking to contain us and pick us off on counter attacks as we did to Celts today. Today we played a defensive game - simply swapping out 1 of Mrowiec, Black or Jonsson won't transform it into an attacking game. We already seen how we can struggle to break down stuffy opponents who can quite easily nullify us. We will need to be completely different to draw these kind of teams out and beat them with a bit of guile & skill.

 

Folk on here said we would not beat the old firm playing with the Sergio formation, now we have pumped the mhanks we will not beat the others?

 

We are not going back to 4-4-2, we will not go back to punting the ball up to a target man. We will continue to play football while Sergio is boss.

[wright1989]

Folk on here said we would not beat the old firm playing with the Sergio formation, now we have pumped the mhanks we will not beat the others?

 

We are not going back to 4-4-2, we will not go back to punting the ball up to a target man. We will continue to play football while Sergio is boss.

 

Yes we will. Yes we will. If people love hoofball so much then go and watch the team in Leith. :diddums:

[heartsfc_fan]

[wright1989]

NO PLAN B

[portobellojambo1]

Yes we will. Yes we will. If people love hoofball so much then go and watch the team in Leith. :diddums:

 

I don't recall seeing much hoofball today. The only time we really played the ball long I believe we got our second goal from it. I think some interpret any ball propelled more than 5 feet is hoofball, which is nonsense.

 

We played like HMFC have played in the past today, we reverted to type and it worked, and that is what we have to do going forward. Get the best out of the players, irrespective of the opposition. We could have still been playing at McDiarmid, playing pretty little tippy tappy football and still been sitting waiting on a goal. We don't have the players to play a pass and move game, we therefore have to get the best out of what we have. The formation today was more attack minded. Despite CB saying we played defensively I would think on reflection we created an awful lot more chances than the opposition today, and could have won that game by a lot more goals with just a little bit luck and a little more care.

 

I would describe today's formation as almost 4-4-2, which on occasion went to 4-3-3. Against lower level teams we probably only need 1 holding/spoiling type midfielder in reality, and we need to be flexible with the other players, fit in those whose capabilities best meet our needs for whoever we are playing. But to simply go to Dunfermline and revert to the Inverness/Ayr/St Johnstone format of 4-5-1, with a similar outcome would make today's win a waste of time and effort.

 

It doesn't have to be about hoofball, it is about being flexible. Today we played in a manner which best combated the team we were playing, we need to adopt the same approach going forward, look at the opposition and line up in the manner best suited to defeating them.

 

If the manager concentrates on getting the players playing at a consistent level each week the actual formation used becomes less of an issue.

[wright1989]

I don't recall seeing much hoofball today. The only time we really played the ball long I believe we got our second goal from it. I think some interpret any ball propelled more than 5 feet is hoofball, which is nonsense.

 

We played like HMFC have played in the past today, we reverted to type and it worked, and that is what we have to do going forward. Get the best out of the players, irrespective of the opposition. We could have still been playing at McDiarmid, playing pretty little tippy tappy football and still been sitting waiting on a goal. We don't have the players to play a pass and move game, we therefore have to get the best out of what we have. The formation today was more attack minded. Despite CB saying we played defensively I would think on reflection we created an awful lot more chances than the opposition today, and could have won that game by a lot more goals with just a little bit luck and a little more care.

 

I would describe today's formation as almost 4-4-2, which on occasion went to 4-3-3. Against lower level teams we probably only need 1 holding/spoiling type midfielder in reality, and we need to be flexible with the other players, fit in those whose capabilities best meet our needs for whoever we are playing. But to simply go to Dunfermline and revert to the Inverness/Ayr/St Johnstone format of 4-5-1, with a similar outcome would make today's win a waste of time and effort.

 

It doesn't have to be about hoofball, it is about being flexible. Today we played in a manner which best combated the team we were playing, we need to adopt the same approach going forward, look at the opposition and line up in the manner best suited to defeating them.

 

If the manager concentrates on getting the players playing at a consistent level each week the actual formation used becomes less of an issue.

 

I agree with most of that. The good thing about our game now is that we actually have a clue on what to do at set pieces and throw ins. We can play more than one way now. We don't rely on Kyle now.

[269miles]

 

I would describe today's formation as almost 4-4-2, which on occasion went to 4-3-3.

 

Zal was quite clear in his post match interview : he said 4-3-3.

 

I thought he made a few telling comments but the best was , basically , James Forrester was the only creative player in the team and if they stopped him , they stopped Celtic.

[IMA MAROON]

I'd say Lennon played his team in the traditional 4-4-2 with Hooper and Bangura his strike partnership. We were nothing like that.

[Gizmo]

Celtic came out to force the game today which suited us not having to be the dominant team trying to make all the play, we were able to hit Celtic on the break and when Commons got sent off there was a wee bit more space and time for our players so we created more chances. I think it definitely suited Black & Mrowiec trying to thwart Celtic instead of us being the play-makers.

 

Agreed. We are still learning how to press games against opposition who sit in, under Sergio. It will come.

 

Was pleased that our shape was good and we often were the better placed players to receive knock-downs and loose balls - the Celtic midfield by comparison didn't really seem like a unit at times.

[jamboinglasgow]

From where I seen it Celtic played 4-3-3 yesterday definately not 4-4-2

 

Correct, with Hooper in the middle of the 3, Bangura on the left and Forrest on the right.

[Buffalo Bill]

One man's hoof is another man's ball played into the channel.

 

 

 

Grainger's hoof/pass over the head of Wilson was for me, a superbly weighted ball on a tight pitch and a slippery surface that allowed Temps to skin the defender for pace, and in turn, set up the second goal.

 

 

 

If that is hoofball, then give me hoofball.

 

 

 

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