Tonight

[Peebo]

3 minutes ago, Fozzyonthefence said:

 

3 at the back worked fine against Saints when we had nearly all the ball.  Not sure it matters much what formation we play when our midfield is so pedestration and lacking pace and creativity.

 

At least Uche is back which gives us more options.

The three at the back worked against them because we had Smith playing in there. He is excellent as a sweeper. Shaugnessy looks pretty poor, with crap distribution. If our route out of defence is passing to Berra, teams will let us do that all day long. Great defender, awful distribution. 

[i8hibsh]

6 minutes ago, Barack said:

You've called her a Grade-A *****, before. 

 

Remember when you were a member of another Hearts forum?

 

Anyway, misogyny, can cover a litany of synonyms. Not just despise. Weird you'd use that one.

 

Anyway, PM me if you'd like to discuss further, mate. Best not drag off-topic.

 

 

 

I am not a fan of Ann Budge. That is clear. I have no issue with the following:

 

women

Old people

people called Ann

people with the surname Budge

left handed women

right handed women

grey haired women

rich women

poor women

women with two 'Ns' in their name

women as CEOs

women with contact lenses

women with bi-foculs

women with 20/20

women with short hair

women with long hair

 

 

1 trillion women have walked the face of the earth. All I mentioned was one of them

 

 

[Elshin]

31 minutes ago, Seymour M Hersh said:

 

Not in a 3. Looks very uncomfortable without a left back outside him. If the manager wants to continue with the 3 at the back he may want to consider Berra in the middle of the 3.

I dont think the problem is berra in a back 3, but at the left of the 3.    He ends up playing left back and pulled out of possession.    He also has too much of the ball as he pulls away to get space for a pace.

 

If we play a back 3 berra has to be the middle man for me.  Then the other 2 can look to take the ball off him to look for the forward pass.

[heartsfc_fan]

Thought he played we nice stuff in the first 20 mins but after that poor.

Playing a back 3 against Livingston isn't that answer. Ok we beat them 1-0 in the cup but it was hardly convincing.

A flat back 4 with an extra man in midfield like Cochrane or Morrison would've been better in my book. Someone to get the ball down and create

 

[Fozzyonthefence]

2 minutes ago, Peebo said:

The three at the back worked against them because we had Smith playing in there. He is excellent as a sweeper. Shaugnessy looks pretty poor, with crap distribution. If our route out of defence is passing to Berra, teams will let us do that all day long. Great defender, awful distribution. 

 

That’s a fair point.  When Smith plays in a 3 we have him and Soapy that can play it out from the back.  Tonight there was only Soapy on the right but we nearly always went left to Berra and ended up coming back the way followed by a punt or just the punt straight away.

 

Aimless shite tonight.

[Fozzyonthefence]

2 minutes ago, heartsfc_fan said:

Thought he played we nice stuff in the first 20 mins but after that poor.

Playing a back 3 against Livingston isn't that answer. Ok we beat them 1-0 in the cup but it was hardly convincing.

A flat back 4 with an extra man in midfield like Cochrane or Morrison would've been better in my book. Someone to get the ball down and create

 

 

How would 4 at at the back give us an extra midfielder? Surely that’s the point of playing 3 at the back - it enables you to play 5 in midfield.

[Dagger Is Back]

44 minutes ago, DG_HMFC said:

 

Nope. All Berra does is slow everything down then leather it aimlessly. 

 

Woeful. Great defender, woeful footballer.

 

I wouldn’t say he’s a woeful footballer. If you play at the back you need proper movement ahead of you. I don’t think we have that, we’re far too narrow. 

 

Berra gives the ball to Mulraney and then promptly gets it back. He’s been working with a positive coach but tonight I didn’t see a consistent natural desire to take a ball on and run at defenders.

 

This team lacks width and Lee just ain’t a good footballer. I don’t think he looks as fit as he should be and he was the wrong midfielder to be hooked tonight 

 

Haring will make a huge difference but if Levein thinks we have a decent midfield he must be smoking something.

 

Dundee was awful. Tonight was eye bleeding and St Johnstone were poor.

 

Great result against Killie but we didn’t play well.

 

Poor show

[jr ewing]

I was very disappointed. 

[mitch41]

What i want to know is who is responsible for the tactics, team selection, coaching & substitution tonight because these players are not being managed to produce a winning team. Has Levein been doing his DOF and leaving it all to McPhee, Daly & Fox ?

Or has Levein just put his feet up and thought after the Killie game everything was hunky dory.

Anyway these performances can't continue and Queen Ann had better start laying out some minimum requirements to her Football Staff.

[Liamthejambo]

1 hour ago, i8hibsh said:

I love Levein as a person but he is an absolutely shite football manager. We will NEVER, and I mean NEVER be winners under him and supergran.

WE  make aSubstitution ,Naismith and Clare are screaming at the. Bench asking where do they play , couple of minutes later a piece of paper is handed over with instructions , it’s no just Levein that needs to go it’s the whole non coaching staff as well shambolic 

[Baird, King and Michael]

38 minutes ago, jake said:

Started well enough but it came to nothing.

Naismith wasn't himself tonight which again highlights his influence.

 

Strange night .

I agree...first  20 minutes or so I thought we looked ok but then ran out of ideas.

 

Even though he didn’t have a great game tonight Naismith is still the one player that is creative. His little flick ons with the head especially. 

 

But we we need someone creative feeding him...as the stats when he’s not playing show, we rely far too much on him.

[wattie exploited]

we always play shit against the lesser teams in the league and it has been like that for years ,the football since Robbie left has been shit !!!!!!!!!!!!! our midfield is lacking  any cutting edge passing and it isnt going to get any better soon !!!!!!!

[Bauldrick]

I wonder if Levein actually sees what is happening on the pitch, everyone in the stadium could but not him, Lee was simply awful, really deserves to be dropped, Mulraney wasn't far behind,  I lost count of the amount of times that a high ball was hoofed up the park to a smallish striker who had little or no chance of winning it against large crude defenders, why was Bozanich taken off, he offers much more to the team than Lee. Looking at the squad, instead of the scattergun approach of bringing in umpteen moderate to absolutely useless players why not invest all the money that they are getting in wages on a couple of decent players, or would the present management not be able to recognise a decent player , I sometimes wonder.

[1971fozzy]

Naismith looked utterly pissed off with that tonight. Tactics were horror stuff from our management. One step forward v killie and now 2 steps back against that horseshit.

his post match comments on sportsound were baffling. He said he knew that they were going to refer back to their previous tactics when they were doing well, yet that formation played into their hands. 3 at the back v THAT.

worryingly it was so obviously not working from an early stage and was not changed. 

[1971fozzy]

21 minutes ago, Liamthejambo said:

WE  make aSubstitution ,Naismith and Clare are screaming at the. Bench asking where do they play , couple of minutes later a piece of paper is handed over with instructions , it’s no just Levein that needs to go it’s the whole non coaching staff as well shambolic 

 

Players looking at the bench shrugging their shoulders against the likes of Livingston is all too apparent now. What are we doing at training ? Lost count at the amount of times Clare was asking for instructions.

im no Levein hater but he needed to change that tonight at half time. I was gobsmacked that Morrison and Cochrane weren’t on at half time

[kimosavi]

When are people gonna realise this is 

[Section Q]

1 hour ago, Hogan3012 said:

Olly Lee and jake mulraney need a long spell out the team

Though Clare was woefully ineffective too. Looked lost. 

[tartofmidlothian]

1 hour ago, jake said:

Started well enough but it came to nothing.

Naismith wasn't himself tonight which again highlights his influence.

 

Strange night .

 

This was one of the biggest factors, Naismith not being at the races.

[rudi must stay]

2 hours ago, jock _turd said:

Were the team instructed to play in that fashion or are they just incapable following the manager's instructions and play decent football? There has to be some reason why we are incapable of scoring against a team who, as anybody could see did the square roote of zip allnight. And yet we at home were completely aimless in our approach to the game. How many times did we start out play out to our lefthand side and so close to the touchline that before we reached the halfway line we were already looking to pass the ball backwards.

 

I believe the team and the players have far too many instructions. That makes us tough to beat but as you say a team that won't score many goals either

[Maroon Sailor]

7 minutes ago, rudi must stay said:

 

I believe the team and the players have far too many instructions. That makes us tough to beat but as you say a team that won't score many goals either

 

Agree

 

The players don't look to have any freedom to express themselves 

[FERRY HEARTS]

As has been quoted by previous posters we’ve been playing unattractive boring football for weeks  Although two descent goals scored away at killie  other than that a load of hoof ball / negative backward play 

[graygo]

1 hour ago, Bauldrick said:

I wonder if Levein actually sees what is happening on the pitch, everyone in the stadium could but not him, Lee was simply awful, really deserves to be dropped, Mulraney wasn't far behind,  I lost count of the amount of times that a high ball was hoofed up the park to a smallish striker who had little or no chance of winning it against large crude defenders, why was Bozanich taken off, he offers much more to the team than Lee. Looking at the squad, instead of the scattergun approach of bringing in umpteen moderate to absolutely useless players why not invest all the money that they are getting in wages on a couple of decent players, or would the present management not be able to recognise a decent player , I sometimes wonder.

 

How many players did we bring in in the last transfer window that makes it a scattergun approach?

[Gorgiewave]

Bozanic was among the worst players tonight for me. Apart from his cross for the disallowed goal, he barely played a forward pass all night and never looked likely to offer anything.

 

Berra looked tidier than he has of late and Uche added a threat (though he should have scored at the end). One of Naismith's weakest performances. A general lack of communication (between Clare and Mulraney leading to conceding a throw-in the most egregious example), lack of urgency to get forward, far too many backward passes, resorting to passing to the goalkeeper far too much.

 

Clare has definitely improved over the last month or so.

[merseyjambo]

Long drive home after that tonight.

 

Absolutely honking performance again. 

 

We have no Plan B to break a defensive team down and I’m sure Auchinleck staff if  they were there will have noticed that. 

 

We lack pace. When you watched the highlights of Ferranti Thistle v Motherwell on Sportscene at weekend, it was noticeable that their midfield moved the ball quicker and had someone with a bit of pace to get away from their hammer throwers, something that despite it being MIA for the last x number of transfer windows, we still haven’t done anything about it.

 

Tonight is why CL will always divide the support with his tactics and game plan. Worked on Friday night but were shocking tonight

[graygo]

3 minutes ago, merseyjambo said:

Long drive home after that tonight.

 

Absolutely honking performance again. 

 

We have no Plan B to break a defensive team down and I’m sure Auchinleck staff if  they were there will have noticed that. 

 

We lack pace. When you watched the highlights of Ferranti Thistle v Motherwell on Sportscene at weekend, it was noticeable that their midfield moved the ball quicker and had someone with a bit of pace to get away from their hammer throwers, something that despite it being MIA for the last x number of transfer windows, we still haven’t done anything about it.

 

Tonight is why CL will always divide the support with his tactics and game plan. Worked on Friday night but were shocking tonight

 

What is all this shite about calling Livingston Ferranti Thistle or a works team?

It was nearly 50 years ago ffs.

It's crap patter, are we to be known as a dance hall team?

[merseyjambo]

27 minutes ago, graygo said:

 

What is all this shite about calling Livingston Ferranti Thistle or a works team?

It was nearly 50 years ago ffs.

It's crap patter, are we to be known as a dance hall team?

 

WTF does it matter what I call them. I remember when they were Ferranti Thistle. It’s about tonight’s performance from Hearts or sorry, lack of it. 

 

 

Edited February 7, 2019 by merseyjambo

[graygo]

15 minutes ago, merseyjambo said:

 

WTF does it matter what I call them. I remember when they were Ferranti Thistle. It’s about tonight’s performance from Hearts or sorry, lack of it. 

 

 

 

Old enough to remember them being Ferranti Thistle and still using it as a childish put down.   

[merseyjambo]

4 hours ago, graygo said:

 

Old enough to remember them being Ferranti Thistle and still using it as a childish put down.   

 

I also remember when Whatever it is now was called Outer Limits and still call it that or Biancos at the west end and still call it that or the North British or The Caley or Platform 1 to name a few

 

Not childish just how how I remember them so put a sock in it 

Edited February 7, 2019 by merseyjambo

[Bauldrick]

Graygo took me to task for describing our signing policy as 'scattergun', asking me how many players we signed in the recent window, well I can only respond that we were limited in the recent window because of the clubs activity in previous windows with a policy of 'sign umpteen and with a bit of luck a couple of them will make the grade', now that is scattergun, unfortunately some of the no-users were given long-term contracts and we were stuck with them, I think that Mrs Budge should now be asking questions about our signing policy.

[graygo]

42 minutes ago, Bauldrick said:

Graygo took me to task for describing our signing policy as 'scattergun', asking me how many players we signed in the recent window, well I can only respond that we were limited in the recent window because of the clubs activity in previous windows with a policy of 'sign umpteen and with a bit of luck a couple of them will make the grade', now that is scattergun, unfortunately some of the no-users were given long-term contracts and we were stuck with them, I think that Mrs Budge should now be asking questions about our signing policy.

 

So your moan about scattergun approaches would have been valid 6 months ago, not now.

[graygo]

3 hours ago, merseyjambo said:

 

I also remember when Whatever it is now was called Outer Limits and still call it that or Biancos at the west end and still call it that or the North British or The Caley or Platform 1 to name a few

 

Not childish just how how I remember them so put a sock in it 

 

It is childish and not even remotely the same as calling those places by their previous names. You are doing it as some sort of put down and as for me puting a sock in it - don't think I'll be doing that thanks.

 

 

[Gimme an H...]

12 hours ago, heartsfc_fan said:

Thought he played we nice stuff in the first 20 mins but after that poor.

Playing a back 3 against Livingston isn't that answer. Ok we beat them 1-0 in the cup but it was hardly convincing.

A flat back 4 with an extra man in midfield like Cochrane or Morrison would've been better in my book. Someone to get the ball down and create

 

3 at the back isn't the answer against, let's face it, shitey wee teams like St Johnstone or Livingston. It works against the better teams as it makes us harder to beat but when we are expected to win we should be playing with more than one upfront. We played it long to Naisy and Clare all night and created nothing. It was shite. And cold. 

[swilso]

We desperately need 2 effective wide players and to stop hoofing high balls back to front against teams like Dundee and Livingstone which plays right into their hands. How the coaching staff can't see this is incredible

[Bauldrick]

Graygo the penny is not dropping obviously, of course it applies now, we are stuck with all these haddies on long term contracts which curtails the management from investing properly in weak areas of the team.

[NANOJAMBO]

2 hours ago, Bauldrick said:

Graygo took me to task for describing our signing policy as 'scattergun', asking me how many players we signed in the recent window, well I can only respond that we were limited in the recent window because of the clubs activity in previous windows with a policy of 'sign umpteen and with a bit of luck a couple of them will make the grade', now that is scattergun, unfortunately some of the no-users were given long-term contracts and we were stuck with them, I think that Mrs Budge should now be asking questions about our signing policy.

And the qualities of the coaching staff. As a Hearts fan for over 50 years I'm well used to disappointments & frustrating results against so-called "weaker teams" but watching this current team labour so unimaginatively is really the pits. It's a poor team and it's poorly coached.  Livi had an easy night just like the last home game against them when we had an apparently stronger, fitter team out.  Hearts never looked like winning and Livi never looked like losing. CL has  a get out of jail card because he got results in the Hibs & Killie games but the performances in those games was equally awful (Yeah, killie was a shocker of a pitch on a bad night but the Hibs game was embarrassing to watch).  Looking forward to seeing a team that looks up for it, looks organised & set up to win a game instead of watching the turgid , clueless stuff being served up currently. Maybe next season. 

[Jocam2325]

15 hours ago, i8hibsh said:

I love Levein as a person but he is an absolutely shite football manager. We will NEVER, and I mean NEVER be winners under him and supergran.

You are quite a poisonous individual.  You cannot be a very happy person. 

[merseyjambo]

2 hours ago, graygo said:

 

It is childish and not even remotely the same as calling those places by their previous names. You are doing it as some sort of put down and as for me puting a sock in it - don't think I'll be doing that thanks.

 

 

 

Maybe you should be more concerned about the ‘sh1te performance’ on the park last night as opposed to the ‘sh1te patter’. 

 

If you want want to go through the theads discussing last night, there are a few call the current guise as Ferranti Thistle so don’t go singling me out.

 

Oh an if you were happy with last nights performance great. Some of us drove 9 hours in crap weather, in total to watch that abomination last night so my opinion and ‘patter’ is as valid as yours. I just don’t go trolling people over what they say, I prefer to talk about the game. If being pedantic and arsey over a comment about what had been a works team 50 something years ago Is your thing well I’m sure your a riot at parties. 

[graygo]

3 hours ago, Bauldrick said:

Graygo the penny is not dropping obviously, of course it applies now, we are stuck with all these haddies on long term contracts which curtails the management from investing properly in weak areas of the team.

 

Who are the haddies that we are stuck with on long term contracts?

 

I can ony think of Martin, Sammon and Edwards, the first two looked decent signings at the time and are almost away now anyway. Edwards will hardly be costing us much and was bought before we knew we were getting our preferred choice.

[graygo]

2 hours ago, merseyjambo said:

 

Maybe you should be more concerned about the ‘sh1te performance’ on the park last night as opposed to the ‘sh1te patter’. 

 

If you want want to go through the theads discussing last night, there are a few call the current guise as Ferranti Thistle so don’t go singling me out.

 

Oh an if you were happy with last nights performance great. Some of us drove 9 hours in crap weather, in total to watch that abomination last night so my opinion and ‘patter’ is as valid as yours. I just don’t go trolling people over what they say, I prefer to talk about the game. If being pedantic and arsey over a comment about what had been a works team 50 something years ago Is your thing well I’m sure your a riot at parties. 

 

Where do I start with this?

 

I know you were not the only person to call Livingston Ferranti Thstle or a works team but I wasn't going to quote them all, unfortunately I replied to probably the only person that would take the huff over it.

I can be concerned about both the shite performance last night and the shite patter, I have the mental capacity to do so.

Not sure why you think I was happy with the way we played last night, I wasn't. I agreed with your opinion, it was your shite patter that I commented on. 

Well done travelling 9 hours though, I can see how that would make you feel that the team owe you a bit more than they gave, some would say that you have an inflated sense of entitlement but not me.  

For the record, I am a hoot at parties.

I wasn't being pedantic and arsey in my previous posts to you, this one is the pedantic and arsey one.

Have a nice day.

[portobellojambo1]

18 hours ago, tartofmidlothian said:

 

This was one of the biggest factors, Naismith not being at the races.

 

 

Last night we probably discovered that playing with 1 up front and failing previously wasn't down to the quality of the players previously but just down to the simple fact it doesn't fecking work for us. Last night it was Naismith who became the 1 man up front, and he too was in effective. And lets be brutally honest, when you are playing Livingston at Tynecastle we should not be going into the game with only one striker/forward.

[Gambo]

16 minutes ago, portobellojambo1 said:

 

 

Last night we probably discovered that playing with 1 up front and failing previously wasn't down to the quality of the players previously but just down to the simple fact it doesn't fecking work for us. Last night it was Naismith who became the 1 man up front, and he too was in effective. And lets be brutally honest, when you are playing Livingston at Tynecastle we should not be going into the game with only one striker/forward.

You would have thought we discovered that long before last night tbh.

[EIEIO]

15 minutes ago, portobellojambo1 said:

 

 

Last night we probably discovered that playing with 1 up front and failing previously wasn't down to the quality of the players previously but just down to the simple fact it doesn't fecking work for us. Last night it was Naismith who became the 1 man up front, and he too was in effective. And lets be brutally honest, when you are playing Livingston at Tynecastle we should not be going into the game with only one striker/forward.

We didn't seemed to have learnt anything from the equally dire cup game v  Livingston a few short weeks ago. Felt sorry for the ball at the end.

Results generally have been better in the last half dozen games but performances only marginally better than when we had all our injuries.

[Bauldrick]

Graygo, Graygo, Graygo, I really don't want to fall out with you but, think about it,  it does not matter how long a players contract is, the fact is that while that contract is live we have to come up with their salary and until it expires say multiplied by 10 players who the club want to move on there is not enough money to invest in new players until said players are gone, even the likes of Connor Sammon on loan still costs us part of his salary. The answer to this is more extensive study of prospective signings and seeing how many of the boxes they tick before signing them, definitely not by taking an agents word for how good they are or being impressed by viewing some youtube video of them playing in far off foreign parts.

[Fozzyonthefence]

31 minutes ago, portobellojambo1 said:

 

 

Last night we probably discovered that playing with 1 up front and failing previously wasn't down to the quality of the players previously but just down to the simple fact it doesn't fecking work for us. Last night it was Naismith who became the 1 man up front, and he too was in effective. And lets be brutally honest, when you are playing Livingston at Tynecastle we should not be going into the game with only one striker/forward.

 

We didn’t have one up front last night.  Or if we did, that means we had 6 in midfield but we didn’t.

[graygo]

6 minutes ago, Bauldrick said:

Graygo, Graygo, Graygo, I really don't want to fall out with you but, think about it,  it does not matter how long a players contract is, the fact is that while that contract is live we have to come up with their salary and until it expires say multiplied by 10 players who the club want to move on there is not enough money to invest in new players until said players are gone, even the likes of Connor Sammon on loan still costs us part of his salary. The answer to this is more extensive study of prospective signings and seeing how many of the boxes they tick before signing them, definitely not by taking an agents word for how good they are or being impressed by viewing some youtube video of them playing in far off foreign parts.

 

We're going round in circles here mate, I get all that. it's just that I don't believe it is a stick that you can use to batter the club with just now.

We all know that our recruitment policy wasn't working and the reasons why but we were told last year that the way we scout players was changing and it has. We have had relatively few duff signings in the last 12 months, that is players that have not featured regularly in the first team.

The likes of Martin, Oshiniwa and Sammon were signed prior to this change.

 

https://www.edinburghlive.co.uk/sport/football/hearts-assistant-austin-macphee-how-15235333

[Bauldrick]

Hi Graygo, I feel that we both want the very best for our beloved Heart of Midlothian and we seem to have found some common ground here, we both obviously feel that the recruitment policy was definitely not working, as for things changing well, I won't judge the changes until next transfer window, others on here have commented on the tactics, my view is that Craig Levein has them playing some nice stuff at the back, some reasonable play midfield (with Haring's return to look forward to) but instead of being more direct in attack there was last night a tendency to frustrate the crowd by continually passing back, Uche coming on brightened things up a bit, so if we could please get shot of a few and bring in a quality winger who can plant the ball on Uche's head then I'm sure that we will both end up smiling. 

'

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[graygo]

2 minutes ago, Bauldrick said:

Hi Graygo, I feel that we both want the very best for our beloved Heart of Midlothian and we seem to have found some common ground here, we both obviously feel that the recruitment policy was definitely not working, as for things changing well, I won't judge the changes until next transfer window, others on here have commented on the tactics, my view is that Craig Levein has them playing some nice stuff at the back, some reasonable play midfield (with Haring's return to look forward to) but instead of being more direct in attack there was last night a tendency to frustrate the crowd by continually passing back, Uche coming on brightened things up a bit, so if we could please get shot of a few and bring in a quality winger who can plant the ball on Uche's head then I'm sure that we will both end up smiling. 

'

 

You won't find me arguing with any of that.

 

I did see someone say that we should have approached the game last night like the first game against Celtic at Tynecastle and the 4-0 game but I reckon Levein saw those games as a free shot with nothing to lose so we went for it, last night he was more intent on us not losing the game unfortunately.

[tartofmidlothian]

1 hour ago, portobellojambo1 said:

 

 

Last night we probably discovered that playing with 1 up front and failing previously wasn't down to the quality of the players previously but just down to the simple fact it doesn't fecking work for us. Last night it was Naismith who became the 1 man up front, and he too was in effective. And lets be brutally honest, when you are playing Livingston at Tynecastle we should not be going into the game with only one striker/forward.

 

He wasn't helped by the formation at all, and fair play to him for getting the ball in the net and deserving what looked like a clear pen. He took a couple of knocks in the second half and seemed to drop out of it a bit afterwards though.

 

Not having a go at the guy, he's a talisman and one of my favourites.

[Newton51]

Naismith should always be the supporting striker. Hopefully once uche is fully fit we can get back to early season formation.

[DesertDawg]

Anybody else notice that we can't play two games in under a week?  It's happened quite a few times.