***Official Hearts v United Match Thread***

[Graham Thomson]

11 minutes ago, ToqueJambo said:

Enjoyed that. We hammered them 1-1. IF we can get our strikers firing and the likes of Haring and Naismith back, we'll be in good shape this season.

 

I like Clare at No. 8 instead of further up but he needs to keep his concentration. Mulraney, Irving, Smith and Hickey were fantastic. Washington started well and looked good linking up with Uche and Walker, if rusty in front of goal. Uche did what he does but also needs to get sharper in front of goal. Walker was excellent if also rusty looking in front of goal - he did exactly what we missed last season as an attacking midfielder by running at the defence.

Thank you, you saved me writing my own thoughts, I agree with pretty much all of this 👍

[Guest ToqueJambo]

Just now, Bring Back Paulo Sergio said:

Good performances from Hickey, Walker, Mulraney and Smith. Hoofball is still alive and well. Naismith still too important to us and we'll continue to struggle without him.

 

Eh? What game did you watch?

[chester copperpot]

How Smith didnt get MOTM was baffling.

 

Thought he was miles better than the next best. 

[Shanks]

I was impressed with the way we played tonight (especially considering the conditions!)  Okay it's not exactly the result we wanted but I'll take 2 points and hopefully we can build on that. 

 

Had concerns about walker but he looked hungry to impress, if he can keep that up he will do well.  

[D4nny_]

Thought we played pretty well tonight. Lots of positives from that. Players look extremely fit. Only thing missing tonight was the spark in the final third but hopefully that will come sooner rather than later!

[Alex Kintner]

13 minutes ago, Martin_T said:

Hickey on that showing and if he keeps progressing, could go to the very top of the game.

 

He has fantastic potential. Not totally convinced full back is his best position though and can see why Celtic played him in centre midfield.

[Morgan]

12 minutes ago, Captain Scarlett said:

Did watch sunshine with the son - in - law over from Italy who brought the grandson over from Milan to watch his first Hearts match.we went to ASDA Chesser first then we were in Stratfords. In fact I think I had maybe two pints of Stella.Oh and we had a chippy before jumping on the No 3 to Gilmerton 

You watched sunshine?

 

You maybe had two pints?

 

 

[Graham Thomson]

2 minutes ago, Bring Back Paulo Sergio said:

Good performances from Hickey, Walker, Mulraney and Smith. Hoofball is still alive and well. Naismith still too important to us and we'll continue to struggle without him.

Hoofball are you serious? We tried to play football in awful conditions 

[Tynecastlesmychurch]

11 minutes ago, rudi must stay said:

Neilson delighted

 

Can't see him lasting the season. 

 

Because of how highly he rates us I'd imagine. They set up well played some nice stuff. And held us to a draw. Its not too hard to find positives if your him. 

[Doc Rob]

Overall we did enough to win the game, but it wasn’t our night. Shouldn’t matter after the penalties.

 

Several players looking like they’re not match ready yet, and we do look like we need a classy central midfielder, plus Naismith back in action.

 

My main worry is the defence. We were caught napping a number of times and United had a couple of gilt-edged chances to steal a win.

[19/05/2012]

Can’t help but think if we had played that team for at least one pre season game before today we would have been way ahead. Strangest pre season I have ever seen. Decent performance but no killer instinct in final third

[whodanny]

3 minutes ago, Morgan said:

You watched sunshine?

 

You maybe had two pints?

 

 

Aye, and I maybe had two drams tonight. 

[McCrae]

8 minutes ago, ToqueJambo said:

 

Same. Played that deeper role quite well apart from some misplaced passes. Could have done better with one chance too.

 

I thought Clare was poor and didn’t dominate the game. He dodged responsibility and  left it up to Irvine.  Our squad remains weak. We are crying out for a couple of decent experienced centre mids. 

Highlights for me were, Walker, Smith and Hickey.

Better teams will dominate us.

Edited July 12, 2019 by McCrae

[tokyowalnut]

We looked good in parts, good to see plenty of crosses. The conditions in the 2nd half were awful, doesnt exactly make it easy for free flowing football. 2 points is a start though, will comfortably get out of the group. 

 

There is a really weird group of fans on here who act like they'd almost prefer us to lose to justify their opinions on Craig Levein. It must be hard work being so negative  all the time.

[Debut 4]

Thought we tried to play tonight. All things considered you could point out negatives because it was a first division side, but the positives look better than last season.

 

Slightly better quality crossing, players consciously trying to work the ball on the deck (even Berra),  and I think the young lads like Hickey and Irving don’t deviate from how they like to play which helps hugely. On the deck and always look for a pass. 

 

Still think we fizzled out a bit but that could be match sharpness. Ended up crossing too much and we lacked any craft through the middle in the 2nd half to vary things. 

 

Final ball a bit of a mixed bag. If we made the right decisions Washington should’ve been played in about 3 times with a tap in to score. 

[Brighton Jambo]

18 minutes ago, Ted Hastings said:

 

Easy tiger, I was defending us signing walker in that post. I rated him highly tonight. 

Oops sorry! Me too

[ramrod]

Dundee Utd were really poor , we should have seen them off quite  easily tbh. 

Walker looked really sharp but his decision making in the final third was poor . 

Washington and Uche were terrible save for  one ball in  from the former . 

Naismith can't come back quick enough or we're Donald Ducked up top. 

Lot  of work to be done re the final third although I'm not sure if the quality is really there without  Naisy . 

[Prof]

3 minutes ago, ToqueJambo said:

 

Eh? What game did you watch?

Fairly obvious it was tonight’s. Some supporters have blinkers when it comes to games. Reality is we were grim, with many of the team incapable of passing a ball to a teammate. 1-1 against a Championship team is nothing to brag about.

[Ted Hastings]

2 minutes ago, Brighton Jambo said:

Oops sorry! Me too

 

No worries, looks like emotions are already running high in the kickback camp! 

[Beast Boy]

Really good performance. All over them from start to finish. Positive signs and when we are up to speed we will be flying. Strength in depth too at last.

[Kiwidoug]

5 minutes ago, 19/05/2012 said:

Can’t help but think if we had played that team for at least one pre season game before today we would have been way ahead. Strangest pre season I have ever seen. Decent performance but no killer instinct in final third

Snap.  Dont understand why our first proper run is in a competitive game.

 

Mystified.  Baffled.  Scunnered tbh.

[Alex Kintner]

1 hour ago, jambo_ said:

 

Hope he managed to get back home to Hamilton safely 👍🏻

[GorgieFifeLife]

It was an ok in parts performance but we still lack a natural goalscorer and a couple of quality operators in midfield.  Washington showed a poor first touch most of the night but hopefully he will improve significantly. Clare is not a centre mid.

[Debut 4]

6 minutes ago, ramrod said:

Dundee Utd were really poor , we should have seen them off quite  easily tbh. 

Walker looked really sharp but his decision making in the final third was poor . 

Washington and Uche were terrible save for  one ball in  from the former . 

Naismith can't come back quick enough or we're Donald Ducked up top. 

Lot  of work to be done re the final third although I'm not sure if the quality is really there without  Naisy . 

Posted just a couple of posts back that Washington got in good positions 3 or 4 times but wasn’t played in. As you say, poor decision making.

 

Trying to refrain from much criticism but I’m not sure about Clare in the middle? United stood so far off us but he still seemed to make too many errors. Against stronger, more wily midfields in the SPL he’ll be really tested. 

 

I just feel a good, strong experienced all rounder for the likes of Washington to feed off would be a dream for him. He looks strong and pulls people about but never gets picked out enough. 

 

 

Edited July 12, 2019 by Debut 4

[MTS1874]

9 minutes ago, chester copperpot said:

How Smith didnt get MOTM was baffling.

 

Thought he was miles better than the next best. 

 

He got one of the sponsors MOTM 👍

[mcphantom]

2 minutes ago, Prof said:

Fairly obvious it was tonight’s. Some supporters have blinkers when it comes to games. Reality is we were grim, with many of the team incapable of passing a ball to a teammate. 1-1 against a Championship team is nothing to brag about.

 

Im sorry but no. We passed the ball well, pressed well and were in almost total control of the game. Walker and Mulraney were dangerous, the full backs were both excellent - there are a lot of blindingly obvious positives there.

[Doc Rob]

Just now, GorgieFifeLife said:

It was an ok in parts performance but we still lack a natural goalscorer and a couple of quality operators in midfield.  Washington showed a poor first touch most of the night but hopefully he will improve significantly. Clare is not a centre mid.

 

I dunno what you think he is then, because he’s clearly better there than up front or on the wing?

[Morgan]

9 minutes ago, whodanny said:

Aye, and I maybe had two drams tonight. 

 

 

Aye, maybe Dan!

[jake]

1 minute ago, GorgieFifeLife said:

It was an ok in parts performance but we still lack a natural goalscorer and a couple of quality operators in midfield.  Washington showed a poor first touch most of the night but hopefully he will improve significantly. Clare is not a centre mid.

 

1 minute ago, Doc Rob said:

 

I dunno what you think he is then, because he’s clearly better there than up front or on the wing?

I'm struggling with the laddie tbh.

[Bring Back Paulo Sergio]

6 minutes ago, ToqueJambo said:

 

Eh? What game did you watch?

Ours. Apart from the first 15 minutes the standard of football was largely poor and we drew with a championship club at home.  Some good performances but we need to get the ball into our strikers feet by playing the ball on the deck. It was either crosses or the ball was reaching our strikers at head height. One good ball was played through to Washington in the second half. I just feel we don't try and work the ball through to our strikers enough.

 

Maybe I'm talking shite, I just don't feel we have and good midfielder apart from Naismith. I'm hoping he doesn't get injured as we'll struggle like we did last season. 

[Guest ToqueJambo]

5 minutes ago, Prof said:

Fairly obvious it was tonight’s. Some supporters have blinkers when it comes to games. Reality is we were grim, with many of the team incapable of passing a ball to a teammate. 1-1 against a Championship team is nothing to brag about.

 

We simply didn't play hoof ball today. We did pass it long at times and defenders punted it to safety when needed, which is not hoof ball. Obviously it's a Scottish football game so it was hoofed now and then too! But that was not how the team was set up to play and we didn't play that way. We passed it around quite well for what was basically a pre-season game in terms of where the players are in terms of sharpness.

[rudi must stay]

3 minutes ago, Tynecastlesmychurch said:

Because of how highly he rates us I'd imagine. They set up well played some nice stuff. And held us to a draw. Its not too hard to find positives if your him. 

 

I wouldn't have been happy if I was him.

 

Most of the match they couldn't string  4 or 5 passes together and our attacking players all had tons of room and caused problems so I'm not sure they did defend well. Yes you can look at the score (1-1, we didn't run riot score wise, but that defence wasn't well on top) I think Souttar was quite correct with his comment that the sending off changed the match. 

 

Neilson was right about Appare though, he had a good game. To be honest I would actually be looking at him for Hearts if he's in our budget, slick wee attacker. 

[Morgan]

3 minutes ago, To Be Frank said:

 

Hope he managed to get back home to Hamilton safely 👍🏻

 

[Romulus]

Hickey looks like one of our best youngsters in years. 

 

Walker looks hungry and we will need his creativity this season.

 

Other than that, was an okay performance in the first half, second half was too flat and Irving/Clare in the centre didn’t work too well IMO. Clare has to do a lot better. 

 

Washington could be good for us but we need to give him proper service. Didn’t get him as involved in the second half. 

 

If we are going to play 2 up front and 2 wingers, we really need stronger CMs otherwise we will be overrun. Haring and Edwards perhaps or a new CM to replace Djoum(who was missed tonight).

 

 

Edited July 12, 2019 by Mort

[John Findlay]

12 minutes ago, chester copperpot said:

How Smith didnt get MOTM was baffling.

 

Thought he was miles better than the next best. 

He did get amassador's MOTM. Hickey the match sponsors. United could have had no complaints if we had been out of sight at halftime.

[Seymour M Hersh]

7 minutes ago, jonnothejambo said:

 

 

 

You wish! 

[GorgieFifeLife]

2 minutes ago, Doc Rob said:

 

I dunno what you think he is then, because he’s clearly better there than up front or on the wing?

As things stand he is a player who I don't think is good enough for us. If we are playing him I can only see him possibly being effective playing just off the striker.

[merseyjambo]

Positives tonight, Clare and Mulraney were superb first half. Hickey looks like he’s going to own that jersey. Some good interplay between Walker, Smith, Washington and Uche. Souttar was solid as usual

 

Question Marks - Berra. Solid defender but is continually getting caught out when someone runs at him. 

 

Negatives - Second half performance was too much like last season in the fact we created very few clear cut chances and they definitely had the better chances second half (Stanton, Clarke and McMullen). Uche needs to learn to look up as does Walker. Still are a midfielder short in terms of creativity. CL needed to get Uche and Walker off before he did because they were done and offering us nothing. Nothing on bench who could change a game and we look like we are still going to be relying on Naismith. 

 

Dundee United were there for the taking but second half we offered very little. Had a lot of the ball but no one was creating or looking for it in second half. Still a problem that needs fixing 

[John Findlay]

9 minutes ago, Prof said:

Fairly obvious it was tonight’s. Some supporters have blinkers when it comes to games. Reality is we were grim, with many of the team incapable of passing a ball to a teammate. 1-1 against a Championship team is nothing to brag about.

Imho you are talking bollocks.

[190512]

I enjoyed tonight given we aren’t even halfway through July. Limited United to nothing and thought Smith and Hickey were superb. Very encouraging 

[Guest ToqueJambo]

5 minutes ago, mcphantom said:

 

Im sorry but no. We passed the ball well, pressed well and were in almost total control of the game. Walker and Mulraney were dangerous, the full backs were both excellent - there are a lot of blindingly obvious positives there.

 

Yeah, they were excellent. If you can't get excited about a team with Walker and Mulraney playing the way they did, plus youngsters like Hickey and Irving doing so well, then there's no hope for you... Michael Smith is quite a find, becoming a very important player.

[Tynecastlesmychurch]

1 minute ago, rudi must stay said:

 

I wouldn't have been happy if I was him.

 

Most of the match they couldn't string  4 or 5 passes together and our attacking players all had tons of room and caused problems so I'm not sure they did defend well. Yes you can look at the score (1-1, we didn't run riot score wise, but that defence wasn't well on top) I think Souttar was quite correct with his comment that the sending off changed the match. 

 

Neilson was right about Appare though, he had a good game. To be honest I would actually be looking at him for Hearts if he's in our budget, slick wee attacker. 

Fair enough.

I'm just very fond of Robbie. Always have been always will be. Managers always try and find positives in games. 

[whodanny]

6 minutes ago, Morgan said:

 

 

Aye, maybe Dan!

[Bluesy1874]

Overall I would say we weren't great but we weren't bad either. Hickey was outstanding Walker had a good run out weather conditions were awful and a few players are yet at peak match sharpness but overall top of the group so not going to complain too much 

[Phil Dunphy]

Positives tonight, for me, are that I don’t think anyone played poorly. The first half performance was good when we had the ball, although the negative is that the midfield looked disjointed when we didn’t have the ball. Felt we dominated proceedings for the whole of the first half and for most of the second. 

The major negative for me was the lack of depth on the bench. I just don’t think any of the players on the bench could come on and change a game in our favour. Maybe I’m being too harsh, but it shows we still have a lack of depth in the squad. I really hope we don’t have to rely on young players who don’t necessarily look good enough to make a big contribution to the cause. 

[rick witter]

1 minute ago, John Findlay said:

He did get amassador's MOTM. Hickey the match sponsors. United could have had no complaints if we had been out of sight at halftime.

Yeah I agree but we were not out of sight. 

In fact we would have lost had it not been for a horrendous miss from Clarke near the end!! 

 

The same things continue to happen:

 

We make way too many individual mistakes at the back. You would think we would have that sorted by now. 

We still don’t have a proper striker.

We don’t score enough goals. 

 

Plus points were Hickey, Mulraney and Walker all played very well. 

 

We are just not very good at winning. 

[Debut 4]

1 minute ago, Mort said:

Positives -

 

Hickey looks like one of our best youngsters in years. 

 

Walker looks hungry and we will need his creativity this season.

 

Other than that, was an okay performance in the first half, second half was too flat and Irving/Clare in the centre didn’t work too well IMO. Clare has to do a lot better. 

 

Washington could be good for us but we need to give him proper service. Didn’t get him as involved in the second half. 

 

If we are going to play 2 up front and 2 wingers, we really need stronger CMs otherwise we will be overrun. Haring and Edwards perhaps or a new CM to replace Djoum(who was missed tonight).

 

 

Agree with all of that but I don’t see us being so open like that in a lot of SPL matches, to be honest. 

 

In truth, we got a bit fortunate with a couple of their rare forays up the park. That would worry me if we played like that in the SPL and hadn’t got the goals to put us comfortably in control,  to then keep on playing so openly when level.

 

It was good to see us being so positive but I totally agree we need to be stronger in the middle if we are to continue playing that way.

 

 

 

[EIEIO]

4 minutes ago, 190512 said:

I enjoyed tonight given we aren’t even halfway through July. Limited United to nothing and thought Smith and Hickey were superb. Very encouraging 

This us how I see it too.

[Captain Scarlett]

15 minutes ago, Morgan said:

You watched sunshine?

 

You maybe had two pints?

 

 

Oh excuse me,what with you being the punctuation police.Yeah for your information it was two pints because I’m up at 4.15 tomorrow to start at 5am. Oh and I drive to work so aye we had a good time with 2 pints.

[Kirky Jambo]

Hard to gauge where we are on that performance. I thought we looked half decent for most of the game without really creating clear cut chances. Plus, United were absolutely dreadful. Robbie’s comments after the game we’re baffling.