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Thoughts on today...


busby1985

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Positives: 

 

Bobby looked assured. 
 

It can’t be ignored that we showed bottle, hear me out before everyone goes daft. We could’ve crumbled today easily at 2 down. We didn’t and were very unlucky in front of goal 2nd half. We’ve shown bottle in the games against Rangers, St Johnston, Killie and today. Yes the argument can be had that we shouldn’t need to show fight if we stopped shopping two goal starts. 
 

I liked the look of Walker. He tired towards the end but he was showing all the time and was hounding Hickey for mistakes along with hounding Naismith. I liked that. 
 

Negatives: 

 

Souttar and Halkett are a disaster. Everything they do, their touch, their positioning, their headers, their tackling, reading of the game and their distribution is miles, miles off the required standard. Passes in the 2nd half especially, with no one on them, going 5 yards past there Intended target. Leaving the ball not knowing who was behind them, thinking bobby was coming when he wasn’t. Got bullied by the Hamilton front two before the red card. A real worry. Halkett has to get a pat on the back for his ability to score. He has dug us out the hole many a time now to the point I think we should stick him up front. 
 

We literally aren’t playing any form of press and it’s killing us, along with the high line. With no proper press, opposition are able to easily play passes through us or over us. Hamilton presses us today in the first twenty minutes and we couldn’t handle it. We had no press at all. Boyce, Naismith, Uche, Walker all culpable early doors of not putting the leg work in. It’s clear that this group of players aren’t capable of learning anything new or retaining information. I think the press and high lines has to be shelved until the summer or we are going to go down. We are basically playing 424 but with no pressure on the ball and when we lose it high up the park we have 6 up front and a simple punt has the opposition 2 vs 2 against Halkett and Souttar who can’t handle being turned. We can’t have the high line without the press and the players don’t look capable of playing the press properly. Something has to give. 
 

Midfield is non existent. Very harsh on Irving as he has looked very assured in loads of games but he isn’t good enough yet to be the ball carrying midfielder and he can’t link the play. He’s not the only one. Naismith dropping deep is also not working. Everything that comes through midfield is too slow and too predictable. The full side takes too many touches of the ball before passing, they pass the ball about like they are in a passing drill. Why does no one shoot from distance as well. 
 

Overall:
 

I genuinely feel sorry for Stendel, I don’t think he thought the situation was ever this bad. His reaction to the penalty summed it up. He couldn’t believe what he was seeing. He was right in what he said after the match as well. We have the ball and have an overload yet still manage to mess it up and concede possession that leads to the foul. He has to address what he is seeing tho. The philosophy is great and it’s a style I am fully behind but Hearts are a premier league club, it is unthinkable that we should even be in this mess. We are tho and he needs to wake up and see what’s in front of him. We need to tighten up this shape so that it works for the players he has. This was meant to be the run of games that we turned things around. The next round of fixtures are all games I don’t see us winning. That has me really, really worried. Something I genuinely never thought I’d see in my life time is being relegated (15 point deduction aside). We have to adapt. 

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Still quite possible for them to get it together. 

 

Stendel wasn't happy. 

 

Some positives in Hickey, Walker, Avdijaj though they weren't perfect. 

 

Still see us going on run of 5/6 wins. Maybe the last games though. 

 

My main concern today after the obvious start was still not creating enough clear cut chances though that can come. 

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1 minute ago, Mikey1874 said:

Still quite possible for them to get it together. 

 

Stendel wasn't happy. 

 

Some positives in Hickey, Walker, Avdijaj though they weren't perfect. 

 

Still see us going on run of 5/6 wins. Maybe the last games though. 

 

My main concern today after the obvious start was still not creating enough clear cut chances though that can come. 

We can’t keep giving sides 2 goal head starts, I can’t handle it haha. 

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Ricardo Quaresma

Excellent post Busby

 

Halkett is a serious option up front as Boyce seems to be playing through pain or discomfort

 

Naismith / Irving too, as well as the lack of press

 

Adapting also, we need to maybe step back to what the players are used to and take it from there

 

They are not remembering what the script is, as you also noted

 

Maybe it's too much too soon for some of them

 

-

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3 minutes ago, Mikey1874 said:

Still quite possible for them to get it together. 

 

Stendel wasn't happy. 

 

Some positives in Hickey, Walker, Avdijaj though they weren't perfect. 

 

Still see us going on run of 5/6 wins. Maybe the last games though. 

 

My main concern today after the obvious start was still not creating enough clear cut chances though that can come. 

I love Hickey. Think he is a quality player.

 

That said, he wasn’t at the races today. He’s just back from injury so it isn’t finger pointing but we had far more success on the right hand side of the pitch, up front, than the left 

 

Walker played well. Donis spent too much time getting pulled into giving unnecessary fouls and the Hamilton defence just played him at this all game 

 

Mind you he had moments where you can see that he has quick feet and good technical ability. He will get stuck in as well but he just needs to learn re the stupid fouls 

 

Thought Walker was our best player today followed closely by Smith. They parked 10 men behind the ball in the 2nd half and if we had overlapped then on the flanks the whipped ball in behind would have cost them more problems and we could have and should have sneaked the 3 points 

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6 minutes ago, vegas-voss said:

We would be as well with Halkett upfront

He is great in the air and attacks every single ball. With the amount of crosses getting whipped in, especially by Smith, it was always on the cards that he would get us a goal 

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Boyce was not moving properly today.

Any chances we do create , we have to take more of them. We are in a desperate situation with a chunk of the team carrying injuries or unfit. 

Remember that was Hamilton today with 10 men for 70 minutes. 

It took us the 70 mins to get 2 goals.

Doesn't look good.

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4 minutes ago, Woodbeastie said:

Boyce was not moving properly today.

Any chances we do create , we have to take more of them. We are in a desperate situation with a chunk of the team carrying injuries or unfit. 

Remember that was Hamilton today with 10 men for 70 minutes. 

It took us the 70 mins to get 2 goals.

Doesn't look good.

 

Stendel said yesterday he has players needing a rest but they all had to play today due to importance of match. 

 

A few days off and some light training this week. 

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Our finishing is rank.  We could have buried that Hamilton team today, but instead we drew against them. 

 

We cannot hope that the opposition goes down to 10 men every game, and we cannot give teams a 2-0 lead before we start actually putting the ball together. 

 

Whatever we are doing at the back, we need to ****ing stop it, and do the polar opposite.  Track your man, and stop needlessly passing the ball to the opponent. Know where you are, and know where the other players are.  It's almost like our players have tunnel vision and have absolutely no idea of what is happening around themselves.  They need to get their heads up, and have a ****ing look about before doing something. 

 

The players need to work for each other, it honestly seems like we have 11 individuals out there every week, instead of a cohesive unit. 

 

We seem to be failing at the basics every single week. It doesn't matter who the manager is, I would expect professional footballers to have some basic football intelligence.  What the **** we are doing escapes me sometimes. 

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This thread is great because of the OP.  A true Jambo taking the time to offer his considered opinion without hysterics.  Forum needs more of that.

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Dagger Is Back

Sorry but no positives for me in what I thought was a must win game


Soft as 💩 at the back. Thought Zamals pass to Souttar at the penalty was horrendous. Don’t remember him having much else to do.

 

We started poorly and slowly when we should have been right at them
 

We played against 10 men for an hour. A CF rescued us. 

 

Uche is so poor it’s unbelievable. Needs to concentrate on winning and keeping the ball instead of focusing on a tussle with the defence. Better suited to WWF. Said at the start of the season he wouldn’t bag double figures and sadly looking like a shout

 

Moving the ball around far too slowly. Poor decision making and execution. Imagine being a pro footballer and you can’t cross a ball, miss the first man and get it into the box.

 

Twice we had a throw in and the lay off went out the park!
 

Absolutely gutted as I thought we’d get all 3 points today. We’re still in the mix but with 11 games to go, the opportunities are flying by.

 

At home against Hamilton and you’re praying for the game to be abandoned.

 

Says it all

 

 

 

 

 

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Hickey puts that ball down the line instead of arsing about and we don’t concede the first.

 

Slack as **** yet again for the pen.

 

The back 4 are a HUGE problem.

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4 minutes ago, Kiwidoug said:

This thread is great because of the OP.  A true Jambo taking the time to offer his considered opinion without hysterics.  Forum needs more of that.

We all want the same bud. This post would’ve been total different if you’d spoke to me at full

time in section N haha. No jambo wants this and I totally get the numerous other threads of people venting, am equally as frustrated. 

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9 minutes ago, Kiwidoug said:

This thread is great because of the OP.  A true Jambo taking the time to offer his considered opinion without hysterics.  Forum needs more of that.

We all want the same bud. This post would’ve been total different if you’d spoke to me at full

time in section N haha. No jambo wants this and I totally get the numerous other threads of people venting, am equally as frustrated. 

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Disagree with a couple of pointsthe OP makes . I think Halkett is the strongest character out of all the backline. Steady in possession , better than Souttar,  covers well, stays calm and makes tackles. 
 

The defence generally struggle because of a weak midfield in front of them who don’t know when to press at the right time and don’t make tackles. 

Edited by Debut 4
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45 minutes ago, busby1985 said:

Positives: 

 

Bobby looked assured. 
 

It can’t be ignored that we showed bottle, hear me out before everyone goes daft. We could’ve crumbled today easily at 2 down. We didn’t and were very unlucky in front of goal 2nd half. We’ve shown bottle in the games against Rangers, St Johnston, Killie and today. Yes the argument can be had that we shouldn’t need to show fight if we stopped shopping two goal starts. 
 

I liked the look of Walker. He tired towards the end but he was showing all the time and was hounding Hickey for mistakes along with hounding Naismith. I liked that. 
 

Negatives: 

 

Souttar and Halkett are a disaster. Everything they do, their touch, their positioning, their headers, their tackling, reading of the game and their distribution is miles, miles off the required standard. Passes in the 2nd half especially, with no one on them, going 5 yards past there Intended target. Leaving the ball not knowing who was behind them, thinking bobby was coming when he wasn’t. Got bullied by the Hamilton front two before the red card. A real worry. Halkett has to get a pat on the back for his ability to score. He has dug us out the hole many a time now to the point I think we should stick him up front. 
 

We literally aren’t playing any form of press and it’s killing us, along with the high line. With no proper press, opposition are able to easily play passes through us or over us. Hamilton presses us today in the first twenty minutes and we couldn’t handle it. We had no press at all. Boyce, Naismith, Uche, Walker all culpable early doors of not putting the leg work in. It’s clear that this group of players aren’t capable of learning anything new or retaining information. I think the press and high lines has to be shelved until the summer or we are going to go down. We are basically playing 424 but with no pressure on the ball and when we lose it high up the park we have 6 up front and a simple punt has the opposition 2 vs 2 against Halkett and Souttar who can’t handle being turned. We can’t have the high line without the press and the players don’t look capable of playing the press properly. Something has to give. 
 

Midfield is non existent. Very harsh on Irving as he has looked very assured in loads of games but he isn’t good enough yet to be the ball carrying midfielder and he can’t link the play. He’s not the only one. Naismith dropping deep is also not working. Everything that comes through midfield is too slow and too predictable. The full side takes too many touches of the ball before passing, they pass the ball about like they are in a passing drill. Why does no one shoot from distance as well. 
 

Overall:
 

I genuinely feel sorry for Stendel, I don’t think he thought the situation was ever this bad. His reaction to the penalty summed it up. He couldn’t believe what he was seeing. He was right in what he said after the match as well. We have the ball and have an overload yet still manage to mess it up and concede possession that leads to the foul. He has to address what he is seeing tho. The philosophy is great and it’s a style I am fully behind but Hearts are a premier league club, it is unthinkable that we should even be in this mess. We are tho and he needs to wake up and see what’s in front of him. We need to tighten up this shape so that it works for the players he has. This was meant to be the run of games that we turned things around. The next round of fixtures are all games I don’t see us winning. That has me really, really worried. Something I genuinely never thought I’d see in my life time is being relegated (15 point deduction aside). We have to adapt. 

👏👏👏

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4 minutes ago, Debut 4 said:

Disagree with a couple of pointsthe OP makes . I think Halkett is the strongest character out of all the backline. Steady in possession , better than Souttar,  covers well, stays calm and makes tackles. 
 

The defence generally struggle because of a weak midfield in front of them who don’t know when to press at the right time and don’t make tackles. 

Souttar is defo the weakest out the two and fair play to Halkett as he always produces the goods in front of goal. Both struggled today tho and both guilty of bad passes and awful headers. 
 

The midfield needs addressed badly. Sibbick is all ready a key player, he’s played 120 minutes or something. That says it all. I like Irving but he needs help. 

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Just now, busby1985 said:

Souttar is defo the weakest out the two and fair play to Halkett as he always produces the goods in front of goal. Both struggled today tho and both guilty of bad passes and awful headers. 
 

The midfield needs addressed badly. Sibbick is all ready a key player, he’s played 120 minutes or something. That says it all. I like Irving but he needs help. 

Irving needs to be harder.  There’s no excuses. If he wants to become a more rounded player and play at a higher level, he needs to do the dirty work far better. 
 

He does need help, I agree, we’re getting to that stage again of debating where then “runner” is in midfield?  Give him that type of player to play off and you’ve got a different look in midfield.
 

He’s no one else to play to in that 5 to 10 yards when you are looking to break forward.  

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2 minutes ago, Debut 4 said:

Irving needs to be harder.  There’s no excuses. If he wants to become a more rounded player and play at a higher level, he needs to do the dirty work far better. 
 

He does need help, I agree, we’re getting to that stage again of debating where then “runner” is in midfield?  Give him that type of player to play off and you’ve got a different look in midfield.
 

He’s no one else to play to in that 5 to 10 yards when you are looking to break forward.  

I thought Irving looked lost when Naismith dropped deep into midfield, like he didn’t know how to play alongside him. Naismith has been miles off it playing in that deeper role. He needs to play further forward. 

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Stendal gave Hamilton a 2 goal start by not doing his homework and naively setting us up to press a team that booted us in the balls and pressed us harder. They matched our formation, went man for man and made us look decidedly pish.

 

I'd like to think the decision to put Smithy back into his proper position was made before the sending off but im not convinced.

 

You cannot give teams in any league a head start like we do and expect any other results.

 

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Scottie Wanshot.

it's so obvious what's wrong, and if Stendal cant see it most of the supporters next to me can see it today..Stendal keeps pushing our two full back's forward. We lose the ball, they have quick forwards running into the space we have left, and were losing goals big time. It's so obvious, what is Stendal thinking about, and we cant blame the goal keeper today.

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Very few positives for me. We should have been shooting from all areas in these conditions but wanted to walk the ball into the net. Defence is just awful - losing 2-3 goals every game WILL see us going down. 70% possession today is impressive but meant heehaw.

The awful defence will likely see us in a play off position at best 

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5 minutes ago, scratchy said:

What about the conditions though eh!? Sheesh!!

Game was a lottery.

Could have been better.

Could have been a hell of a lot worse.


same for both teams. And arguably worse for the team playing with 10 men for 70 minutes 

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In a massively disappointing season, I think my worst moment was wakening this morning to find that we were 2-1 down and had been playing against 10 men for an hour.  

 

At home, against Hamilton.  Surely we can only improve from here.

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Fly the Saltire

Cental defenders list almost every ariel battle. Fist Hamilton goal was yards offside. Stupid challenge by Claire on forward who had three defenders between him and goal.  Boyce seemed to take a knock early on and didn't do much thereafter. Significant that when first Hamilton player went down injured no one want to Hearts bench to get instructions but a couple of Hamilton players did so. Hamilton goalie should have been booked midway through first half for time wasting. Uche should never play again a total waste of a Jersey.  Doris worse than Anthony Macdonald or Henderson

 

 

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Scottie Wanshot.
1 hour ago, busby1985 said:

Positives: 

 

Bobby looked assured. 
 

It can’t be ignored that we showed bottle, hear me out before everyone goes daft. We could’ve crumbled today easily at 2 down. We didn’t and were very unlucky in front of goal 2nd half. We’ve shown bottle in the games against Rangers, St Johnston, Killie and today. Yes the argument can be had that we shouldn’t need to show fight if we stopped shopping two goal starts. 
 

I liked the look of Walker. He tired towards the end but he was showing all the time and was hounding Hickey for mistakes along with hounding Naismith. I liked that. 
 

Negatives: 

 

Souttar and Halkett are a disaster. Everything they do, their touch, their positioning, their headers, their tackling, reading of the game and their distribution is miles, miles off the required standard. Passes in the 2nd half especially, with no one on them, going 5 yards past there Intended target. Leaving the ball not knowing who was behind them, thinking bobby was coming when he wasn’t. Got bullied by the Hamilton front two before the red card. A real worry. Halkett has to get a pat on the back for his ability to score. He has dug us out the hole many a time now to the point I think we should stick him up front. 
 

We literally aren’t playing any form of press and it’s killing us, along with the high line. With no proper press, opposition are able to easily play passes through us or over us. Hamilton presses us today in the first twenty minutes and we couldn’t handle it. We had no press at all. Boyce, Naismith, Uche, Walker all culpable early doors of not putting the leg work in. It’s clear that this group of players aren’t capable of learning anything new or retaining information. I think the press and high lines has to be shelved until the summer or we are going to go down. We are basically playing 424 but with no pressure on the ball and when we lose it high up the park we have 6 up front and a simple punt has the opposition 2 vs 2 against Halkett and Souttar who can’t handle being turned. We can’t have the high line without the press and the players don’t look capable of playing the press properly. Something has to give. 
 

Midfield is non existent. Very harsh on Irving as he has looked very assured in loads of games but he isn’t good enough yet to be the ball carrying midfielder and he can’t link the play. He’s not the only one. Naismith dropping deep is also not working. Everything that comes through midfield is too slow and too predictable. The full side takes too many touches of the ball before passing, they pass the ball about like they are in a passing drill. Why does no one shoot from distance as well. 
 

Overall:
 

I genuinely feel sorry for Stendel, I don’t think he thought the situation was ever this bad. His reaction to the penalty summed it up. He couldn’t believe what he was seeing. He was right in what he said after the match as well. We have the ball and have an overload yet still manage to mess it up and concede possession that leads to the foul. He has to address what he is seeing tho. The philosophy is great and it’s a style I am fully behind but Hearts are a premier league club, it is unthinkable that we should even be in this mess. We are tho and he needs to wake up and see what’s in front of him. We need to tighten up this shape so that it works for the players he has. This was meant to be the run of games that we turned things around. The next round of fixtures are all games I don’t see us winning. That has me really, really worried. Something I genuinely never thought I’d see in my life time is being relegated (15 point deduction aside). We have to adapt. 

totally agree with everything you have said.  we dont have the players to play the style of football that Stendel wants. get a solid defence and we will improve.

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Jambof3tornado
1 hour ago, Mikey1874 said:

Still quite possible for them to get it together. 

 

Stendel wasn't happy. 

 

Some positives in Hickey, Walker, Avdijaj though they weren't perfect. 

 

Still see us going on run of 5/6 wins. Maybe the last games though. 

 

My main concern today after the obvious start was still not creating enough clear cut chances though that can come. 

Donis was pish. Offered nothing. Hickey poor too. Walker good at times but still lazy tracking back hence the 3 fouls he gave away, taking his man out rather than tracking the run.

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Kidd’s Boots

Agree with the majority of the reflection here by OP, and listening to Daniel post match on the radio on the way home I can say it's the first time I've noted real frustration in his summary of the team. The system works, until players stop working in the way the system requires them to do. But what options does that leave Daniel with? Currently players are reverting to type, dropping deep, playing long balls, taking the extra touches, slowing play down. Against Killie and Hamilton, they sat in and protected what they had, and when both went down to 10 they parked up. These professional's should know that you will never break down any team without moving the ball quickly and decisively, all things that Daniel, Jorg and Dale will have been drumming into them every single session since Christmas. When Clare came off and Smith went to right back, he went 433 and we had our best spell of the game but with no reward at the end of it. He then went for bust pushing Halkett forward. Individual performances aside, this is down to the players, not any system of Daniels'. We can all see that Boyce is carrying an injury, Naismith is so far off him, and the pace in general at the moment it's frightening. Hickey has come back and didn't have the engine to get past anyone. These 3 things alone affect any system that we are trying to play, forgetting anything that's going on in defence. 

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1 hour ago, busby1985 said:

Positives: 

 

Bobby looked assured. 
 

It can’t be ignored that we showed bottle, hear me out before everyone goes daft. We could’ve crumbled today easily at 2 down. We didn’t and were very unlucky in front of goal 2nd half. We’ve shown bottle in the games against Rangers, St Johnston, Killie and today. Yes the argument can be had that we shouldn’t need to show fight if we stopped shopping two goal starts. 
 

I liked the look of Walker. He tired towards the end but he was showing all the time and was hounding Hickey for mistakes along with hounding Naismith. I liked that. 
 

Negatives: 

 

Souttar and Halkett are a disaster. Everything they do, their touch, their positioning, their headers, their tackling, reading of the game and their distribution is miles, miles off the required standard. Passes in the 2nd half especially, with no one on them, going 5 yards past there Intended target. Leaving the ball not knowing who was behind them, thinking bobby was coming when he wasn’t. Got bullied by the Hamilton front two before the red card. A real worry. Halkett has to get a pat on the back for his ability to score. He has dug us out the hole many a time now to the point I think we should stick him up front. 
 

We literally aren’t playing any form of press and it’s killing us, along with the high line. With no proper press, opposition are able to easily play passes through us or over us. Hamilton presses us today in the first twenty minutes and we couldn’t handle it. We had no press at all. Boyce, Naismith, Uche, Walker all culpable early doors of not putting the leg work in. It’s clear that this group of players aren’t capable of learning anything new or retaining information. I think the press and high lines has to be shelved until the summer or we are going to go down. We are basically playing 424 but with no pressure on the ball and when we lose it high up the park we have 6 up front and a simple punt has the opposition 2 vs 2 against Halkett and Souttar who can’t handle being turned. We can’t have the high line without the press and the players don’t look capable of playing the press properly. Something has to give. 
 

Midfield is non existent. Very harsh on Irving as he has looked very assured in loads of games but he isn’t good enough yet to be the ball carrying midfielder and he can’t link the play. He’s not the only one. Naismith dropping deep is also not working. Everything that comes through midfield is too slow and too predictable. The full side takes too many touches of the ball before passing, they pass the ball about like they are in a passing drill. Why does no one shoot from distance as well. 
 

Overall:
 

I genuinely feel sorry for Stendel, I don’t think he thought the situation was ever this bad. His reaction to the penalty summed it up. He couldn’t believe what he was seeing. He was right in what he said after the match as well. We have the ball and have an overload yet still manage to mess it up and concede possession that leads to the foul. He has to address what he is seeing tho. The philosophy is great and it’s a style I am fully behind but Hearts are a premier league club, it is unthinkable that we should even be in this mess. We are tho and he needs to wake up and see what’s in front of him. We need to tighten up this shape so that it works for the players he has. This was meant to be the run of games that we turned things around. The next round of fixtures are all games I don’t see us winning. That has me really, really worried. Something I genuinely never thought I’d see in my life time is being relegated (15 point deduction aside). We have to adapt. 

Hard to disagree other than a complete mismatch between Stendel and his preferred way of playing and our current playing resources meant we were never going to see a rapid upturn in performance and results. 

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1 hour ago, busby1985 said:

Positives: 

 

Bobby looked assured. 
 

It can’t be ignored that we showed bottle, hear me out before everyone goes daft. We could’ve crumbled today easily at 2 down. We didn’t and were very unlucky in front of goal 2nd half. We’ve shown bottle in the games against Rangers, St Johnston, Killie and today. Yes the argument can be had that we shouldn’t need to show fight if we stopped shopping two goal starts. 
 

I liked the look of Walker. He tired towards the end but he was showing all the time and was hounding Hickey for mistakes along with hounding Naismith. I liked that. 
 

Negatives: 

 

Souttar and Halkett are a disaster. Everything they do, their touch, their positioning, their headers, their tackling, reading of the game and their distribution is miles, miles off the required standard. Passes in the 2nd half especially, with no one on them, going 5 yards past there Intended target. Leaving the ball not knowing who was behind them, thinking bobby was coming when he wasn’t. Got bullied by the Hamilton front two before the red card. A real worry. Halkett has to get a pat on the back for his ability to score. He has dug us out the hole many a time now to the point I think we should stick him up front. 
 

We literally aren’t playing any form of press and it’s killing us, along with the high line. With no proper press, opposition are able to easily play passes through us or over us. Hamilton presses us today in the first twenty minutes and we couldn’t handle it. We had no press at all. Boyce, Naismith, Uche, Walker all culpable early doors of not putting the leg work in. It’s clear that this group of players aren’t capable of learning anything new or retaining information. I think the press and high lines has to be shelved until the summer or we are going to go down. We are basically playing 424 but with no pressure on the ball and when we lose it high up the park we have 6 up front and a simple punt has the opposition 2 vs 2 against Halkett and Souttar who can’t handle being turned. We can’t have the high line without the press and the players don’t look capable of playing the press properly. Something has to give. 
 

Midfield is non existent. Very harsh on Irving as he has looked very assured in loads of games but he isn’t good enough yet to be the ball carrying midfielder and he can’t link the play. He’s not the only one. Naismith dropping deep is also not working. Everything that comes through midfield is too slow and too predictable. The full side takes too many touches of the ball before passing, they pass the ball about like they are in a passing drill. Why does no one shoot from distance as well. 
 

Overall:
 

I genuinely feel sorry for Stendel, I don’t think he thought the situation was ever this bad. His reaction to the penalty summed it up. He couldn’t believe what he was seeing. He was right in what he said after the match as well. We have the ball and have an overload yet still manage to mess it up and concede possession that leads to the foul. He has to address what he is seeing tho. The philosophy is great and it’s a style I am fully behind but Hearts are a premier league club, it is unthinkable that we should even be in this mess. We are tho and he needs to wake up and see what’s in front of him. We need to tighten up this shape so that it works for the players he has. This was meant to be the run of games that we turned things around. The next round of fixtures are all games I don’t see us winning. That has me really, really worried. Something I genuinely never thought I’d see in my life time is being relegated (15 point deduction aside). We have to adapt. 

Stendel needs time, relegation or no relegation. Scottish football is stale. Tslk of being "best of the rest" sums up the malaise. Stendel is facing the same resistance from players and the media that  Vogts, Le Guen, Cathro and Alessio have already come up against. All of them coached or managed in the best leagues in Europe but try to change thiings here and they are doomed. It says more about Scottish football than them. Stendel's comments ahead of Parkhead were a breath of fresh air

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HillmanHearts

Our defending is abysmal.

The big lad up front for Hamilton won every single header. 

They also won all the 2nd balls in midfield for the first 45 mins.

They would have won nae bother had they kept the 11 on the park.

 

We are in real trouble.

 

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Thoughts on today? 

 

Shocking that we only scraped a draw against a very poor Hamilton team that was down to ten men for the majority of the match. Its extremely difficult to see how we're going to survive this predicament without going down. I genuinely thought we'd tear out of the traps today and set about Hamilton and go on to win comfortably. Its a shambles and its going to take a miracle to escape from this. Its worse now than it was under Levein and that is almost unbelievable.

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1 minute ago, JustinT said:

Thoughts on today? 

 

Shocking that we only scraped a draw against a very poor Hamilton team that was down to ten men for the majority of the match. Its extremely difficult to see how we're going to survive this predicament without going down. I genuinely thought we'd tear out of the traps today and set about Hamilton and go on to win comfortably. Its a shambles and its going to take a miracle to escape from this. Its worse now than it was under Levein and that is almost unbelievable.

 

These words NEED highlighting imo. 

 

Do Deliveroo deliver crayons ?

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Central Belt 1874
10 minutes ago, Kiwidoug said:

In a massively disappointing season, I think my worst moment was wakening this morning to find that we were 2-1 down and had been playing against 10 men for an hour.  

 

At home, against Hamilton.  Surely we can only improve from here.

 

I think it's more likely that we will suffer another couple of defeats similar to what Celtic done to us mid week. 

 

Those digging for positives are in denial.

 

A really really sad state we are in on the pitch. 

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1 hour ago, busby1985 said:

Positives: 

 

Bobby looked assured. 
 

 

 

That'll do me right there.  Go on Bobby San!

 

The rest of them need to pull their fingers out! 

 

I think my least favourite is Soutar at the moment!

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GorgieFifeLife
5 minutes ago, HillmanHearts said:

Our defending is abysmal.

The big lad up front for Hamilton won every single header. 

They also won all the 2nd balls in midfield for the first 45 mins.

They would have won nae bother had they kept the 11 on the park.

 

We are in real trouble.

 

This. Halkett didn't win a header all day.  Carrying too much timber to get off the ground. Flat footed, cumbersome and looks half asleep all the time.

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It's the hope that kills you. Expected a win today against a weakened Accies, in the end we struggled to get a draw against 10 men.  Bobby was OK is that a positive? We're going Doon Stotty. 

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Maybe knit picking but I didn’t like Scott Wilson’s choice of half time music. Trying to make light of our current predicament. Feels like no one at the club really understands the situation we are in. Yeah I know it’s only music but it just didn’t sit right with me. I know I am being ridiculous but it annoyed me. 

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1 minute ago, busby1985 said:

Maybe knit picking but I didn’t like Scott Wilson’s choice of half time music. Trying to make light of our current predicament. Feels like no one at the club really understands the situation we are in. Yeah I know it’s only music but it just didn’t sit right with me. I know I am being ridiculous but it annoyed me. 

Suspect the players are like me - never hear it. 

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allanwilson1970

My thoughts are simple.  Stendel out and take your assistants and imposters you signed with you. Bring in a manager who knows Scottish football and pronto 

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Just now, allanwilson1970 said:

My thoughts are simple.  Stendel out and take your assistants and imposters you signed with you. Bring in a manager who knows Scottish football and pronto 

😂😂😂😂

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Not the result I wanted but we will be playing against our rivals in the bottom six...if we can’t better their results we go down..let’s be honest the top league is useless playing for Europe only and a cup run...I just don’t want to waste our players in the Championship but that said maybe that’s their level

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1 hour ago, Hearts1975 said:

He is great in the air and attacks every single ball. With the amount of crosses getting whipped in, especially by Smith, it was always on the cards that he would get us a goal 

Very true, but I wish he was as good with defensive headers, him and Soapy hardly won a header between them. Shows how much we were relying on Berra in that department.

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Accies ran the show until the red card ( which I thought was harsh). They then decided to try to protect their 2 gift goal lead and that's why we got into the match. 70 mins against 10 men and we struggled to get a draw. The same problems of giving away goals and not being able to break down a doggid defence. I've no idea what the answer is but it doesn't look like we are capable of turning this around.

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How can you take positives from a home draw V Hamilton, our relegation rivals? If they hadn't went down to 10 men we were beaten comfortably today. Very worrying, and Stendel has to foot the bill now! Boys an absoloute slaver!

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