What do fans expect from club, manager, structure, style of play?

[Dia Liom]

To be honest I don't expect much.  I think it was Simeone at Athletico that said it was a joy to just be part of a good team and able to compete with anyone.  Good times as a hearts fan are when we fear no team and are excited going into big games.  I'd say Robbie has done a good job since coming back, he's turned the softest hearts teams I've seen into one that wins most games, with many of the same players.

 

The next level that we have been trying to get to for ages is to be regularly in cup finals, regularly in europe, and putting up a decent title challenge.  Despite the different owners, levels of funding, managers, tactics, we've won a handful of cups and had a couple of good seasons in europe.  Even in 2005/6 we were nowhere near the top by the end.  In sum, it's clearly difficult to make the next step and, as we have unfortunately witnessed, making radical changes to try and hit new heights is risky.  Cathro and Stendel absolutely ruined us.  That being the case, I'm looking forward to seeing how Robbie copes with the top league - sure he'll have us playing well and scoring goals, like last time.

 

What do I expect from fellow hearts fans?  To be the most unrealistic, oblivious fools on the planet.  And of course to remind us all that the 10 game Burley spell is the norm and the level that we should demand.

 

 

[ford donald]

On 13/02/2021 at 14:46, Lone Striker said:

Honesty would be a good start.  Call a spade a spade.  If we're crap like last night, say so.  No need to name culprits, but just admit that we weren't good enough for what Hearts fans expect.   Stop blaming the refs.    

 

Coach  players how to shoot accurately from 20-25  yards on the run. 

 

Overall, get Hearts playing an attacking high-energy style.   To quote George Burley before we'd even kicked a ball back in summer of 2005 - "I'm a 3-2 manager, not a 1-0 manager".      Personally, I can accept defeats so long as we've given it a right good go and  players have shown adequate hunger and desire to  attack the opposition goal.   

 

      

 

Under Burley we played exciting football,fast out the traps,attack from the very first moment.Most games we where winning half time an fulltime,probably most exciting football I have ever seen Hearts playing.

[OTT]

1 hour ago, ford donald said:

 

Under Burley we played exciting football,fast out the traps,attack from the very first moment.Most games we where winning half time an fulltime,probably most exciting football I have ever seen Hearts playing.

 

IIRC there was a stat from Fridays game that we've not taken the lead in the first 30 minutes for a good while (can't remember how long but enough for the commentator to mention it).

 

Pre-match is that not when the management team psych them up to go out and hammer the shite? Anyway, goes to what you/re saying RE fast out the traps. 

[Ribble]

8 hours ago, Furst there was Vladimir said:

What does that say about Hibs and Celtic?

 

The two top flight teams we have played this season. Two top flight teams we bettered and matched?

 

As always, people are doing us a disservice whilst at the same time overestimating the quality of the rest of Scottish football.

Getting the better of hibs isn’t an indication that we are doing anything well, otherwise we’d have had a great team every season for well over a century. As for Celtic, we kicked scratched and fought our way into a game where they should have been out of sight, we hardly outplayed them did we?

 

I really don’t give a toss about the rest of Scottish football, the point is that we as Hearts fans fork out millions year on year and we’re being absolutely taken for mugs.

 

I’m realistic and know we can’t and won’t win every week, we won’t always challenge for honours but is it honestly too much to ask for something that resembles a semi cohesive football team  to be put out on the park?

[Bongo 1874]

1 minute ago, Ribble said:

Getting the better of hibs isn’t an indication that we are doing anything well, otherwise we’d have had a great team every season for well over a century. As for Celtic, we kicked scratched and fought our way into a game where they should have been out of sight, we hardly outplayed them did we?

 

I really don’t give a toss about the rest of Scottish football, the point is that we as Hearts fans fork out millions year on year and we’re being absolutely taken for mugs.

 

I’m realistic and know we can’t and won’t win every week, we won’t always challenge for honours but is it honestly too much to ask for something that resembles a semi cohesive football team  to be put out on the park?

☺. 

[GinRummy]

1 hour ago, Dia Liom said:

To be honest I don't expect much.  I think it was Simeone at Athletico that said it was a joy to just be part of a good team and able to compete with anyone.  Good times as a hearts fan are when we fear no team and are excited going into big games.  I'd say Robbie has done a good job since coming back, he's turned the softest hearts teams I've seen into one that wins most games, with many of the same players.

 

The next level that we have been trying to get to for ages is to be regularly in cup finals, regularly in europe, and putting up a decent title challenge.  Despite the different owners, levels of funding, managers, tactics, we've won a handful of cups and had a couple of good seasons in europe.  Even in 2005/6 we were nowhere near the top by the end.  In sum, it's clearly difficult to make the next step and, as we have unfortunately witnessed, making radical changes to try and hit new heights is risky.  Cathro and Stendel absolutely ruined us.  That being the case, I'm looking forward to seeing how Robbie copes with the top league - sure he'll have us playing well and scoring goals, like last time.

 

What do I expect from fellow hearts fans?  To be the most unrealistic, oblivious fools on the planet.  And of course to remind us all that the 10 game Burley spell is the norm and the level that we should demand.

 

 

Expecting us to play well in the championship isn’t really unrealistic though is it? We are the third biggest club in the country and people are complaining because we are playing very poorly. The last two games have saw us create practically nothing against a pile of shite. Hearts fans determination to have a go at each other is fairly sad tbh. Here we are bickering among ourselves when the team has been awful recently. 

Edited February 14, 2021 by GinRummy

[GORGIE MONK]

I’d settle for the team looking like they enjoy playing football for starters. 
Miserable looking bunch most of the time. If they’re that unhappy away and do something else. 
Once we have 11 players looking forward to the next game we are 50% there.

Enough ability in the current squad to win most weeks. 
So cheer up or bugger off ♥️

[Dia Liom]

33 minutes ago, GinRummy said:

Expecting us to play well in the championship isn’t really unrealistic though is it? We are the third biggest club in the country and people are complaining because we are playing very poorly. The last two games have saw us create practically nothing against a pile of shite. Hearts fans determination to have a go at each other is fairly sad tbh. Here we are bickering among ourselves when the team has been awful recently. 

 

We have played reasonably well in the championship - plenty goals, some big wins, some close games that we've ground out, win rate of 75%.  If someone had said at the start of the season we would be in the position we are in now, most hearts fans would have said that it was decent - that's a pretty good way to objectively judge things.

 

Using words like 'awful' doesn't interest me.  Sensationalist stuff that tv guys like Sutton, Savage come out with.  Attention seeking.  The team has been awful very rarely this season.  We were awful on Friday and got an undeserved equaliser, that in no way means we have been bad overall this season.  (The clue is in the league table, have a look!)

 

I understand that your point is about the style of football.  This is obviously more of a matter of opinion so I'm not going to convince you by arguing.  The way I see it, and what I alluded to in my first post, is that a lot of hearts fans have an expectation that we should win handsomely in every game where we are the 'bigger team', yet this just doesn't happen in football.  Arsenal invincibles, celtic a few years ago, these are very very rare.

 

I think the fact is that people like bickering and debating these things.  Some people like moaning, some like to paint things as always positive.  What difference does it make if we disagree about things?  Doubt it affects the team very much as long as we still contribute our hard earned.

 

[ElGee1973]

100% effort from every player in every game & a duty to “entertain” us fans. Honesty from Robbie when we haven’t played well wouldn’t go amiss either. I don’t see much difference from the football we played under CL which most of the time would make your eyes bleed. We will win the championship this season however big improvements are needed when we do go up. 

[Guest ToqueJambo]

Winning the league, scoring goals, taking Celtic to the wire in cup finals, beating Hibs, working on fixing past mistakes off the pitch, so like now really.

[Guest ToqueJambo]

3 hours ago, Ribble said:

Getting the better of hibs isn’t an indication that we are doing anything well, otherwise we’d have had a great team every season for well over a century. As for Celtic, we kicked scratched and fought our way into a game where they should have been out of sight, we hardly outplayed them did we?

 

I really don’t give a toss about the rest of Scottish football, the point is that we as Hearts fans fork out millions year on year and we’re being absolutely taken for mugs.

 

I’m realistic and know we can’t and won’t win every week, we won’t always challenge for honours but is it honestly too much to ask for something that resembles a semi cohesive football team  to be put out on the park?

 

Conversely getting beat by Hibs isn't a sign we are doing anything badly. It doesn't stop people still going on about how he singlehandedly won Hibs the cup though.

[CloustonHMFC]

On 13/02/2021 at 17:31, Bongo 1874 said:

Idealistic pish, someone please remind me how Gerrard has rangers playing? 

Rangers have been buying players that are worth 3x the budget of any other team in Scotland, with the obvious exception. It is in no way comparable.

[WoolfordsHearts]

The OP reads like something the tims would have on a banner outside darkheid.

[Bazzas right boot]

56 minutes ago, ToqueJambo said:

Winning the league, scoring goals, taking Celtic to the wire in cup finals, beating Hibs, working on fixing past mistakes off the pitch, so like now really.

 

 

😂😂👍

[Spellczech]

In the cup final we gave  a struggling Celtic team freedom of the park and a 2-goal lead. We clawed it back to a extent but we are still not going out to win games from the off. We are only kicking into gear at 60 mins...We need to find some motivation and drive. We are currently sleep-walking back to the SPL and it is boring...

Edited February 14, 2021 by Spellczech

[gregzy2k7]

First of all regardless of who the manager is i am pretty happy with the structure of the club now, I like the fact we have a new ceo and a new sporting director who both seem pretty competent at their jobs so far i think is fair to say, I also like that JJ has some form of role on the board as an advisor and hope that continues.

My only real gripe with the structure now is youth, i think that we should be seeing better results from our youth academy, i would like to see more players from the youth academy involved with the 1st team squad and getting some kind of chance at playing, even if its just a handful of games a season. I believe we should have a small squad of 22 1st team players and implement the rest from the youth academy.

On style of play, i think we should be starting games on the front foot at 100mph with purpose and energy and look to score as early as we can in any match we play barring the OF away. I would like to see us start playing 2 strikers up front more often, my preffered system is a 442, basic but i think it suits us and has been effective for our most successfull teams, I know that is not always possible, however at tynecastle i would always expect us to dominate the match and create the most chances against anyone in scotland.

On our manager i am not sure if he will be the right fit long term, If not then i would like to see someone who is young and has a decent bit of experience, is initially attack minded however not completely attack minded as their are always times we need to defend especially away from home, so someone who has a balance to their tactics/style of play. Also they should not fear the old firm as a prerequisite.

 

[Haken]

If you think this is a 'massive' club (in a relative sense), then act like it.  By that, I'm referring to various interviews I've heard with Neilson and players where, in response to a question, they'll start by saying, 'This is a massive club...'.  But those appear to be mere words rather than mindset.  The mindset at the club is to analyse the might of teams like QoS with a view to nullifying their danger players.

 

In short, my expectation is a Hearts team that imposes itself on the opponent and lets the opponent worry about us.  That's what a massive club would do.

[Nookie Bear]

9 hours ago, Spellczech said:

In the cup final we gave  a struggling Celtic team freedom of the park and a 2-goal lead. We clawed it back to a extent but we are still not going out to win games from the off. We are only kicking into gear at 60 mins...We need to find some motivation and drive. We are currently sleep-walking back to the SPL and it is boring...

We tried to attack from the start against QoS tbf and then ran out of ideas. 
 

I don’t really know what’s wrong with us but something isn’t clicking somewhere. 

[TheBigO]

11 minutes ago, Nookie Bear said:

We tried to attack from the start against QoS tbf and then ran out of ideas. 
 

I don’t really know what’s wrong with us but something isn’t clicking somewhere. 

Yup. Started very well. TBD to Robbie, unlike our usual, we came out the traps flying and full of energy. It had obviously been discussed. That's good.

 

Our rigidity took over when that initial thrust died down. Posted above my feelings on that. The basics are our players need to move out of "position" if we ever want opposition players to also do so and create some space.

 

And if we don't want to play dynamically like that, we need two up, hit them early and play off them. Lots of bodies in the box.

 

We do neither. Kind of use the worst bits of both styles!!

 

I ain't overly down on us though. My hope is we're simply a work in progress. And works in progress are extremely difficult with current restrictions.

 

Our only objectives this season, in this order are:

 

Win the league (tick!)

Clear out some dross (being ticked!)

Sign better players (tentative tick so far imo)

Address squad balance (tick!)

Develop a style (hmmm)

[jager man]

Fans expect manager to set his team up to win games and not set it up to not lose goals. I sound like I'm repeating myself but that means only having 1 sitting midfielder max playing. 2 just doesn't work especially in a league where teams don't press.

[Bazzas right boot]

37 minutes ago, TheBigO said:

Yup. Started very well. TBD to Robbie, unlike our usual, we came out the traps flying and full of energy. It had obviously been discussed. That's good.

 

Our rigidity took over when that initial thrust died down. Posted above my feelings on that. The basics are our players need to move out of "position" if we ever want opposition players to also do so and create some space.

 

And if we don't want to play dynamically like that, we need two up, hit them early and play off them. Lots of bodies in the box.

 

We do neither. Kind of use the worst bits of both styles!!

 

I ain't overly down on us though. My hope is we're simply a work in progress. And works in progress are extremely difficult with current restrictions.

 

Our only objectives this season, in this order are:

 

Win the league (tick!)

Clear out some dross (being ticked!)

Sign better players (tentative tick so far imo)

Address squad balance (tick!)

Develop a style (hmmm)

 

Good summary. 

 

Generally agree apart from the two up top, if the midfielders break the line and support 1 or 2 up top doesn't matter. 

It does matter if the 2 central midfielders don't get forward tho, we are short of bodies in the box. 

 

Only walker consistantly gets in and about the box. 

 

Also, what is, becoming clear is that scoring first is really important as teams tend to fold a bit and we get a few, if the game ends up like Friday it's turgid and frustrating. 

[Jamhammer]

Crunching tackles. 100% effort EVERY game not just when we’re playing Hibs/Celtic

Fight/Aggresion.

Show for a pass. Take players on. Have a shot.

Hearts fans, particularly in the stadium will always support a team that is giving everything it can.

 

[SectionDJambo]

11 hours ago, ToqueJambo said:

 

Conversely getting beat by Hibs isn't a sign we are doing anything badly. It doesn't stop people still going on about how he singlehandedly won Hibs the cup though.

Nope. 

And nobody is saying that he maybe stopped Hibs winning the cup last year either. If we hadn't beaten them at Hampden, again, I wouldn't have trusted that Celtic team to beat them in the final.

 

[TheBigO]

1 hour ago, Smith's right boot said:

 

Good summary. 

 

Generally agree apart from the two up top, if the midfielders break the line and support 1 or 2 up top doesn't matter. 

It does matter if the 2 central midfielders don't get forward tho, we are short of bodies in the box. 

 

Only walker consistantly gets in and about the box. 

 

Also, what is, becoming clear is that scoring first is really important as teams tend to fold a bit and we get a few, if the game ends up like Friday it's turgid and frustrating. 

Hey, yeah, sorry maybe didn't write that well.  In general, you are right.

 

What I meant was that if you want to play a rigid system, which no-one breaks lines or moves our their zones (so you aren't really trying to move their players around), for me it has to be 2 up top.  You can then be pretty solid, have 2 sitting in CM playing left and right or in to CFs feet and they play off eachother.  You can also miss midfield and hit the front two early.

 

We play in a way where we're totally rigid, but don't have any targets or partnerships either.  Basically we totally rely on individuals, if that makes sense.  If Jamie managed to pull something out his arse, basically!

 

You're absolutely right about scoring early and to be fair, we very clearly set out to do so on Friday.  A worry could be that we didn't exactly pepper their goal, for all that early endeavour, but "chances" aren't always shots on goal, and they defended last ditch very well, to their credit.

[Bazzas right boot]

2 hours ago, TheBigO said:

Hey, yeah, sorry maybe didn't write that well.  In general, you are right.

 

What I meant was that if you want to play a rigid system, which no-one breaks lines or moves our their zones (so you aren't really trying to move their players around), for me it has to be 2 up top.  You can then be pretty solid, have 2 sitting in CM playing left and right or in to CFs feet and they play off eachother.  You can also miss midfield and hit the front two early.

 

We play in a way where we're totally rigid, but don't have any targets or partnerships either.  Basically we totally rely on individuals, if that makes sense.  If Jamie managed to pull something out his arse, basically!

 

You're absolutely right about scoring early and to be fair, we very clearly set out to do so on Friday.  A worry could be that we didn't exactly pepper their goal, for all that early endeavour, but "chances" aren't always shots on goal, and they defended last ditch very well, to their credit.

 

 

Another fair and accurate account. 

 

The Irish lad looks like he will be the type to do just that and our new striker gives us more options up top than before. 

 

Olly Lee was one that would try the direct pass and hit a shot, Haring, Irving and Halliday don't really do that, more the controling types. 

 

I'd like to see Irving break forward more, especially as Haring and Halliday will cover or in many cases Halkett or Popescu are that high they are almost in midfield.

 

More fluidity, less structure, I'd agree with that. 

[Spellczech]

7 hours ago, Nookie Bear said:

We tried to attack from the start against QoS tbf and then ran out of ideas. 
 

I don’t really know what’s wrong with us but something isn’t clicking somewhere. 

Yeah so I read but I missed the first 5 mins so I didn't see it! Haha

[Nookie Bear]

40 minutes ago, Spellczech said:

Yeah so I read but I missed the first 5 mins so I didn't see it! Haha

 

You missed a treat. For those 5 minutes we were Brazil 1970 and then turned into Ally Brazil 1980.