Robbie Neilson Tactics

[gashauskis9]

I’ve seen us pumped by them when we’ve had a better squad than this and they’ve had a poorer squad than they currently have.  I’ll get over this quickly.  The thing that I’m really really struggling with,  bizarrely, on reflection is what happened in the 88th minute. 
 

We get a corner, only our 2nd or 3rd of the game I believe.  What do we do?  We get our biggest aerial threat to take it!!! WTAF???  Why didn’t Halliday take that corner?  Ridiculous decision at that stage of the game.  A half decent corner with Halkett, Kingsley, Souttar, Haring and Simms in the mix could have really troubled them, or at least gave their defenders another dilemma to deal with from a marking perspective. 
 

Unless Kingsley was trying to ****ing score from that corner, I have no idea why he was taking it.  
 

 

[CMc]

51 minutes ago, gashauskis9 said:

I’ve seen us pumped by them when we’ve had a better squad than this and they’ve had a poorer squad than they currently have.  I’ll get over this quickly.  The thing that I’m really really struggling with,  bizarrely, on reflection is what happened in the 88th minute. 
 

We get a corner, only our 2nd or 3rd of the game I believe.  What do we do?  We get our biggest aerial threat to take it!!! WTAF???  Why didn’t Halliday take that corner?  Ridiculous decision at that stage of the game.  A half decent corner with Halkett, Kingsley, Souttar, Haring and Simms in the mix could have really troubled them, or at least gave their defenders another dilemma to deal with from a marking perspective. 
 

Unless Kingsley was trying to ****ing score from that corner, I have no idea why he was taking it.  
 

 

It was a very frustrating corner. 

[jamboozy]

2 minutes ago, CMc said:

It was a very frustrating corner. 

All our set pieces are frustrating just now. Against the OF you have to make these count, we, the fans get all excited when we win a corner! I don’t know why, we all know, like our 1st one on Saturday, that it’s never gonna clear the 1st man never mind a shot on goal 😆

[CMc]

35 minutes ago, jamboozy said:

All our set pieces are frustrating just now. Against the OF you have to make these count, we, the fans get all excited when we win a corner! I don’t know why, we all know, like our 1st one on Saturday, that it’s never gonna clear the 1st man never mind a shot on goal 😆

It’s really annoying. With Pete in midfield, simms up to and 5 at the back, we really should be maximising the opportunity. 

Hampden doesn’t look like the easiest place in world to take corners (steep slope down to track leaving limited flat space for run up) but the huns managed to get good balls in consistently. 
 

Got to hope we can improve it for next season. 

 

[Debut 4]

2 hours ago, gashauskis9 said:

I’ve seen us pumped by them when we’ve had a better squad than this and they’ve had a poorer squad than they currently have.  I’ll get over this quickly.  The thing that I’m really really struggling with,  bizarrely, on reflection is what happened in the 88th minute. 
 

We get a corner, only our 2nd or 3rd of the game I believe.  What do we do?  We get our biggest aerial threat to take it!!! WTAF???  Why didn’t Halliday take that corner?  Ridiculous decision at that stage of the game.  A half decent corner with Halkett, Kingsley, Souttar, Haring and Simms in the mix could have really troubled them, or at least gave their defenders another dilemma to deal with from a marking perspective. 
 

Unless Kingsley was trying to ****ing score from that corner, I have no idea why he was taking it.  
 

 

On reflection, and In general, i

just wanted to see us take a wee risk and try to win from the second half onwards. 
 

RN looked hellbent on sticking to the “gameplan”. A hope rather than decisiveness that we’d get the break while keeping it tight , before they got it.  
 

10,15 mins into the second half he should’ve seen how it was going. A change of shape, an extra attacking player….  It was a cup final. We weren’t playing for a point at Ibrox in the league.  
 

You get to half time in tact, the thought process in the changing has to be that you can now try to have a go and win. 
 

 

Edited May 23, 2022 by Debut 4

[tiger Rudi]

I'm not a Robbie hater, more a doubter. He's built a half decent squad, but I'm not getting carried away like some Hearts fans who think it's a great squad. We have our limitations and one of the reasons we have secured 3rd so easily is the fact that Aberdeen & Hibs have been so rank awful. I think we have had a wonderful season, Europe is more than we could have hoped for at the beginning of the season. A cup final as well so Robbie deserves credit. I still have doubts, but just hope him & Savage recruit well to get us a bit closer to the Old Firm. If they can do that then any doubts over Robbie would surely disappear. I question his tactics all the time, but think he can only piss with the **** he has. Unfortunately I don't think the squad is as good as we sometimes think. 

Atkinson, Cochrane, Sibbick and a few others are great against the lesser teams. Just not good enough for the Old Firm. I even doubt McKay is. An excellent player but can he really perform at their level? He was anonymous on Saturday. 

Gordon, Kingsley, Halkett, Haring, Baningime, Simms are the only players I see as good enough at that level. Boyce as well but I think he may be done, his legs have gone but could be used sparingly, just hope we find a decent upgrade on him. Devlin?? I love his attitude, but he needs to add more to his game for me. In a 4.4.2 formation where less focus is on two wide wingbacks Devlin could do a job certainly. Apologies for the length of post and talking possibly so much shit 😂

Edited May 23, 2022 by tiger Rudi

[frankblack]

20 minutes ago, Debut 4 said:

On reflection, and In general, i

just wanted to see us take a wee risk and try to win from the second half onwards. 
 

RN looked hellbent on sticking to the “gameplan”. A hope rather than decisiveness that we’d get the break while keeping it tight , before they got it.  
 

10,15 mins into the second half he should’ve seen how it was going. A change of shape, an extra attacking player….  It was a cup final. We weren’t playing for a point at Ibrox in the league.  
 

You get to half time in tact, the thought process in the changing has to be that you can now try to have a go and win. 
 

 

 

Usually that might be the case but we were playing with half a team unfit.

 

The starting XI was our best available and there was nothing on the bench to change the game.  Nobody else could have been added to the bench with any real first team experience.

 

We need to improve our squad depth for next season in addition to adding quality.

[i wish jj was my dad]

27 minutes ago, Debut 4 said:

On reflection, and In general, i

just wanted to see us take a wee risk and try to win from the second half onwards. 
 

RN looked hellbent on sticking to the “gameplan”. A hope rather than decisiveness that we’d get the break while keeping it tight , before they got it.  
 

10,15 mins into the second half he should’ve seen how it was going. A change of shape, an extra attacking player….  It was a cup final. We weren’t playing for a point at Ibrox in the league.  
 

You get to half time in tact, the thought process in the changing has to be that you can now try to have a go and win. 
 

 

I think he would have liked to have stepped it up later in the second half but because we were nursing players back we didn't  have the leg and a limited bench.  We have 12/13 players who are top 3 quality.  We need to strengthen the squad so that we have 16 or 17 including impact subs. 

[4marsbars]

11 hours ago, NB GIN said:

.....

 

11 hours ago, NB GIN said:

they destroyed us with the width 

 

There's holding out for 90 minutes, and there's being  destroyed.

 

I know what I saw.

[Sooks]

Yes it really is nothing to do with Hearts being decent it is all about Hibs and Aberdeen being shite ………… amazing the lengths some go to with this stuff

[TexasAndy]

Stayed away from this thread for a couple of days to avoid my thoughts being clouded by the emotions of a cup final.   My gut feeling at full time and still now is that we have to be braver to win the prizes.  I thought from about 60 minutes onwards we became far too passive.  Yes, Rangers upped their levels and were able to bring quality off the bench but with about 80 minutes on the clock my thinking was let's go for this.  We score then I couldn't see Rangers getting one back in time.  But we seemed to just drift in to trying to hold out.  Not sure what was said to the players at the end of 90 mins but we resumed exactly as we had finished, just trying to hold out showing very little ambition to try and win the game.  We had obviously decided to try and hold out for penalties through Extra time.  30 minutes is far too long a period to adopt that policy and expect to survive against better quality opposition.  To my mind this is the manager's mind set.  I am not saying 'Neilson out" I'm just questioning does he have the mentality to take on the Old Firm in Glasgow.  As we move onwards and upwards as a club and build a stronger squad we also need to improve our mindset the way Fergie and Jim McLean made Dons and D Utd players believe they were as good as OF.  We will more often than not get beaten by the better quality but I watched a team on Saturday who I felt never had the belief they could win it.  

[5jambo1]

Was clear watching we ran out of legs. They replace arfield and Davis with jack and Kamara and improved. Also used all their other subs wisely and were just overall sharper, faster and fitter. I don’t buy this ‘there for the taking’ yeah the hassle with flights and travel but they are professional football players, fit as ****, paid thousands of pounds, who the majority of, had played one game in the last ten days albeit on the wed. I think people forget how much of a gap there is between us and the OF. Rangers are europa league finalists having beaten dortmund and Leipzig! 
 

frustration for me is we keep going to Glasgow and play the same way. It’s like we are trying to play attacking with the ‘3 up front’ but we are not good enough to just play 2 in the middle especially against the OF on a big park. We couldn’t keep the ball when we got it and were just chasing shadows for basically the whole game. I would try 4-5-1. Three in the middle of the park and 2 out wide who could have stopped there full backs getting all the ball with acres of space and helped our full backs when they were getting doubled up on. After 50-55 minutes it was the same patterns of play over and over again which was the frustrating thing. It was obvious to everyone something needed changed. We didn’t need three centre backs trying to deal with one player and our ‘wide men’ were basically playing like full backs, they could have pushed on at times to get us up the park. They were breaking through our front three with ease which often resulted in one of their full backs sprinting towards Atkinson or cochrane. And repeat. 
 

Anyway, frustrating yes, hindsight makes it even more so but what a season and I'm confident we will be even stronger next season with some good recruitment. 

[smartin1987]

Maybe we should have went back 5 with smith on the right of a 3 helping Atkinson out. Maybe playing 1 striker keeping one on the bench. Gino and Barry Mackay on either wings. Who knows.

[Pasquale for King]

4 hours ago, tiger Rudi said:

I'm not a Robbie hater, more a doubter. He's built a half decent squad, but I'm not getting carried away like some Hearts fans who think it's a great squad. We have our limitations and one of the reasons we have secured 3rd so easily is the fact that Aberdeen & Hibs have been so rank awful. I think we have had a wonderful season, Europe is more than we could have hoped for at the beginning of the season. A cup final as well so Robbie deserves credit. I still have doubts, but just hope him & Savage recruit well to get us a bit closer to the Old Firm. If they can do that then any doubts over Robbie would surely disappear. I question his tactics all the time, but think he can only piss with the **** he has. Unfortunately I don't think the squad is as good as we sometimes think. 

Atkinson, Cochrane, Sibbick and a few others are great against the lesser teams. Just not good enough for the Old Firm. I even doubt McKay is. An excellent player but can he really perform at their level? He was anonymous on Saturday. 

Gordon, Kingsley, Halkett, Haring, Baningime, Simms are the only players I see as good enough at that level. Boyce as well but I think he may be done, his legs have gone but could be used sparingly, just hope we find a decent upgrade on him. Devlin?? I love his attitude, but he needs to add more to his game for me. In a 4.4.2 formation where less focus is on two wide wingbacks Devlin could do a job certainly. Apologies for the length of post and talking possibly so much shit 😂

Great post 

[Gnjambo16]

4 hours ago, tiger Rudi said:

I'm not a Robbie hater, more a doubter. He's built a half decent squad, but I'm not getting carried away like some Hearts fans who think it's a great squad. We have our limitations and one of the reasons we have secured 3rd so easily is the fact that Aberdeen & Hibs have been so rank awful. I think we have had a wonderful season, Europe is more than we could have hoped for at the beginning of the season. A cup final as well so Robbie deserves credit. I still have doubts, but just hope him & Savage recruit well to get us a bit closer to the Old Firm. If they can do that then any doubts over Robbie would surely disappear. I question his tactics all the time, but think he can only piss with the **** he has. Unfortunately I don't think the squad is as good as we sometimes think. 

Atkinson, Cochrane, Sibbick and a few others are great against the lesser teams. Just not good enough for the Old Firm. I even doubt McKay is. An excellent player but can he really perform at their level? He was anonymous on Saturday. 

Gordon, Kingsley, Halkett, Haring, Baningime, Simms are the only players I see as good enough at that level. Boyce as well but I think he may be done, his legs have gone but could be used sparingly, just hope we find a decent upgrade on him. Devlin?? I love his attitude, but he needs to add more to his game for me. In a 4.4.2 formation where less focus is on two wide wingbacks Devlin could do a job certainly. Apologies for the length of post and talking possibly so much shit 😂

 

[Gnjambo16]

Just now, Gnjambo16 said:

 

A good post and sadly your pretty much on the money re assessment of the players . 

[Bull's-eye]

12 hours ago, mitch41 said:

You may call his post utter gibberish, I call your view sadly wrong. Sadly because your a Hearts fan and wrong because your football knowledge is obviously very very poor.

 

Your not qualified to make any of those judgements.  Never will be either.

[Bazzas right boot]

21 hours ago, OTT said:

 

We talk about being the 3rd biggest side in Scotland but have utterly failed to establish any sort of consistency over that claim in a football sense. 

 

Robbie can get us finishing 3rd consistently, I have absolutely no doubts of that. With the club in a better place financially now he should be able to bring in players of a higher standard so we're not finishing the season with wingers with a handful of assists as our so called 'creative' players. Barrie McKay is the only one worthy of pass marks. Gino has been Casper the friendly ghost and GMS for an experienced player should hang his head in shame. 

 

IMO the level is finishing 3rd and building that level of consistency into closing the gap above us. If we can ensure that we're making it to at least the semi final stage of the Scottish cup, then 9/10 we'll have this assurance of European football every season which is a financial windfall for the club to allow more investment, which over time will allow us to create a gap that the teams below us will be unable to bridge without significant external investment. 

 

I despair at folk that want to chase him off, because history tells us we won't replace him with better. Cathro, Levein and Stendel were a total waste of time and energy by the club that set us back big time. Robbie in one season has got us back to where we believe we should be, and now with more funds to spend he can work on our attacking potential and make us more of a threat against the OF, hopefully whilst doling out some pumpings to the weaker sides in this league too. 

 

Folk annoyed about our performance, who does he replace? Boyce wasn't fit enough and clearly nursing an injury. Halliday was on pain killing injections. Halkett just back, Atkinson first season in Scottish football, Smith not fit, Beni out. Subs none of them are good enough... the squad was paper thin because this is our first season back in the top flight and there is no point bloating it with shite players. Now there is a bit more money to spend and we can focus in on acquiring some quality. 

 

Next season should be a really exciting prospect for everybody. 

 

 

Cracking post and the only thing I'm disappointed with is that I never said it. 

 

Folk wanting to blow up all our progress   because they hate Bob should really step of this bus. 

 

It's now past lunatic behaviour and on the " bam o meter" it's an 11/10.

 

Put yourself In the bin. 

 

 

 

 

[Debut 4]

5 hours ago, tiger Rudi said:

I'm not a Robbie hater, more a doubter. He's built a half decent squad, but I'm not getting carried away like some Hearts fans who think it's a great squad. We have our limitations and one of the reasons we have secured 3rd so easily is the fact that Aberdeen & Hibs have been so rank awful. I think we have had a wonderful season, Europe is more than we could have hoped for at the beginning of the season. A cup final as well so Robbie deserves credit. I still have doubts, but just hope him & Savage recruit well to get us a bit closer to the Old Firm. If they can do that then any doubts over Robbie would surely disappear. I question his tactics all the time, but think he can only piss with the **** he has. Unfortunately I don't think the squad is as good as we sometimes think. 

Atkinson, Cochrane, Sibbick and a few others are great against the lesser teams. Just not good enough for the Old Firm. I even doubt McKay is. An excellent player but can he really perform at their level? He was anonymous on Saturday. 

Gordon, Kingsley, Halkett, Haring, Baningime, Simms are the only players I see as good enough at that level. Boyce as well but I think he may be done, his legs have gone but could be used sparingly, just hope we find a decent upgrade on him. Devlin?? I love his attitude, but he needs to add more to his game for me. In a 4.4.2 formation where less focus is on two wide wingbacks Devlin could do a job certainly. Apologies for the length of post and talking possibly so much shit 😂

Good post.  What interests me is the second paragraph regards the players. 
 

You aren’t saying we can sign players of a standard that the Old Firm can, but you more or less hint we can sign players with certain elements to their game and a mentality with it ,that enables us to worry them and compete more strongly.  
 

Time and again on here some just don’t believe we can sign a certain level of player or ever close the gap, or at least show up better in more important matches, but we can if our judgement in recruitment/finance permitting also, is thorough.  
 

 

 

Edited May 23, 2022 by Debut 4

[Gambo]

8 hours ago, gashauskis9 said:

I’ve seen us pumped by them when we’ve had a better squad than this and they’ve had a poorer squad than they currently have.  I’ll get over this quickly.  The thing that I’m really really struggling with,  bizarrely, on reflection is what happened in the 88th minute. 
 

We get a corner, only our 2nd or 3rd of the game I believe.  What do we do?  We get our biggest aerial threat to take it!!! WTAF???  Why didn’t Halliday take that corner?  Ridiculous decision at that stage of the game.  A half decent corner with Halkett, Kingsley, Souttar, Haring and Simms in the mix could have really troubled them, or at least gave their defenders another dilemma to deal with from a marking perspective. 
 

Unless Kingsley was trying to ****ing score from that corner, I have no idea why he was taking it.  
 

 

Our dead balls were awful.

[boag1874]

Bollocks, the result had nothing to do with tactics. If we'd had a go & got absolutely trounced on the break the same posters would complain about the way the defense was set up. If we make it to Pens & pull the win off, or that corner in the last few minutes of the 90 hits the mark then we're all praising an unbelievably gutsy defensive performance vs a superior opponent. They beat us cause they're a better team, it happens.

[JamboGraham]

5 hours ago, TexasAndy said:

we also need to improve our mindset the way Fergie and Jim McLean made Dons and D Utd players believe they were as good as OF.

 

Surely it was the case these managers helped their players realise they were as good as the old firm players 40 years ago rather than simply believing they were as good.

 

Huge difference between actually being as good and simply just believing you are. No point in making our players believe they are if they aren't.

[briever]

10 minutes ago, boag1874 said:

Bollocks, the result had nothing to do with tactics. If we'd had a go & got absolutely trounced on the break the same posters would complain about the way the defense was set up. If we make it to Pens & pull the win off, or that corner in the last few minutes of the 90 hits the mark then we're all praising an unbelievably gutsy defensive performance vs a superior opponent. They beat us cause they're a better team, it happens.

 

So basically you're saying the is no point in ever playing the OF again then.

[tiger Rudi]

49 minutes ago, Debut 4 said:

Good post.  What interests me is the second paragraph regards the players. 
 

You aren’t saying we can sign players of a standard that the Old Firm can, but you more or less hint we can sign players with certain elements to their game and a mentality with it ,that enables us to worry them and compete more strongly.  
 

Time and again on here some just don’t believe we can sign a certain level of player or ever close the gap, or at least show up better in more important matches, but we can if our judgement in recruitment/finance permitting also, is thorough.  
 

 

 

The likes of Bassey and Aribo cost nothing to Rangers, apart from wages obviously. They signed Kamara from Dundee, going back a bit, Celtic took a punt on Ryan Christie and Jack Hendry. Players that perform well in this league but with poorer clubs shouldn't be ignored. 

[Debut 4]

15 minutes ago, JamboGraham said:

 

Surely it was the case these managers helped their players realise they were as good as the old firm players 40 years ago rather than simply believing they were as good.

 

Huge difference between actually being as good and simply just believing you are. No point in making our players believe they are if they aren't.

But is football not about pushing the limits?  
 

Part of managership is cajoling players by any means to get more from them , engraining a belief they can do more against better opponents, it doesn’t have to be based on whether you think the players are good enough or not.

 

I suppose it’s why some teams get tagged with over achieving.  It’s been more about mentality than overall ability of the team but they’ve still had enough in that respect too. 

[Ex member of the SaS]

Do they even practice corners? Hardly ever gest last the first defender or goes way over the top. Surely it's not beyond a professional player to kick a dead ball. Why don't we try the Kingsley thing we scored from a couple of game ago? Some one take the corner but instead of going for the box slip it two or three yards to Kingsley to then cross/ have a go? Lifting the ball and dropping onto the penalty spot surely isn't that hard.

[Ex member of the SaS]

36 minutes ago, Debut 4 said:

But is football not about pushing the limits?  
 

Part of managership is cajoling players by any means to get more from them , engraining a belief they can do more against better opponents, it doesn’t have to be based on whether you think the players are good enough or not.

 

I suppose it’s why some teams get tagged with over achieving.  It’s been more about mentality than overall ability of the team but they’ve still had enough in that respect too. 

Commitment, energy and stamina can over come skill, you just need motivators to instill a winning mentality.

[JamboGraham]

44 minutes ago, Ex member of the SaS said:

Commitment, energy and stamina can over come skill, you just need motivators to instill a winning mentality.

 

What if you are up against an opponent who is also displaying commitment, energy and stamina but also happens to have more skill. How do we over come that?

[TexasAndy]

1 hour ago, Ex member of the SaS said:

Do they even practice corners? Hardly ever gest last the first defender or goes way over the top. Surely it's not beyond a professional player to kick a dead ball. Why don't we try the Kingsley thing we scored from a couple of game ago? Some one take the corner but instead of going for the box slip it two or three yards to Kingsley to then cross/ have a go? Lifting the ball and dropping onto the penalty spot surely isn't that hard.

Was so disappointed with our corner on 88 mins.  That was the match right there but a p*ss poor cross from someone we all expected to put in a better ball.  

[Ex member of the SaS]

Use a gun and a knife.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Then you can shoot up the wings or cut up the Centre.

[WageThief]

  

2 hours ago, Ex member of the SaS said:

Commitment, energy and stamina can over come skill, you just need motivators to instill a winning mentality.

 

Pretty sure there is a guy who used commitment, energy and stamina to overcome a lack of skill in order to play at right-back in the greatest Hearts side of the last 30 years.  What's his name again?

[mitch41]

Neilson has a 5 year plan for Hearts to compete with the Old Firm.

Neilson hands Andy Halliday a 2 year contract.

Neilson wants to keep Woodburn. 
Neilson wants Shankland & Forrest, wtf is that about.

Craig Gordon needs back-up and nothing said.

Hearts end to the season has been one of the worst ever. 
So now it’s a 5 year project, what a bloody joke.

I could go on and on and on but you get the idea.

[The Real Maroonblood]

1 hour ago, mitch41 said:

Neilson has a 5 year plan for Hearts to compete with the Old Firm.

Neilson hands Andy Halliday a 2 year contract.

Neilson wants to keep Woodburn. 
Neilson wants Shankland & Forrest, wtf is that about.

Craig Gordon needs back-up and nothing said.

Hearts end to the season has been one of the worst ever. 
So now it’s a 5 year project, what a bloody joke.

I could go on and on and on but you get the idea.

5 year plan.

What a thought.

[briever]

2 minutes ago, The Real Maroonblood said:

5 year plan.

What a thought.

 

It's nonsensical to talk about this stuff in the press, I am sure the exec, Savage and Neilson have sat down and scoped out a plan - but you dont give the media or detractors a stick to beat you with.

[The Real Maroonblood]

59 minutes ago, briever said:

 

It's nonsensical to talk about this stuff in the press, I am sure the exec, Savage and Neilson have sat down and scoped out a plan - but you dont give the media or detractors a stick to beat you with.

This.

[mitch41]

2 hours ago, The Real Maroonblood said:

5 year plan.

What a thought.

Next thing Ann Budge will be giving Neilson a 5 year contract. Things a too cosy between the manager and the Board with Ann still pulling the strings. Hearts fans need a manager that demands his players to get results in Glasgow against the Old Firm or they’re gone. A manager who isn’t afraid to take them on in their own back yard and not bottle it. A manager that encourages players to shoot and work their keeper because the lack of ideas in attack is a disgrace that needs to be resolved.

[Bazzas right boot]

7 hours ago, JamboGraham said:

 

Surely it was the case these managers helped their players realise they were as good as the old firm players 40 years ago rather than simply believing they were as good.

 

Huge difference between actually being as good and simply just believing you are. No point in making our players believe they are if they aren't.

 

100%

If it was easy as that why stop there?

Have them believing they are as good as Messi, Ronaldo and after winning the treble 5 times in a row win the European cup.

 

In fact, why do the best teams just not buy shite players, make them believe they are good and save a shit load of cash.

 

This " believe" nonsense is tooth fairy and Santa stuff.

Adults can't believe in it.

 

Edited May 23, 2022 by Bazzas right boot

[Nookie Bear]

4 hours ago, WageThief said:

  

 

Pretty sure there is a guy who used commitment, energy and stamina to overcome a lack of skill in order to play at right-back in the greatest Hearts side of the last 30 years.  What's his name again?

Often overlooked was that Robbie’s positional sense was excellent. He never got caught out. 

[WageThief]

4 hours ago, mitch41 said:

Hearts end to the season has been one of the worst ever. 

 

41 is not your age then.  

[Bongo 1874]

5 year plan? didn't levein say similar? 

[i wish jj was my dad]

5 minutes ago, WageThief said:

 

41 is not your age then.  

More like 4 minus one with the tantrums. Ffs. 

[ArcticJambo]

Didn't get it right over the course of the the game. Some of it worked for a while, certainly in terms of stifiling the opposition but in terms of being able to influence the game to our advantage, he was lacking. Now whether that was down to the initial formation and personnel utilised, and then similarly in-game changes (or lack of them), we'll never really know.

 

Unfortunately the vast majority of us simply just trudged home feeling a bit meh.  Says it all really!

[Nookie Bear]

Have to say, not really a fan of managers talking publicly about 5-yr plans as it does give others a stick to beat them with. 
 

Sort of thing you get when a dodgy businessman takes over an English non-league side and promises EPL football in 5 years. 

 

[The Real Maroonblood]

9 hours ago, Bongo 1874 said:

5 year plan? didn't levein say similar? 

Yes, It’s like a 5 year rolling contract.😭

[Costanza]

"A disgrace that needs resolved"

How do these people cope with real life problems.

[Nobreath]

17 hours ago, mitch41 said:

I could go on and on and on but you get the idea.

 

It's never stopped you before.

[boag1874]

21 hours ago, briever said:

 

So basically you're saying the is no point in ever playing the OF again then.

Oh give me a break

 

Rangers & Celtic are better than Hearts at football

In football the better team usually wins unless you catch them on an off day or defend brilliantly & hit them on a lucky break/someone produces magic/you catch them with a set piece. That does not mean you should just not bother playing the game because any of those things could happen & do happen (See our 2-1 win v Celtic on opening day, 1-1 draw v Rangers at Ibrox for evidence of the latter this season alone). "Attitude & Commitment" can play a part too but even then you're relying on the opposition being complacent or shitting their pants at the occasion which didn't happen.

So you set up with a gameplan & hope for the best. If that Simms chance goes in, or we take a better corner in the last few minutes, or Jack blazes it over the bar then it changes the whole dynamic of the game, those are fine margins. If Hearts were like a rabbit in headlights & got ripped to shreds like Hibs did on 19/5/12 (or we did at Ibrox earlier this year) then I'd sympathise but we didn't.

 

Just look at Celtic in Europe over the last 5/6 years for examples of what usually happens to you when you just "have a go" at a better side with no defensive gameplan.

[Masonic]

Should have rested players in the league game v Rangers and not played the bounce game on the Tuesday either IMO. Simms missed a sitter at the start of the game as well nobody talks about. 

[davemclaren]

12 minutes ago, Masonic said:

Should have rested players in the league game v Rangers and not played the bounce game on the Tuesday either IMO. Simms missed a sitter at the start of the game as well nobody talks about. 

Maybes aye, maybes naw. 

[nick_3892]

We didn’t offer enough upfront and Rangers were dying for a trophy. If Simms’ chance goes in then maybe things are different. It was one of the old firm and as history goes we lose the majority of finals against them. We will win another cup and we will beat one of the OF again in a cup final. Some lessons to take from it and hopefully improve the squad with the euro/hickey money we get.