***Official Heart of Midlothian v Istanbul Basaksehir ( KO 17:45 ) Match Thread***

[Francis Albert]

18 minutes ago, OldGorgie said:

Maybe but the reality is the teams we are facing have far more financial backing than Hearts and that’s reflected in the calibre of the player they have. We didn’t lose last night because of poor defending or “not getting stuck in”, we lost because their team has players we can only dream of hiring and were much better than the players we have. The gulf between the SPFL and Europa Conference teams is huge and that was shown last night. Bottom line is they could have humiliated Hearts.

How do Riga and Hearts compare financial backing wise? There were lots of mismatches financially in Conference League games last night. There were few if any mismatches on the pitch as great as that in our game.

[Bazzas right boot]

6 hours ago, Churchill Barrier said:

Close yer eye's,  put fingers in ears and it might get better...

 

 

 

Change your pants, you'll feel better. 

 

You have an Ironic name given your defeatist attitude. 

 

 

[Bazzas right boot]

Scottish clubs last 4 results in Europe 

 

O-7

0-3

4-0

0-4

 

F 0, A 18.

 

Scottish football is booming tho, 3 teams in the group stages and rangers reached the Europa league final. 

 

 

[Bazzas right boot]

9 minutes ago, Francis Albert said:

I have seen lots of comments about how unfit we look. I read an interview a week or so ago with a player in the Scotland rugby set up. His brother is with Hearts. He said the the rugby players work much harder. Training can start as early as 7 in the morning. Lack of fitness and inability to  control the ball and pass at pace (and to move into space) are glaring weaknesses. What actually happens at Riccarton?

 

If you'd watch any of the Scottish teams in Europe or any European football you'd have picked up on this a while back. 

 

In terms of touch, passing and movement Scottish teams and in particular Scottish players are miles behind. 

It's not a Hearts thing, look at the Motherwell and Utd scores and even the of in the ucl. 

 

 

[TexasAndy]

First of all I think our strongest 11 would have struggled to get anything last night due to the better quality of the opposition.  2 things we missed big time were Halkett (and Rowles) at the back and someone to put their foot on the ball in Midfield.  Beni would have helped greatly but I am hoping Kio the German (when he finally gets a Visa) will give us that bit of quality.  Without solid defending and a bit of control in midfield we don't have the platform to build attacks.   I'm not buying all the spat dummies and doom and gloom.  We will improve but we need our best players in these areas.  

[TorinoJambo]

5 hours ago, Aussie Jambo said:

You’re missing my point. 

We missed our opportunity to bring in way more players and offload the Championship players. All I’m saying is what we have in the pot isn’t going to feed all our jambo needs. 

A watery soup at the moment with nae stock. If we get beat by Liedoon I’ll be happy to continue this conversation. But like all other Jambos at the moment I’m venting that all. I’m saying we at this time are in trouble. Let’s leave it at that. 👍

 

I think the next window will be more productive. Europe will be over, with 3 million plus  banked. A fully fit CURRENT Hearts squad would get third, in my view, and a few more in January will rubber stamp it.

[WalterEgo]

42 minutes ago, Francis Albert said:

About 30 years ago I saw the then champions of Italy ACMilan play a cup tie at Empoli (Baggio and all). Their warm up was exactly as you describe. They sprayed passes around half the pitch ... Long and short. Mostly the ball was instantly controlled and quickly passed on with no more than two touches. Occasionally a player failed to control instantly but their pride meant they improvised something to disguise this and the second or third touch was dispatched in a different direction than originally intended straight to another team mate. All at pace.

Another thing I noticed. The Istanbul subs were out doing drills with a coach for the whole 90 mins. They were properly ready to come on when required. Ours take a stroll up to the corner flag, do a couple of lackadaisical stretches, have a chat with each other, then wander back and sit down again. Istanbul looked so much more professional.

[Bazzas right boot]

3 hours ago, gorgierulesapply88 said:

45 minutes. We where not out the game  he brought on some scaffolding stiker for halliday

 

 

If you'd hung about and not pissed off early in th huff you'd have seen him play well. 

 

[Mirror]

With a back 3 of Cochrane (LWB), Kingsley (LB/CB) and Smith (RB) we're always going to concede but last night we were never going to get a result. 

 

Our Euro Conf League matches should be viewed as exhibition matches, with no expectation as we're well out of our depth with where we are as a club right now.

[Bazzas right boot]

1 hour ago, Holyrood_Hearts said:

There’s not a chance we’ll get a draw in Florence

 

 

Unless they are playing a second type side as they concentrate on the league. Some of the bigger teams play changed sides. 

 

[Nelly Terraces]

Last night was totally pathetic. No hunger, fight, determination & the players looked locked into a rigid system, frightened to try anything out the ordinary & clueless at the back.

 

I've absolutely no faith in Neilson changing things & a poor season beckons with him in charge.

[DETTY29]

7 minutes ago, WalterEgo said:

Another thing I noticed. The Istanbul subs were out doing drills with a coach for the whole 90 mins. They were properly ready to come on when required. Ours take a stroll up to the corner flag, do a couple of lackadaisical stretches, have a chat with each other, then wander back and sit down again. Istanbul looked so much more professional.

With Neilson first time round I'm sure the fitness coach worked with the 3 subs when they were warming up.

 

Something must have changed?

 

Banned by SFA, SPL?

Edited September 9, 2022 by DETTY29

[Churchill Barrier]

11 minutes ago, Bazzas right boot said:

 

 

Change your pants, you'll feel better. 

 

You have an Ironic name given your defeatist attitude. 

 

 

Its hard not to have, we are a mess with little encouragement to be positive.

Been going to games for close to 50 years seen the signs many times.

[TexasAndy]

1 minute ago, Churchill Barrier said:

Its hard not to have, we are a mess with little encouragement to be positive.

Been going to games for close to 50 years seen the signs many times.

With that level of experience you should know how quickly things change up or down.  

[Francis Albert]

15 minutes ago, Bazzas right boot said:

 

If you'd watch any of the Scottish teams in Europe or any European football you'd have picked up on this a while back. 

 

In terms of touch, passing and movement Scottish teams and in particular Scottish players are miles behind. 

It's not a Hearts thing, look at the Motherwell and Utd scores and even the of in the ucl. 

 

 

I didn't mean to suggest it was only a Hearts thing. But think it is fair to ask the question of Hearts and our coaching staff. 

[soonbe110]

5 hours ago, Pasquale for King said:

Their fourth but are a decent team no doubt about that. 

Win their game in hand and I think they go top. Excellent team. If we had that team we could seriously think about winning the league. 

[Francis Albert]

15 minutes ago, Bazzas right boot said:

 

 

Unless they are playing a second type side as they concentrate on the league. Some of the bigger teams play changed sides. 

 

Like us at Parkhead? Except we concentrated on the side show of Europe.

[Bazzas right boot]

Just now, Francis Albert said:

I didn't mean to suggest it was only a Hearts thing. But think it is fair to ask the question of Hearts and our coaching staff. 

 

It's horrible watching Scottish teams and players in Europe now. 

 

The speed of thought, touch and movement is a level behind. 

 

I think it's deeper than coaches at clubs. 

 

There's a reason why Celtic haven't even looked at the Scottish Market recently - they want fast, technical, intelligent players. 

 

Scotland lacks them. 

 

However, if our midfield was a mix Beni/ devlin/ grant/ kio/ Boyce it would have been better and had more balance. 

 

We are lacking in midfield and linking the forward players due to Boyce and I juries to others. 

 

[Bazzas right boot]

2 minutes ago, Francis Albert said:

Like us at Parkhead? Except we concentrated on the side show of Europe.

 

Like lots of the bigger teams chasing ucl places in the bigger leagues. 

Might give us a unexpected chance. 

 

 

 

[soonbe110]

54 minutes ago, Jean Louis Valois said:

The long and short of it for me is that our squad just isn't good enough. Our bench tonight was pathetic, we don't have one player who can come on and change a game. All we heard all summer was the quality over quantity line and we have ended up with neither. We sign a midfielder who isn't even allowed to train with us yet, a veteran who was about to sign for Motherwell. This team are starting to get really boring to watch, this season is beginning to look bleak.

Entire bench missing tonight though. That might, just might, have made a difference. 

[Kiwidoug]

We've been badly weakened by injuries.  We were clearly playing a better side.  The players learned at half time that our head if state, beloved worldwide, had died in Scotland.

 

That's the backdrop.

[Glamorgan Jambo]

It reminded me of the first game we played vs Ferguson’s Aberdeen after promotion all these years ago Their players were fitter, stronger and more technically capable than ours by a long way (was the Aberdeen team who won the ECWC)

 

Within a couple of years we were more than capable of holding our own against them. Neilson needs to get a similar improvement in the performance of our team in these sorts of European games. We’ve lost 3 from 3 so far. Next weeks game against the so called whipping boys of the group is now massive. 

Edited September 9, 2022 by Glamorgan Jambo

[Bazzas right boot]

17 minutes ago, Churchill Barrier said:

Its hard not to have, we are a mess with little encouragement to be positive.

Been going to games for close to 50 years seen the signs many times.

 

We've only been in the European group stage football twice in our history so there is no way you've seen the signs many times. 

 

We are 4th in the league, joint 3rd-you've seen bigger messes than that. 

 

I'll give you the lc defeat, I've seen that far too often as well. 

 

 

Edited September 9, 2022 by Bazzas right boot

[soonbe110]

2 minutes ago, Kiwidoug said:

We've been badly weakened by injuries.  We were clearly playing a better side.  The players learned at half time that our head if state, beloved worldwide, had died in Scotland.

 

That's the backdrop.

Yes, the atmosphere in the stadium second half was just weird. Fans arguing and fighting amongst themselves, most folk checking their phones to catch up on the news, and the opposition stepped up a gear.  Lots of home fans leave at second goal, yes a weird place last night. 

[Francis Albert]

18 minutes ago, Kiwidoug said:

We've been badly weakened by injuries.  We were clearly playing a better side.  The players learned at half time that our head if state, beloved worldwide, had died in Scotland.

 

That's the backdrop.

Come on. We are not blaming grief at the queen's death? Perhaps our recent performances including the first half yesterday were affected by anticipation of the tragic news?

Edited September 9, 2022 by Francis Albert

[Francis Albert]

9 minutes ago, soonbe110 said:

Yes, the atmosphere in the stadium second half was just weird. Fans arguing and fighting amongst themselves, most folk checking their phones to catch up on the news, and the opposition stepped up a gear.  Lots of home fans leave at second goal, yes a weird place last night. 

What were they checking their phones for? News of a resurrection?

I suspect the shambolic minutes silence had an impact on the mood. It did on mine. A reminder of what some of our fans are like.

 

Edited September 9, 2022 by Francis Albert

[Churchill Barrier]

Just now, Bazzas right boot said:

 

We've only been in the European group stage football twice in our history so there is no way you've seen the signs many times. 

 

We are 4th in the league, joint 3rd-you've seen bigger messes than that. 

 

I'll give you the lc defeat, I've seen that far too often as well. 

 

 

V

I actually meant in general,  time will tell but i see a poor season ahead. If we are 3 rd or even 4 th by end of season( only time that matters) i will be pleasantly surprised.

 

[Tom Hardy’s Dug]

It is a learning curve but to have any chance against superior teams we need every first choice fit (due to our poor recruitment).

 

Robbie also knew that we would be inexperienced in Europe which is why he specifically wanted st least 2 experienced players with European experience, which he didn’t get. He also wanted a couple of older players to provide added experience and leadership on the pitch, which he didn’t get.

 

We essentially recruited half decent SPFL standard players this summer and a central midfielder who may be decent but left it so late that it may be up to a month until we get his visa (which we would have known).

 

So much of this has nothing to do with Robbie.

Edited September 9, 2022 by Tom Hardy’s Dug

[John Findlay]

Why did we get schooled tonight?

Simple answer they are a far better team than us.

Why is this?

Imho their players are far more football intelligent than us.

What do I mean by this?

I mean their speed of thought is far quicker than our players, so speed that they do things on the pitch is far quicker than our players.

Their is a reason why this team are the top seeds.

We all know we are not going to win this competition, therefore I see no reason why we do not give games from the start to the likes of Finlay Pollock and Connor Smith. I am convinced their young minds will act quicker and therefore their actions with the ball will be far quicker than I'm afraid to say Andy Halliday and Michael Smith.

Both have been very good servants to the club in their time here but, they are not what we need in these European games.

Yes Peter Haring was at fault for the first goal when he fannied about with the ball at the edge of his own box, but he did come the closest to scoring for us during the whole game when his header was cleared off the line, though it did look over the line to my naked eye high up in section S. Peter will play a forward ball.

I'm gutted as that was our highest European defeat since the gubbing PSG gave us in Paris nearly 40 years ago, the highest European defeat since Hamburg schooled us in 1976, still at least they went on to win the European Cup Winners Cup that season.

Despite last night it still won't stop me from being at Tynecastle for our next two home ties, and our next home league game(whenever that may be now), I'm a Hearts supporter, and that never changes.

 

[soonbe110]

11 minutes ago, Francis Albert said:

What were they checking their phones for? News of a resurrection?

I suspect the shambolic minutes silence had an impact on the mood. It did on mine. A reminder of what some of our fans are like.

 

No idea, but looking around last night that’s what many were doing.  Maybe checking on the Arsenal score though. 😂

Yes the evening went downhill fast from 6.30 onwards in many ways. 

[chrystaf]

8 hours ago, buzzbomb1958 said:

Yeh maybe the board should learn to stop wasting FOH funds on an unproven manager in Europe, they should have waited to see if he could handle it by giving him a rolling contract if he did ok then reward him . But to me they are now getting too comfy knowing that money is there every month,Robbie level is championship or bottom six clubs where we will end up if this is allowed to continue  this should have been the season we moved up a level but it is turning into a shitshow , you would think that the board would have learned from the Levein debacle but it looks like they haven’t 

Exactly.

[Kev1998]

Your contradicting your earlier statement john (regarding pace and power.boro v mackems)maybe they should go and play baseball.

[buzzbomb1958]

8 hours ago, ali_jambo said:

Manager got us promoted then got us 3rd place. Out best league position since... He was last here and got us third. In the process he beat Hibs twice to get us to consecutive Scottish Cup finals.

 

If that doesn't merit a decent contract nothing does. Calm down ffs, we've had like three bad games.

The rot has set in

[feedthefox]

My biggest post match bugbear listening to managers is when they pull out the "at this level you have to take your chances" pish. What level do Hearts play at where they can squander chances and still expect to win? Killie? Livi? FFS Hearts can't afford to miss any chance in any game they play given we've only mustered about 3 shots on target in as many games and lost 7 from our last 8. If RN thinks we're on a learning curve on which we need to learn to keep the ball, be quicker in possession and create chances then just wtf have they been learning up till now?

[John Findlay]

31 minutes ago, Kev1998 said:

Your contradicting your earlier statement john (regarding pace and power.boro v mackems)maybe they should go and play baseball.

There wasn't pace and power in that game. It was pedestrian.

[ali_jambo]

25 minutes ago, buzzbomb1958 said:

The rot has set in

People said that in the championship season. We won the league at a canter.

 

People said that last season. Came third at a canter and got to a cup final.

 

Is it possible that you guys just don't like Robbie?

[PaulHartley10]

I'm surprised there isn't a thread on our pressing. There's no point in doing it if we can't do it properly as a team. We won it a couple of times yesterday but the team was all over the place.

 

Devlin or Haring are charging away themselves sometimes. Kudos for the effort but it's usually for nothing.

[Peakybunnet]

We were well beaten by a really good side last night. 

 

From a personal point of view I was deflated after hearing about the Queen then angry with the minutes silence reaction. Perhaps some players felt the same? 

[Kev1998]

If that was pedestrian john ,what did I witness last night then? Doesn't bear thinking about.

[DETTY29]

10 minutes ago, PaulHartley10 said:

I'm surprised there isn't a thread on our pressing. There's no point in doing it if we can't do it properly as a team. We won it a couple of times yesterday but the team was all over the place.

 

Devlin or Haring are charging away themselves sometimes. Kudos for the effort but it's usually for nothing.

Someone mentioned the 4.0 v. Celtic game and where we pressed which was from half way.

 

We had Shankland, Halliday and at times Haring, Mackay, Cochrane, Atkinson, Devlin, Forrest all starting a half hearted press from about 25 yards from their goal line and as a result we continually got picked off with a lack of bodies when they popped the ball into the midfield gaps.

 

We needed to compress the pitch as much as possible and live off scraps and breakaways and see where it took us.

Edited September 9, 2022 by DETTY29

[LogicalEric]

Can go on about Istanbul having a far bigger budget than us which obviously brings better players but if you can't do the basics right then you're always going to be on a hiding to nothing.

 

Yes we've got injuries to key players but you can't legislate for the terrible decision making at the 1st and 2nd goals in particular. I'm not sure if that's down to the players being inept or if they're being asked to play in a system they're not comfortable with.

[RustyRightPeg]

29 minutes ago, PaulHartley10 said:

I'm surprised there isn't a thread on our pressing. There's no point in doing it if we can't do it properly as a team. We won it a couple of times yesterday but the team was all over the place.

 

Devlin or Haring are charging away themselves sometimes. Kudos for the effort but it's usually for nothing.

There isn’t any pressing, that’s why. We run (note run - not sprint) about in a shape hoping for a misplaced pass. 
 

Pressing was what we did against Zurich. What they did to us last night, forcing us into areas we don’t want the ball.
 

Never seen us do it like that in all my life and probably won’t again until someone else is in charge. 

Edited September 9, 2022 by RustyRightPeg

[GinRummy]

1 minute ago, LogicalEric said:

Can go on about Istanbul having a far bigger budget than us which obviously brings better players but if you can't do the basics right then you're always going to be on a hiding to nothing.

 

Yes we've got injuries to key players but you can't legislate for the terrible decision making at the 1st and 2nd goals in particular. I'm not sure if that's down to the players being inept or if they're being asked to play in a system they're not comfortable with.

The goal we lost from the corner sums us up. It’s at least one ridiculous poorly defended goal a game at the moment. Same  mess when Halkett was out last season.  

[LogicalEric]

Just now, GinRummy said:

The goal we lost from the corner sums us up. It’s at least one ridiculous poorly defended goal a game at the moment. Same  mess when Halkett was out last season.  

 

Big time mate. He's the only one in the defence that is vocal and gets people told when they're not doing their job.

[We_are_the_Hearts]

1 minute ago, LogicalEric said:

 

Big time mate. He's the only one in the defence that is vocal and gets people told when they're not doing their job.

Yip and Negative Neilson and Jakey Joe had all Summer to rectify it!! We all know Halkett is injury prone!!

[Pans Jambo]

Maybe they should just give Hearts £3M for finishing 3rd so we don't have to bother with European games.

We are blatantly nowhere near the levels required to compete. Complete whipping boys in Europe it seems.

[chrystaf]

48 minutes ago, Peakybunnet said:

We were well beaten by a really good side last night. 

 

From a personal point of view I was deflated after hearing about the Queen then angry with the minutes silence reaction. Perhaps some players felt the same? 

Valid point.

[chrystaf]

16 minutes ago, Pans Jambo said:

Maybe they should just give Hearts £3M for finishing 3rd so we don't have to bother with European games.

We are blatantly nowhere near the levels required to compete. Complete whipping boys in Europe it seems.

I'd go along with that as there was absolutely no enjoyment in watching last night's horror show. 

[Batistuta87]

20 hours ago, Tom Hardy’s Dug said:

😂

Turned out well eh  

They were excellent compared to us (even compared to Zurich.. Strolled it.

 

[Lord Beni of Gorgie]

22 hours ago, jr ewing said:

Good but not that good. Very doubtful at this rate. Forecast is on for the day. 

Worked as I expected......mores the pity