***Kilmarnock V Heart Of Midlothian Official Match Thread***

[Ex member of the SaS]

1 hour ago, David Sharp said:

Time to get rid of the tiki taka football style. Only suited to very very good players. OK for the likes of Man City but not us. Our players are not skilled enough to carry it out effectively. Get back to playing to our strengths, more tempo and getting the ball forward more quickly. Hassle and harry. No players like that, good or mediocre. 4 at the back and a much needed extra man in midfield.

Been saying this for months and said before a poor team can beat a good team with commitment, hassling and desire. Scotland showed last night that the best teams can be beat, Take our own situation when getting knocked out the cup by a team leagues below us. If we had the quality of players to play that style, we would have a squad capable of winning the league, as yet we don't. We MUST change or Robbie's days are numbered. It's not rocket science.

[liam11]

The Scotland v Spain game for me is a good example of what I’ve been seeing with Hearts recently.

The better team in a technical quality sense go away from home, they play lethargic & slow, sideways football, and the lesser team who is up for it and aggressive wins the game.

It goes without saying we must ditch the 3 at the back, but the players need to ****ing waken up and be ready for a battle. These 3 points are massive, I don’t care if it’s the scrappiest 1 nil ever, we just need to win.

[Marvin]

Given our record there all I can see is a draw. 1-1. Hope I'm wrong & we pump them silly. 

[Baxfee]

Can’t wait for the game as the amount of utter pish on kickback is ridiculous

[Agentjambo]

42 minutes ago, liam11 said:

The Scotland v Spain game for me is a good example of what I’ve been seeing with Hearts recently.

The better team in a technical quality sense go away from home, they play lethargic & slow, sideways football, and the lesser team who is up for it and aggressive wins the game.

It goes without saying we must ditch the 3 at the back, but the players need to ****ing waken up and be ready for a battle. These 3 points are massive, I don’t care if it’s the scrappiest 1 nil ever, we just need to win.

Possession doesn’t matter a jot if you don’t do anything with it,you can have 90% possession if you want and still not win the game.You have to convert your possession into goals.

 

Deviating to another point…for those happy with the turgid style of play and to grind out results….you can play attractive football and generally that brings better results.

[Bazzas right boot]

Could do with 3 points here, steady the ship a bit, register 3 points and stop more arses collapsing around here.

 

 

2-2 or 2-1 us.

 

We really need to defend better and more aggressively, that gives us a platform to go on and win the game.

Really important you do that in Scotland and we've been defensively very weak at times during this season. 

 

I'd go 451.

 

 

 

[Ex member of the SaS]

St J v Aberdeen draw/ loss for the sheep and a win for us would pretty much secure third but that is papering over the cracks. Three at the back has been dire for a long time now and needs ditched. Get back to getting stuck in and hassling their defense, win the ball early and you have less pitch to cover before shooting.

[Agentjambo]

14 minutes ago, Bazzas right boot said:

Could do with 3 points here, steady the ship a bit, register 3 points and stop more arses collapsing around here.

 

 

2-2 or 2-1 us.

 

We really need to defend better and more aggressively, that gives us a platform to go on and win the game.

Really important you do that in Scotland and we've been defensively very weak at times during this season. 

 

I'd go 451.

 

 

 

We’re you confident going into the Aberdeen game?

[Lord Beni of Gorgie]

1 hour ago, liam11 said:

The Scotland v Spain game for me is a good example of what I’ve been seeing with Hearts recently.

The better team in a technical quality sense go away from home, they play lethargic & slow, sideways football, and the lesser team who is up for it and aggressive wins the game.

It goes without saying we must ditch the 3 at the back, but the players need to ****ing waken up and be ready for a battle. These 3 points are massive, I don’t care if it’s the scrappiest 1 nil ever, we just need to win.

 

You really do need to move the ball quickly, it requires a good team to beat 11 triers and thats exactly what Aberdeen are with Robson. Its speed that is required

[avhudtheteeshirt]

Big games just keep on coming, we need to win at least 3 of the games up coming.

I think that will push us further ahead of the rest.

We're due a run of wins, now's a great time to start!!!

[gordon simpson]

1 hour ago, Baxfee said:

Can’t wait for the game as the amount of utter pish on kickback is ridiculous

agree Baxfee 

[Sub4TiddlerMurray]

3 hours ago, soonbe110 said:

The extra man will work in home games for sure.  Or are you suggesting we don’t need a keeper at home? Might be risky. 😂😂😂😂

 

...I meant 343 at home 😜

[soonbe110]

3 minutes ago, Sub4TiddlerMurray said:

 

...I meant 343 at home 😜

Thought you did 😂😂

[Philfigo]

3 hours ago, David Sharp said:

Time to get rid of the tiki taka football style. Only suited to very very good players. OK for the likes of Man City but not us. Our players are not skilled enough to carry it out effectively. Get back to playing to our strengths, more tempo and getting the ball forward more quickly. Hassle and harry. No players like that, good or mediocre. 4 at the back and a much needed extra man in midfield.

100%, but I wouldn't hold your breath as the management don't seem capable of changing the system.

[Firefox]

3 hours ago, upgotheheads said:

 

I remember when we ditched the traditional GK/ LB/ RB/ RHB/ CB/ LHB/LW/IL/CF/IR/RW in the 1960's, and went all continental.

 

And if you don't know what I'm talking about you must be under sixty.

 

Ah! the good old W formation - wonder what would happen if a manager set his team up like that nowadays ?

[Bazzas right boot]

1 hour ago, avhudtheteeshirt said:

Big games just keep on coming, we need to win at least 3 of the games up coming.

I think that will push us further ahead of the rest.

We're due a run of wins, now's a great time to start!!!

 

 

If " at least 3" will push us further ahead then surley we only need to win at least 2.

 

 

[upgotheheads]

2 hours ago, Firefox said:

Ah! the good old W formation - wonder what would happen if a manager set his team up like that nowadays ?

 

Indeed, basically it was two banks of five, which, when football developed in the late 19th century would have seemed a logical set-up. The position names would have come from that era. It's a sobering thought that I saw the end of it.

[Naisys Tackle]

Take a draw.  Not confident playing against FC Set Piece on the plastic given our form though.

[Pasquale for King]

Would love to see ;- 

 

Clark

 

Cochrane

Rowles

Hill

Smith 

 

Forrest

Snodgrass 

Devlin

Grant 

Ginnelly 

 

Shankland. 
 

Victory
 

Probably ;-

 

Clark 

 

Cochrane

Kingsley

Sibbick 

Hill

Smith 

 

Snodgrass

Kio

McKay

 

Shankland 

 

Ginnelly . 
 

Loss
 

 

 

 

 

 

[pettigrewsstylist]

Interesting to see if our defensive setplays have improved after 2 more weeks to work in them, albeit KR was missing from trg.

Also interesting to see if mgmt can get a positive reaction to the well discussed Pittodrie performance.

A point steadys the ship. Want 3. 

 

[All roads lead to Gorgie]

My head says it will be a very tricky game for us with the form we are in and the pitch down in Ayrshire but my heart hopes we have had time to reflect and go out determined to show we are a far superior team to them, we are if we turn up! If we can sneak this by a single goal I'll be delighted.

[Jim Panzee]

one thing is paramount on saturday.

 

we have to defend like a team finishing 3rd in this league. organised, communicating, switched on, covering each others backs. defending at aberdeen was atrocious.

 

after that, doesn't matter what tactics / formation you play, it looks after itself with the players we have.

[We_are_the_Hearts]

Heading to this with my boys through loyalty more than anything else. All we ask is for desire, tempo, aggression and look organised. The players looked like they had chucked it at Aberdeen, not acceptable. Robbie needs to find a way to get us playing with more tempo and aggression and the players need to stop losing so many personal battles. Hill and Rowles look so uncomfy with the ball and doing what they are asked so start playing to our strengths. 

[Салатные палочки]

We're going to have to he up for a scrap on Saturday. Our record against them in the last few years is embarrassing, even post-Clarke. We need to put down a marker at the weekend. Show the sheep and the hobos they're going to have to rip third place from our cold, dead hands. 

 

Okay Robbie, there's yer team talk written. 

[Stewart MacD]

20 hours ago, upgotheheads said:

 

I remember when we ditched the traditional GK/ LB/ RB/ RHB/ CB/ LHB/LW/IL/CF/IR/RW in the 1960's, and went all continental.

 

And if you don't know what I'm talking about you must be under sixty.

 

The 4-2-4 almost won the League. Boring as ****. The rest of the teams must have been really pish, because Killie were no great shakes either. I suppose the last game then was my biggest disappointment, along with losing to Roy Barry's Dunfermline in the Cup Final, but I was at the 7-1 Dundee one and the one which can't be mentioned in 1973.

[Stewart MacD]

I didn't see the incident, but I don't think Cammy's injury's one for the concussion rule. Any confirmation out there?

[Pasquale for King]

1 minute ago, Stewart MacD said:

I didn't see the incident, but I don't think Cammy's injury's one for the concussion rule. Any confirmation out there?

He played on with a bandage so it shouldn’t be a concussion surely. The fact the 4 of them will only be back in training tomorrow at best after all the flights maybe more of an issue. 

[Jim Panzee]

15 hours ago, Pasquale for King said:

Would love to see ;- 

 

Clark

 

Cochrane

Rowles

Hill

Smith 

 

Forrest

Snodgrass 

Devlin

Grant 

Ginnelly 

 

Shankland. 
 

Victory
 

Probably ;-

 

Clark 

 

Cochrane

Kingsley

Sibbick 

Hill

Smith 

 

Snodgrass

Kio

McKay

 

Shankland 

 

Ginnelly . 
 

Loss
 

 

 

 

 

 

interesting you'd have Hill at CB over Sibbick.

 

any reason why? (just curious)

 

think we'd all prefer the 4-5-1 / 4-3-3 line up. Certainly 2 midfielders to support Snodgrass feels needed - partially to add legs / another body in there - but also to give team mates another midfielder to pass to (this assumes Neilsen changes the approach to getting the team to play through Snodgrass)

[Stewart MacD]

39 minutes ago, Pasquale for King said:

He played on with a bandage so it shouldn’t be a concussion surely. The fact the 4 of them will only be back in training tomorrow at best after all the flights maybe more of an issue. 

Yes, but if there's intelligent use of substitutions,* they could swamp Killie.

* a big IF, I know.

[Pasquale for King]

2 minutes ago, Stewart MacD said:

Yes, but if there's intelligent use of substitutions,* they could swamp Killie.

* a big IF, I know.

Hopefully, I think we will need to be careful with them, especially on that particular pitch. 

[OTT]

22 hours ago, David Sharp said:

Time to get rid of the tiki taka football style. Only suited to very very good players. OK for the likes of Man City but not us. Our players are not skilled enough to carry it out effectively. Get back to playing to our strengths, more tempo and getting the ball forward more quickly. Hassle and harry. No players like that, good or mediocre. 4 at the back and a much needed extra man in midfield.

 

Yep, something I've been saying is that we need to stop trying to play Celtic and Rangers at 'football', its almost like when Celtic go into Europe and try and play 'football' against Real Madrid, unsurprisingly they'll get beat 10 times out of 10. We need to turn those games into absolutely brutal affairs. Make it a war of attrition and grind the game down to being ****ing horrible. Defend in numbers, be extremely disciplined positionally and look for opportunities to counter attack. With pace in our side like Gino and Kuol, we can absolutely hit them on the break. At Ibrox in the 1-0 game was probably the closest we've came to executing this. Fair enough we still lost, but when you're coming up against a team of such a higher standard, you're always going to be up against it. Its possibly something we need to look into in our away performances too. We don't defend well and seem too easy to break down and create chances against - in many games we've rode our luck big time and been fortunate. Other times conceding stupid goals that shouldn't be happening. 

 

Its something that needs badly sorted in the summer. Defensively we're not strong enough. Losing Halkett has exposed Sibbick and Rowles massively. We need to make sure we sign a big strong defender in the summer that is a defend first kind of player. 

[Pasquale for King]

27 minutes ago, Jim Panzee said:

interesting you'd have Hill at CB over Sibbick.

 

any reason why? (just curious)

 

think we'd all prefer the 4-5-1 / 4-3-3 line up. Certainly 2 midfielders to support Snodgrass feels needed - partially to add legs / another body in there - but also to give team mates another midfielder to pass to (this assumes Neilsen changes the approach to getting the team to play through Snodgrass)

I think Toby has been a bit poor recently and was at fault for two of the goals last time out, seems to lose his man on crosses by ball watching and you cant do that against anyone never mind Kilmarnock.

[Harry Potter]

No PPV for this game, 😕.

[OTT]

8 minutes ago, Pasquale for King said:

I think Toby has been a bit poor recently and was at fault for two of the goals last time out, seems to lose his man on crosses by ball watching and you cant do that against anyone never mind Kilmarnock.

 

Think with Rowles we need a ball winner next to him. If we're playing a two I think Hill would probably be the better option too. 

 

Credit: https://twitter.com/IrvingAnalysis

 

 

Spoiler

 

 

 

 

 

 

I think the underlying issue is that none of our other CBs do what Halkett does anywhere close to good enough. Hill was poor recruitment, but probably more likely to add the missing physical presence if we played 2 CBs instead of 3. Really annoyed looking at those stats because its pretty clear we've failed to replace Halks. Need to see some real recruitment in the summer to bring experience and a more of a defenders defender into our back 3 as Halks fitness doesn't seem to be able to be relied on anymore. 

[Armageddon]

Is Liam Boyce back? 

 

Or have I just passed through Peebles on my way to Hamilton?

[Bazzas right boot]

2 hours ago, Salad Fingers said:

We're going to have to he up for a scrap on Saturday. Our record against them in the last few years is embarrassing, even post-Clarke. We need to put down a marker at the weekend. Show the sheep and the hobos they're going to have to rip third place from our cold, dead hands. 

 

Okay Robbie, there's yer team talk written. 

 

 

Been ok at their gaff , they had a thing about winning at Tynecastle,  hopefully that's stopped now we beat them at home this season.

[Gregski51]

A bit of fight and a scrappy 1-0 will do me. 3 points to keep the gap as is

[Pasquale for King]

38 minutes ago, OTT said:

 

Think with Rowles we need a ball winner next to him. If we're playing a two I think Hill would probably be the better option too. 

 

Credit: https://twitter.com/IrvingAnalysis

 

 

  Reveal hidden contents

 

 

 

 

 

 

I think the underlying issue is that none of our other CBs do what Halkett does anywhere close to good enough. Hill was poor recruitment, but probably more likely to add the missing physical presence if we played 2 CBs instead of 3. Really annoyed looking at those stats because its pretty clear we've failed to replace Halks. Need to see some real recruitment in the summer to bring experience and a more of a defenders defender into our back 3 as Halks fitness doesn't seem to be able to be relied on anymore. 

As we have both said recently we need a Halkett type this summer. 

[Pasquale for King]

45 minutes ago, Harry Potter said:

No PPV for this game, 😕.

There will be a stream or go to a pub where they show these games 👍🏽.

[Debut 4]

7 minutes ago, Armageddon said:

Is Liam Boyce back? 

 

Or have I just passed through Peebles on my way to Hamilton?

I’m in Peebles just now. Gimme a wave. 

[DS98]

Probably a draw and I’d take it. 
 

8 points from the next 4 games and 3rd will be all but sown up. 

[Debut 4]

2 hours ago, We_are_the_Hearts said:

Heading to this with my boys through loyalty more than anything else. All we ask is for desire, tempo, aggression and look organised. The players looked like they had chucked it at Aberdeen, not acceptable. Robbie needs to find a way to get us playing with more tempo and aggression and the players need to stop losing so many personal battles. Hill and Rowles look so uncomfy with the ball and doing what they are asked so start playing to our strengths. 

Agree.  I wonder what RNs thought process is and routines are to demand more of the basics? Watching training a couple of times this week, it just looked like much of the same.  

 

Of course, players need a mixture of working at something familiar to become better at it but with something fresh to keep them tuned in.  
 

Always remember in the 90s I stumbled across Hearts training on an early Sunday morning at Saughton , on the smallest astroturf pitch, after an unexpected defeat the previous day.……About 20 of them crammed in playing a high tempo game, Billy Brown constantly barking at the players to play more aggressively while JJ just scowled at the pitch.  😂

 

 

 

[Bad Religion]

16 minutes ago, Debut 4 said:

Agree.  I wonder what RNs thought process is and routines are to demand more of the basics? Watching training a couple of times this week, it just looked like much of the same.  

 

Of course, players need a mixture of working at something familiar to become better at it but with something fresh to keep them tuned in.  
 

Always remember in the 90s I stumbled across Hearts training on an early Sunday morning at Saughton , on the smallest astroturf pitch, after an unexpected defeat the previous day.……About 20 of them crammed in playing a high tempo game, Billy Brown constantly barking at the players to play more aggressively while JJ just scowled at the pitch.  😂

 

 

 

How’s Bobs hair looking?

[davemclaren]

23 hours ago, upgotheheads said:

 

I remember when we ditched the traditional GK/ LB/ RB/ RHB/ CB/ LHB/LW/IL/CF/IR/RW in the 1960's, and went all continental.

 

And if you don't know what I'm talking about you must be under sixty.

 

Aye, 4-4-2 or 4-3-3 were modern in those days. 😄

 

we've never win the league with any formation other than 2-3-5. 🥸

[Go for it 1308]

1 hour ago, OTT said:

 

Yep, something I've been saying is that we need to stop trying to play Celtic and Rangers at 'football', its almost like when Celtic go into Europe and try and play 'football' against Real Madrid, unsurprisingly they'll get beat 10 times out of 10. We need to turn those games into absolutely brutal affairs. Make it a war of attrition and grind the game down to being ****ing horrible. Defend in numbers, be extremely disciplined positionally and look for opportunities to counter attack. With pace in our side like Gino and Kuol, we can absolutely hit them on the break. At Ibrox in the 1-0 game was probably the closest we've came to executing this. Fair enough we still lost, but when you're coming up against a team of such a higher standard, you're always going to be up against it. Its possibly something we need to look into in our away performances too. We don't defend well and seem too easy to break down and create chances against - in many games we've rode our luck big time and been fortunate. Other times conceding stupid goals that shouldn't be happening. 

 

Its something that needs badly sorted in the summer. Defensively we're not strong enough. Losing Halkett has exposed Sibbick and Rowles massively. We need to make sure we sign a big strong defender in the summer that is a defend first kind of player. 

Excellent post👍

[Debut 4]

9 minutes ago, Bad Religion said:

How’s Bobs hair looking?

Hiding with his woolly hat.  

[Ex member of the SaS]

Can't understand this historical fear of teams / locations. We have a far better squad than we have had for a long time now, and although the rest have improved ,they have not done so to our extent. Forget the past and play like we want to win. There are no bogey teams just what is in front of you now.

[Jim Panzee]

2 hours ago, Pasquale for King said:

I think Toby has been a bit poor recently and was at fault for two of the goals last time out, seems to lose his man on crosses by ball watching and you cant do that against anyone never mind Kilmarnock.

fair enough

[john thomas]

18 hours ago, upgotheheads said:

 

Indeed, basically it was two banks of five, which, when football developed in the late 19th century would have seemed a logical set-up. The position names would have come from that era. It's a sobering thought that I saw the end of it.

More a 3 2 5 .

If wingers (or inside forwards) played a wee bit deeper it was 3 4 3 !

Plus ça change

[gorgierulesapply88]

Devlin out with concussion.

 

Start Bobby Mcluckie.