[ritchiebaby]

In the 3rd of 4 successive away games, Hibs travel to the Fair City on a decent run of 4 wins in 5 games. James Jeggo is due to replace suspended Joe Newell in the only enforced change, although Nick Montgomery is never shy to freshen up several positions in every game as he sees fit. It will probably be a tight low-scoring game, so Hibs new-found solidity will be vital in this one.

St Johnstone are not known for their goal-scoring exploits, but will prove to be a tough nut to crack, with an uplift in form with the appointment of Craig Levein as manager.

[HerefordBull]

Aye Ritchie, no extra motivation needed for Craig today.........he will certainly have the Saints up for it.

[HerefordBull]

Watched the highlights and Marshall again was the star with 3 or 4 brilliant saves. Apart from a blocked Jair shot after a stramash in the Saints box Hibs seemed to offer very little.

Montgomery from what I have seen seems to have only one idea of playing and won't change tactics despite, seemingly, not having the players to carry this out. Opposition coaches are becoming wise to his methods and you will see them keeping their players deeper when Hibs are playing out from the back so as to cut out the transition passes from defence to midfield. Added to that he basically seems to play a midfield of 2 , usually Newell ( missed yesterday ??) for the attacking side and Jeggo or Levitt for the deeper role. In addition to these two he is relying on players such as Boyle, Jair and Youan to track back and help them out. Unfortunately none of them is that diligent at doing this and when they do none of them is that strong in the tackle . ( especially Boyle who from my memories cannot tackle a fish supper)

From the highlights over the last few weeks Vente seems to be playing fairly deep and I don't think this is his game and is more of a predator in the box. However if Hibs don't have the midfield to set free the wide men to produce dangerous crosses into the box I suppose he has to come deeper.

I see Campbell was put on at right back yesterday when I believe they had the young fullback on the bench? Seems a strange decision when Campbell is a midfielder and has been playing ahead of Vente in a couple of games?

What do you hibees think of Levitt? Not seen anything from him on the bits I have seen and was certainly responsible for the Saints goal yesterday.

2 tough games up next with Dingwall next week followed by the JTs just after xmas.

[ritchiebaby]

From my limited time seeing Hibs play this season, I think that Boyle, Jair and Youan should be employed solely as attackers and forget defensive duties - maybe only have 2 on the pitch at one time?

[ritchiebaby]

Monty on the game

“I thought the game started well, they sat in and we had a lot of the ball but we didn’t do enough with it. We lacked urgency attacking-wise as a team and it felt like we were waiting to score a goal. You could sense that a mistake from either team would probably break the deadlock and unfortunately that was us today.
We reacted a bit too late, we had opportunities to put balls into the box but we didn’t do that towards the end and nothing seemed to fall for us today. That is no excuse, we have to give credit to them – they have capitalised on a mistake and defended resiliently. We just couldn’t get back into the game and that is something that we are disappointed with.
We have to accept that we weren’t good enough today, accept the defeat and start getting ready for next week. It’s not all doom and gloom, we had some good passages of play but we just didn’t have enough as a team to create any meaningful opportunities. We needed a bit more urgency and a little bit more belief. The players in there know that we can be better, and we have to be better.”

[hibeejim21]

Nick has changed systems at times v Celtic for instance home and away we employed very different styles.

It looks like NM wants to ultimately play 4 4 2, but Im not sure we have the players to do that yet. That requires versatility that our midfield doesn't possess. We are still too slow at moving forward, and our defence can be horrendous, but I think our forwards are the best outside the uglies.

Maybe 4 3 3 is a better fit but I think we are doing ok so far, give the manager a couple of windows to build something. I trust him way more than Johnson, who seemed to me to be a bit of a chancer..