The way last night’s game started, you’d have been forgiven for thinking about Hibs and wondering if we were about to slip up again.
We looked shaky. We looked nervous.
We looked completely out of sorts for a team that has been imperious at home for many, many months. The team that tested us most at home in the league this season was Aberdeen, and it looked as if they would test us all over again.
But slowly but surely, we dragged ourselves out of our lethargy. Slowly but surely, we started to impose our will on the game.
We started to create good chances. Players started to take up their positions. And once we got the first, you knew more would follow. Some hacks are already saying that Aberdeen were unlucky to be 3-0 down at halftime, but that’s not really true. We can do that to anyone on our day.
As with a lot of clubs in this league, Aberdeen have adopted a very clear policy when playing against us—if the game starts to go against you, roughhouse your way to a result. Or at least try to. The problem is that it doesn’t work so well anymore, because we are an aggressive, battling team ourselves now. And our players know that when the opposition resorts to those kinds of tactics, it’s because they don’t have a footballing answer. Which is answer enough.
Later today, I’m going to do a piece on where this team might be evolving. It’s an interesting question, and one that could have huge implications for the club’s future direction and the next set of changes in the squad. There are multiple ways this current team can go. There are different ways to rebalance it and rejig its shape.
The manager will already know what he wants to do, and he’ll have started planning for next season. It’s up to the people at the club to back him and make sure we get there.
Once we took the lead last night, there was only ever going to be one winner. Players started putting on their individual shows.
You can see Rodgers’ changes taking effect—just look at the goal McGregor scored. Look at Jota’s performances already, and he’s not even halfway to full fitness. Maeda continues to be the miracle man. But as I said, more on all that later. Keeping with what I said about Clement the other day, you can see this is now a team marked by Rodgers and massively improved by Rodgers.
And so, we swept Aberdeen aside just as easily as we did at Hampden. The game was never in doubt from the moment we opened the scoring. Not that I thought it was in doubt before that, but from then on, it was complete dominance. Liam made a little mistake at the end, which allowed them to get in and score, but it was never going to affect the outcome. The flow of the game continued almost as if it had never happened—we just went up the pitch and got our fifth.
Their goal was a bit of a downer because it ended a very nice run of nine consecutive wins without conceding, which is amazing. But to go straight up the pitch and score again? That’s just who we are. That’s a measure of what this team does so well. It’s a reflection of our will to correct mistakes and get right back to doing what we do.
And on the back of this performance, we can put the weekend’s little mishap in the rearview mirror. It was what we all thought it was—a blip. Not a one-off, but a rarity. Not something we’re going to do often.
And certainly not something we’re going to do often enough to lose leagues.
Ladies and gents, we are sixteen points clear. We probably expect the Ibrox club to win tonight, though that’s by no means a certainty.
But a 13-point lead with 10 games left? That’s about as close to being out of sight as you can get. So we’re entitled to be very satisfied with how this league campaign has gone. We’re entitled to be very satisfied with how many wins we’ve racked up, how many goals we’ve scored, and how few we’ve conceded.
These are the reasons we’re the champions.
Photo by Rob Casey/SNS Group via Getty Images
Our latest podcast is now up; we called it The Good, The Bad & The Funny.
Please like and subscribe if you enjoy what we do. We want to keep getting bigger and we want to keep getting better, and that’s why we need you to help us!
We did indeed start the game very sluggishly with a lot of sloppy passing that pressured us into making mistakes, a better side would have punished us at that stage. However, we survived the early scares and eventually asserted ourselves, it was a great result but not a great performance by us, a workmanlike controlled performance more like, but by the end of the game….. it was just another day at the office.
Another great win despite the shaky start ! The team that started is undoubtedly our strongest, and should start every game, unless there are injuries ! HH
This is our best starting forward line , Jota has now scored three goals with more to come.
Hopefully Idah will be happy as he will get plenty of game time.
Shortly we will also be boosted by the return of James Forrest.
Even Yang is looking better.
Initially for the first two reward filled seasons Kyogo was played as our central forward and his return in that position was undoubted. The next year and a half however was a downhill trajectory for him and it was clear for anyone with a bit of footballing insight to see. The Japanese manager viewed Daizen as his no 1 central forward and for some reason we stubbornly failed too. Prior to Kyogo leaving he was played as an inside left moving into a central no 10 role and actually produced a good performance there and appeared to enjoy being more involved in the linking creative role.
I think by stubbornly pursuing with Kyogo as the central forward and keeping Daizen out wide BR was missing a trick. That our best central Japanese forward at that time was then actually Daizen and though he had a role which he was successful in as our wide left winger he was actually playing out of position. Given Kyogo’s performance as mentioned above when moved to an alternative position he seemed to be more productive. I think BR actually missed that trick and didn’t recognise the potential of that switch. The move for Daizen that many will see as forced upon BR has actually worked out to our benefit and the guy has simply been electrifying since. Again I know some will argue he was electrifying out on the wing. That’s true. Though with Daizen out there it was Khun that was considered as our leading contender for player of the year. Not now. Not since Daizen was moved initially as cover for Kyogo’s departure to central forward. That flexible tactical move was not considered until Kyogo demanded a move. I’d say we and Brendan have been fortunate
re the opening issues. It was a mirror of hibs opening goal on Saturday. Midfield missing and our back four missing two defenders when Aberdeen broke, It could have cost us
Game ended well with 5 goals against a pretty poor side, but I will keep saying it. If we want to progress in Europe that whole defence needs to go, none are good enough especially Trusty. Fans had no real problem getting on Taylor and Scales backs but these guys get a free pass. If we were up against a better side last night the game would have been done at the half hour mark.
Mightve been a different story if they had taken their openin 2 early chances. Once we scored ye felt we would go on and win. Tho we need tae expect, teams are gonnae try and pressure us from the off. Overall happy with the rest of our performance (altough the less said about jota’s goal celebration the better. Looked like Liberace ffs ).
Hey! Leave Liberace out of this. A true man’s man! Hard as nails as well.
There are still a few pussy cats who duck the tackles when it gets rough house. Hatate, jota, khun, they need to follow through. Hatate is getting worse by the week and jota as always falls at the least brush, it needs to stop. Stay up and follow througgh.
Maybe they seen all The Hibernian players being blown over by the wind and thought they’d get free kicks for the same reason eldarco…
But then they realised that they had Celtic strips on !
I think you make a good point Wotakuhn. Maybe to be an “elite” manager you need to be a lucky one as well.