OFFICIAL HEARTS JUGGERNAUT THREAD 2020-

[Mr. X]

4 hours ago, RandomGuy. said:

Even we've managed it 4 years in a row.

Yes, we've been a bit if a rollercoaster side in the past. Now we appear to have get our shit together, while other teams have turned to shit.

[Insert Amusing Pseudonym]

Fair play to Shanks, well deserved POTY award.

[DC92]

3 hours ago, VincentGuerin said:

We probably wouldn't need to better the six points. Top 24 is enough to get through to the playoff round, so gubbing two diddies of similar stature to RFS would likely get us to that.

FWIW, I think Conference League next season is best for us long-term.

I'm going by this from the article I linked. Obviously not a direct comparison for various reasons, but a reasonable guide.

The two extra guaranteed games in the Europa make it a clear winner in terms of finance, but I agree it's better to play at a level we can compete at. Having some fit defenders might help this time but getting gubbed every game against better opposition wasn't much fun.

Hopefully lessons are learned after failing to really capitalise on this opportunity in 2022.

[VincentGuerin]

9 hours ago, DC92 said:

I'm going by this from the article I linked. Obviously not a direct comparison for various reasons, but a reasonable guide.

The two extra guaranteed games in the Europa make it a clear winner in terms of finance, but I agree it's better to play at a level we can compete at. Having some fit defenders might help this time but getting gubbed every game against better opposition wasn't much fun.

Hopefully lessons are learned after failing to really capitalise on this opportunity in 2022.

 

We didn't make the most of it, but I think we're also due a shot at playing in Europe without half a team missing for every game.

Last season was poorly handled, but I'm not sure anyone else would have done better with the injuries we had. Hopefully next season we can have a go at it at full strength. It'll be interesting to see how we do with juggling the league stuff, but you'd hope we can put the experience to good use.

I think your point about getting stuffed every week is important. We're looking to get to the stage where we can compete on both fronts, and getting ridden senseless every midweek can't not have an impact on confidence and morale for the league games, and finishing third again next year would be an important step. I'd rather we took a year or two to build towards being competitive in matches in the Europa League. We wouldn't be next season, and I think medium and long-term that would be a bad thing.

But, f**k it, when the qualifier comes round we'll be dying to win.

[DC92]

1 hour ago, VincentGuerin said:

We didn't make the most of it, but I think we're also due a shot at playing in Europe without half a team missing for every game.

Last season was poorly handled, but I'm not sure anyone else would have done better with the injuries we had. Hopefully next season we can have a go at it at full strength. It'll be interesting to see how we do with juggling the league stuff, but you'd hope we can put the experience to good use.

I think your point about getting stuffed every week is important. We're looking to get to the stage where we can compete on both fronts, and getting ridden senseless every midweek can't not have an impact on confidence and morale for the league games, and finishing third again next year would be an important step. I'd rather we took a year or two to build towards being competitive in matches in the Europa League. We wouldn't be next season, and I think medium and long-term that would be a bad thing.

But, f**k it, when the qualifier comes round we'll be dying to win.

It was quite odd to see Aberdeen's performances this season benchmarked against ours when we were playing a back three featuring two left-backs and a teenager in half the games. Nobody could've looked at the team sheet and given us a hope of being competitive in those games.

I think the only two properly impactful signings from that summer were Shankland and maybe Rowles (who's had his ups and downs). Relying on Rowles and Neilson to replace Souttar and Moore also felt complacent to me at the time, particularly with Halkett's injury troubles.

I think we did ok filling out the squad initially but then struggled to add the sprinkling of quality we needed and were left scrambling later in the window. Aberdeen seem to have done (a worse version of) the same thing last summer. I don't know what the lesson is there, but hopefully we'll know what to expect this time.

[VincentGuerin]

8 minutes ago, DC92 said:

It was quite odd to see Aberdeen's performances this season benchmarked against ours when we were playing a back three featuring two left-backs and a teenager in half the games. Nobody could've looked at the team sheet and given us a hope of being competitive in those games.

I think the only two properly impactful signings from that summer were Shankland and maybe Rowles (who's had his ups and downs). Relying on Rowles and Neilson to replace Souttar and Moore also felt complacent to me at the time, particularly with Halkett's injury troubles.

I think we did ok filling out the squad initially but then struggled to add the sprinkling of quality we needed and were left scrambling later in the window. Aberdeen seem to have done (a worse version of) the same thing last summer. I don't know what the lesson is there, but hopefully we'll know what to expect this time.

The European comparison is silly. It's like us losing 2-1 to Celtic at full strength, then Hibs losing 5-0 to them the following week missing seven players and using that as a valid comparison. Still, we get another go.

Our transfer activity in the last few years has been strange in general. Shankland and Kent the obvious stand-out successes, and I don't rate the opinion of anyone who doesn't see how good Beni is or how important he is to the team, but aside from them we've just signed generally good but not great Premiership-level players.

I think Devlin and Atkinson typify this. Neither are brilliant, but both are perfectly competent and have proven to be good enough in this league to contribute to a team that's significantly better than our peers. Ideally, I'd like to see both moved on this summer, as I don't think there's evidence of progression with either, and I think from where we are now we should be looking at getting a bit more quality in.

We've got a few like that. It won't all be done in one summer, but the challenge now is to gradually start to upgrade from what has been a solid base.

Edited yesterday at 11:24 by VincentGuerin

[topcat(The most tip top)]

4 hours ago, DC92 said:

It was quite odd to see Aberdeen's performances this season benchmarked against ours

Aberdeen this season have just been odd

Their final placing will say they were “mediocre to poor” but on closer inspection they appear to have swung widely between “quite good to total shite”

They beat rangers in September but then followed that with  draws against St Johnstone and Dundee. Similar results after beating us (two points from Saints, Dundee and Motherwell) Their hard fought point against Celtic came in the middle of a seven game winless streak

Failing to win 7 European games in a row and then the one win being against Eintracht Frankfurt of all teams was very much on brand for them this season 

There is probably a lurking  Aberdeen fan who can address this more authoritatively but basically they had a deeply silly time of it and I don’t think we can draw sensible conclusions from silly comparisons 

 

[DC92]

8 hours ago, VincentGuerin said:

The European comparison is silly. It's like us losing 2-1 to Celtic at full strength, then Hibs losing 5-0 to them the following week missing seven players and using that as a valid comparison. Still, we get another go.

Our transfer activity in the last few years has been strange in general. Shankland and Kent the obvious stand-out successes, and I don't rate the opinion of anyone who doesn't see how good Beni is or how important he is to the team, but aside from them we've just signed generally good but not great Premiership-level players.

I think Devlin and Atkinson typify this. Neither are brilliant, but both are perfectly competent and have proven to be good enough in this league to contribute to a team that's significantly better than our peers. Ideally, I'd like to see both moved on this summer, as I don't think there's evidence of progression with either, and I think from where we are now we should be looking at getting a bit more quality in.

We've got a few like that. It won't all be done in one summer, but the challenge now is to gradually start to upgrade from what has been a solid base.

I think there are some signs of progression with Devlin in recent weeks. He got a goal against Livi and was unlucky not to score against Killie and Celtic in the last couple of games. He'll probably never be a great striker of the ball but he doesn't necessarily have to be if he can keep getting on the end of chances in the box. Regardless, I think he's a good player to have in the squad.

Atkinson has improved to become a passable defender but his end product is poor and his habit of picking up niggles and illnesses undermines his value as a backup. I'd happily see him go if we can't get a couple of RBs in.