DC92
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Posts posted by DC92
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22 minutes ago, afc_blockhead said:
Over the last 10 games Hearts are mid table.
A more familiar place for you lot!
Then again, we've not exclusively been playing the worst teams in the league in that period.
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15 minutes ago, houston_bud said:
I'm not having that Shankland has meant that goal.
What did he mean to do?
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2 hours ago, Jacksgranda said:
Well. you'd know more about bottom 6 than we would.
And you're also ahead on administrations...
Aberdeen hold a comfortable 9-4 lead on bottom 6 finishes since the split was introduced, so I'm not sure about that.
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6 hours ago, VincentGuerin said:
His quotes certainly seem like someone who is sticking around. Fucking great news if true. He makes such a huge difference to the team.
Interesting to hear Donaldson saying this week that we've offered Shankland a package worth £14k a week. Certainly seems to be money available, and we're building from a position of strength just now. Keeping Beni would be a really good step.
We could have a good team next season.
He's been a big part of our upturn this season and he'll be particularly useful in Europe if he can stay fit for those games this time.
Looking at everyone under contract and the pre-contracts coming in, it would also put us in the position where we've already got a stronger squad going into the window than we've finished this season with. Nobody is long-term injured (yet), nobody of value is leaving for free, and we've got millions coming in from Europe. Fantastic.
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Sounds like Beni is re-signing?
Brilliant news if so.
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4 hours ago, Tony Wonder said:
Ah I see what you mean.
I think though, given we'll not be seeded, the chances of winning the PO are slim anyway, so would more than likely be the same amount with the ECL. And yeah, on paper it should be more competitive, but as it's projected now you could end up with a group including Napoli, Betis and Hoffenheim in the Conference so there's a high chance of a few scuddings in there too. I'd be keen to go into the EL, guarantee of more cash and hope for a kind draw.I think the Conference League has the right balance of glamour ties and winnable games along with a genuine chance of getting through to the knockouts. Even in the projected 4th pot for the Europa I'm seeing teams like Bilbao, Lens, Nice, Besiktas, Anderlecht etc. popping up in there.
Obviously when the playoff comes round I'll want us to win and it would represent a brilliant achievement for the club in itself. Getting a bye and then potentially taking 0 points doesn't hold the same appeal.
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11 minutes ago, topcat(The most tip top) said:
It’s he same number of guaranteed games either way with a bit more money from UEFA for the EL. Having said that the chance of getting out of the league stage are better in the Conference
But that’s not the point. Hearts fans wanting the Europa Conference where the games are slightly easier than the Europa league would be like Dundee fans getting annoyed at missing out on the Bottom six.
we should be looking to compete at the highest level Possible
The EL "league phase" has 8 games compared to 6 in the ECL.
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1 hour ago, Tony Wonder said:
Youd play the same amount of home games. 8 in the EL, 6 in the Conference league group stage, plus the 2 PO games beforehand.
You'd also get 2 games against teams in our pot so while we'd take some doings we'd have a chance of some wins as well and it's more prize money.However, that permutation is pretty unlikely to happen.
If we qualify for the Europa League via the playoff we'll play 10 games in total. If we qualify automatically we'll play 8. That's the extra home game I'm talking about.
The financial dividend of EL v ECL is therefore reduced in the scenario where we qualify automatically rather than via the playoff. There's a decent chance we'd make as much money via the ECL while actually watching some competitive games. So I'd probably rather not see this scenario come to pass.
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7 hours ago, Craigie Jambo said:
8 horsings without the financial benefit of an extra home game compared to the conference. Not for me.
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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.
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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.
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25 minutes ago, 10menwent2mow said:
@Dons_1988'm thinking Hearts might have the full bifter of 2-12
Hearts have only finished bottom 6 four times. We love to be 3rd or 5th with an occasional frisson with 12th.
2nd x 1
3rd x 7
4th x 2
5th x 5
6th x 3
7th x 0
8th x 1
9th x 0
10th x 1
11th x 0
12th x 2
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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.
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15 minutes ago, topcat(The most tip top) said:
The conference league final is in Wrocław but the Europa league final is in Dublin which would be a lot easier to get to
This year's final is in Dublin. Next year's is in Bilbao.
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It's worth saying the group stages are no more and we'll actually be playing in the league stage next season.
https://www.heartsstandard.co.uk/news/24300295.hearts-europe-conference-league-best/
The Europa League has 4 pots of 9 teams. If we qualify we would play 2 different teams from each pot (4H, 4A).
The Conference League has 6 pots of 6 teams. We would play one team from each pot (3H, 3A).
In either case we go into one big table of 36 teams with the top 24 progressing. If we can better our 6 points from last time we'll have a good chance of getting to the knockouts via the Conference route.
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11 minutes ago, Lex said:
Another tummy tickle?
Celtic have lost three league games this season and two of them were against Hearts.
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9 minutes ago, LuboMoravcik said:
Wasn't it for your right back shoving Forrest into Hatate?
If you say so
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The referee just stopped a Hearts break to award Celtic a free kick on the edge of the box for two of their players running into each other.
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We've actually knocked it around pretty well and created chances. That'll be it going off now though.
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9 hours ago, Jives Miguel said:
I think they undervalued him as a player, and his potential to improve, and when it finally started to click for him his contract was running out and he wanted to move abroad. Similar story brewing at Aberdeen with regards to Connor Barron I reckon.
Not really. He had his moments for Hearts but never found consistency despite his obvious technical ability. The season after he left he was a bit-part player in the German third tier.
Good to see he's flourishing now, but I'd be surprised if he gets near a cap.
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Looks like league stage European football has gone from 99% done to 99.9% done after yesterday. Thankfully we have this lesson in humility from last year to remind us to refrain from hubris before it's official.
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Played well there and should have scored at least once.
Baningime will be missed in the second half. He was excellent.
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A win to rubber stamp "league stage" football would be nice, but I can see a bit of a hangover from last week and this was always going to be a difficult game anyway. Avoiding our recent habit of starting like idiots could be the key.
I wouldn't fiddle about with the team too much until we're over the line, but I wouldn't mind giving Tagawa a run between now and the end of the season.
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11 hours ago, kingjoey said:
This quote from a Hearts fan on the BBC website this morning. Eleven points ahead of fouth with fifteen points to play for. Fitba fans, eh?
Chris: This game highlights the mentality needed to compete at the top level; we just don’t have it. We have no real spark, Shankland is blowing cold and if anyone thinks third place in the league is a gimme then watch this space. It’s going to be a nervy run in.
Football is a great outlet for middle managers on £35k to posture about "elite mentality".
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The Dons vs Livi - GoTW (Game of the week)
in Scottish Premiership General Chatter
Posted
7 of the games were against the bottom 5. The other 3 were against St Mirren and Dundee x2, where you took 1 point from a possible 9.
Well done for giving a good account of yourselves against Celtic, a team we have beaten twice this season.