OFFICIAL HEARTS JUGGERNAUT THREAD 2020-

[VincentGuerin]

5 minutes ago, Stylish Kid said:

Dons fans are just seething that they did jack shit at Livi yesterday other than hospitalise Bruce Anderson so are coming over here giving grief

I think their problem is that the fact that we and Hibs had loads of injuries last season tricked some of them into thinking their fucking honking team is actually good. Maybe a reality check for them coming.

One advantage we have this season is a winnable run of games while we're settling players in. And looking at Aberdeen's fixtures, we have a chance to put them on the back foot before they start their group games.

Our first five games are all really important.

[Dons_1988]

3 minutes ago, VincentGuerin said:

I think their problem is that the fact that we and Hibs had loads of injuries last season tricked some of them into thinking their fucking honking team is actually good. Maybe a reality check for them coming.

 

Simply not true but the sour grapes here still is lovely. 

[VincentGuerin]

4 minutes ago, Dons_1988 said:

Simply not true but the sour grapes here still is lovely. 

Good chance it's convinced big Disaster Dave to hire his third horrific manager as well.

[Dons_1988]

2 minutes ago, VincentGuerin said:

Good chance it's convinced big Disaster Dave to hire his third horrific manager as well.

Time will tell on robson. Jury is out but we couldn’t pass on him given his record at the time. 

He’s done more to justify his job than Naismith anyway. Or whoever is manager at hearts now. 

[VincentGuerin]

4 minutes ago, Dons_1988 said:

Time will tell on robson. Jury is out but we couldn’t pass on him given his record at the time. 

He’s done more to justify his job than Naismith anyway. Or whoever is manager at hearts now. 

Disagree with that, to be honest. You're giving a guy control over your first team (in theory) for years, and investing hundreds of thousands of pounds in him. I think it would have been reasonable for Aberdeen to shake hands at the end of last season and say thanks but we're moving on. As Hearts should have done with Neilson in 2022.

[DC92]

From observing here/Twitter/the media in general, there seemed to be a bit of a perception that we're a shambles who'll go backwards this season. Fair enough, we were dreadful towards the end of Neilson's time, the current "management structure" has extremely bad vibes, and it took us a while to start bringing players in. In the meantime, however, it looks to me like we've patiently built a squad that is significantly stronger than last year's.

I found last summer hugely disappointing. The early signings like Forrest and Grant felt like squad filler and I was waiting for the European cash to bring us some big hitters, but we did nothing in July and August other than Shankland and Kio (who was shite). The first XI ended up being worse than the season before and then the spine of the team was crippled by injury before the group stages even started.

This time Gino and Mikey Smith are the only starters we've lost. The latter was teetering on the edge of "finished" and Atkinson looks like he might finally be coming onto a game anyway. The former is a big loss, but with Oda emerging and Tagawa and Vargas coming in it definitely feels like we've got plenty of pacy options in the forward areas to cope with that loss.

Despite last season's failure, we were third top scorers by a decent margin and it was really the defence that let us down. We haven't added much there, but I've always maintained that even a bog-standard centre-half who wins his headers would be a significant improvement. He'll definitely have harder games, but Kent won 9/9 yesterday and looks like he could be the type we need while Halkett recovers.

In midfield, we had so many games where we had some combination of Halliday, Grant, Kio and Snodgrass and it felt so powderpuff and sluggish compared to the energetic ball-winning midfield we had the season before. When we restored the Devlin-Haring partnership towards the end of the season it made a big difference to our ability to impose ourselves on games. Beni has returned (for now) and we've added Nieuwenhof who is an unknown but at least seems to be more in the industrious mould.

On top of that, Boyce's return and the addition of Lowry gives Shankland and McKay the competition they've been missing, and the way the fixtures have worked out, we may even have Gordon and Halkett back before we play Hibs or the OF.

Another right-back is definitely needed and I wouldn't mind a physical option up front to mix things up, but we're looking pretty strong once everyone's back fit and bedded in over the next few weeks.

All of that said, it's way too early to get carried away about finishing third. There are still unknown factors (the management situation, the defence hingeing on Kent's ability and Halkett's fitness, injury returnees, Hibs and Aberdeen's new signings, etc.) but I'm cautiously optimistic, much more so than last year.

[VincentGuerin]

17 minutes ago, DC92 said:

From observing here/Twitter/the media in general, there seemed to be a bit of a perception that we're a shambles who'll go backwards this season.

Aye. Found this whole narrative quite puzzling, really. We were always going to improve significantly even just with the players to come back.

There's a long way still to go, even in the transfer window, as you point out, but I did find it quite strange to see so many people confidently tipping Aberdeen for third and declaring they'd had a good window while implying we looked set to struggle. I don't see what those people are seeing.

From where things are with a few weeks of the window left, I wouldn't swap squads with any non-OF team. Not a prayer. We look pretty well-placed to me with both numbers and quality.

Plenty reason for optimism.

[DC92]

20 minutes ago, VincentGuerin said:

Aye. Found this whole narrative quite puzzling, really. We were always going to improve significantly even just with the players to come back.

There's a long way still to go, even in the transfer window, as you point out, but I did find it quite strange to see so many people confidently tipping Aberdeen for third and declaring they'd had a good window while implying we looked set to struggle. I don't see what those people are seeing.

From where things are with a few weeks of the window left, I wouldn't swap squads with any non-OF team. Not a prayer. We look pretty well-placed to me with both numbers and quality.

Plenty reason for optimism.

People usually tip the teams that finished the previous season with momentum or are perceived to have done a lot of business over the summer. Often that's not wrong, and plenty of Hearts fans have been doing the same. That said, Aberdeen did wobble a bit after their winning run ended and there were some signs of improvement for us in the last 6 games.

I'm sure Aberdeen in particular will have a bit of cash still to spend in the rest of the window. Hopefully they have similar luck to us last August in that endeavour.

[topcat(The most tip top)]

I was sceptical on the whole Lowry loan thing but the combination of o è good performance off the bench and wearing a 5-1 shirt means I’m now fully on board

There is no way this post will come back to bite me

[RandomGuy.]

Tbf, from the outside, it was easy to miss how much depth you have in attack.

Id genuinely forgotten Boyce was a thing for a spell due to his injuries, as an example. Youd then have people just writing off the Japanese signings before seeing them in the same way they did when Celtic signed someone.

I know you lot dont really rate Forrest, and tbf he looks like the weakest of your 7 or so attacking options, but even he will be a match winner in league games this season.

[VincentGuerin]

I don't have a problem with Forrest as a squad player, and I think that's all he'll be. He made decent contributions at times last season.

Any chance to move him on and upgrade should be seized upon though.

[10menwent2mow]

5 hours ago, VincentGuerin said:

I think their problem is that the fact that we and Hibs had loads of injuries last season tricked some of them into thinking their fucking honking team is actually good. Maybe a reality check for them coming.

One advantage we have this season is a winnable run of games while we're settling players in. And looking at Aberdeen's fixtures, we have a chance to put them on the back foot before they start their group games.

Our first five games are all really important.

Like last season when you were 10pts ahead of us and were out of Europe so had 3rd sown up. 

How much of a head start should we give you this year. 

[Widge]

I think Hearts and Aberdeen are both a level about the other 8 teams in the league and will be 10/15 points clear of 5th this year. Depending on how Aberdeens new guys are and the rest of their recruitment, Hearts look a very good bet for third. It’s the depth that made a difference yesterday and there’s still players to come back. I think there’s a serious chance you give Rosenborg a proper good game and have a really good chance of going through which is great to see. 

[VincentGuerin]

8 minutes ago, 10menwent2mow said:

Like last season when you were 10pts ahead of us and were out of Europe so had 3rd sown up. 

How much of a head start should we give you this year. 

Another raging jammie-wearer. The Aberdeen fans having a tough weekend.

It was only a draw, for f**k's sake. Relax.

[VincentGuerin]

7 minutes ago, Widge said:

I think Hearts and Aberdeen are both a level about the other 8 teams in the league and will be 10/15 points clear of 5th this year. Depending on how Aberdeens new guys are and the rest of their recruitment, Hearts look a very good bet for third. It’s the depth that made a difference yesterday and there’s still players to come back. I think there’s a serious chance you give Rosenborg a proper good game and have a really good chance of going through which is great to see. 

It's a decent draw to get, so the onus on Hearts now to go and make the best of it. Could certainly have been a lot worse.

If we don't make the groups, then that's at least an opportunity to take advantage of having a much lighter schedule than Aberdeen. As it stands their squad is way too light for what they have coming.

It's a bit early to say about the other sides. Hibs are having a bad day just now, but there's a whole season to go.

[10menwent2mow]

2 minutes ago, VincentGuerin said:

Another raging jammie-wearer. The Aberdeen fans having a tough weekend.

It was only a draw, for f**k's sake. Relax.

Not at all. I didn't see much of the game yesterday as I was at Buckie Vs Turriff but it sounds like we were a little below par. Hearts picked up a decent 3 points but it looks like St Johnstone are going to be utter muck this season. 

[Dons_1988]

40 minutes ago, VincentGuerin said:

Another raging jammie-wearer. The Aberdeen fans having a tough weekend.

It was only a draw, for f**k's sake. Relax.

Trying way too hard 

[VincentGuerin]

Rosenborg (9th) currently drawing 1-1 with Haugesund (11th) in the Norwegian league.

We've got to go and get stuck into this shite.

[DC92]

Rosenborg was an objectively good draw and their league form is poor (despite picking up recently). One thing I've noticed though, despite not scoring loads of goals, is that they typically have a lot of shots - 18 shots to 3 so far today against Haugesund with the score currently 1-1. I think Zurich were similar last year. Bet your house on them suddenly find their shooting boots against us.

As long as we can keep it within a goal on Thursday and Jorge Grant doesn't play the second leg, we've got a decent chance.

[VincentGuerin]

4 minutes ago, DC92 said:

Rosenborg was an objectively good draw and their league form is poor (despite picking up recently). One thing I've noticed though, despite not scoring loads of goals, is that they typically have a lot of shots - 18 shots to 3 so far today against Haugesund with the score currently 1-1. I think Zurich were similar last year. Bet your house on them suddenly find their shooting boots against us.

As long as we can keep it within a goal on Thursday and Jorge Grant doesn't play the second leg, we've got a decent chance.

Aye, you'd take a single-goal defeat. But I think we're well-placed to go out and be positive. They can't be a side with a lot of confidence.

And, looking at that league form, they're just fucking pish.