John Greechan's latest Tactics Zone on Hibs

Edinburgh Evening News

This weeks Hibs Tactics Zone. Reaction from the 0-0 draw with Dundee.

Transcript

00:00 Hey folks, welcome back to Tactics Zone with me John Greekin.

00:05 It's Derby week and Hibs Dundee was a 0-0 draw so let's just dive right in.

00:11 It wasn't a bad performance by Hibs by any stretch of the imagination, just missing a

00:17 goal.

00:18 They had 9 shots on target, some pretty clear cut chances.

00:23 On another day they probably win 2-0, maybe 2-1.

00:27 Everyone goes off happy.

00:28 A couple of things to pick up on, Hibs usual 4-4-2, slightly different though with Boyle

00:32 sticking wide right more often for most of the game.

00:36 They were up against Dundee's side who played a 3-5-2 which I notice is exactly what Hearts

00:41 deployed at Ross County at their win in the weekend so this may be quite opposite.

00:48 The issue you have when you're up against a 3-5-2 if you've got any kind of back four

00:52 is who goes and picks up the wing backs and what do those wing backs do?

00:58 And Dundee's wing backs were both very good at driving inside, especially Owen Beck.

01:03 And you can see what happens here.

01:06 Boyle gets caught by a runner, Djego has to step out to close down Beck, Newell gets dragged

01:13 a little bit out of position and that leaves Lyle Cameron in a lot of space.

01:18 That's something they'll probably want to tighten up on before the weekend.

01:23 Now you're kind of outnumbered in the middle of the park technically if you're playing

01:28 a 4-4-2 against a 3-5-2 as well.

01:30 There is space in there and you could look at this here with Will Fish.

01:34 If Joe Newell takes a couple of steps forward there he's in that space but I suppose the

01:37 question is then what?

01:40 He's kind of surrounded in there so you have to work a little harder to generate space

01:44 in the middle of the park.

01:47 There were opportunities.

01:48 I'm saying if Adam LaFondra gets himself into that space and is showing, you can almost

01:52 see on the picture, he's demanding the ball from Martin Boyle there, just give it to him.

01:56 He's a clever player, he's going to turn and get something done.

01:59 So there still are ways to work your way around it if you've got clever movement in the forward

02:03 line.

02:06 In terms of possession, Hibbs was still playing out from the back, persisting with using the

02:11 goalkeeper.

02:12 It's really interesting, it quite often results in an attack up the other end of the park

02:17 because you take bodies out of it for the opposition.

02:21 The important thing here is the role Jimmy Jago has.

02:25 He needs a really sure touch to be able to do this and he's shown it so far.

02:29 Dropping in there, popping it out wide to Handlin and then you can build from there.

02:34 There were times when Hibbs went a little bit more direct.

02:36 Now Elie Ewan just had a really difficult day, just one of those days where you can

02:40 almost feel like nothing's going to work for you.

02:43 And yet he still created chances which probably says something.

02:46 His pace was running in behind.

02:49 If they hit this quickly, you can then exploit the wing back, clearly because you're dragging

02:54 one of the central defenders out into that wider position.

02:58 So that might be something we see revisited a little bit at Tyne Castle this weekend.

03:04 But again, patience remains the watchword.

03:07 So this move here, I think there's already been about six passes played and it's still

03:12 Jimmy Jago back behind his centre-halves.

03:15 There's a fancy name for this one, a central midfielder drops between the centre-halves,

03:18 I'm not going to bore you with it, but he's dropped in there to get on the ball.

03:23 By the time the ball gets here, up at the edge of the box where LaFondrie's playing

03:30 his delicious little back-yield through for Martin Boyle, there's been another nine passes,

03:36 two switches of play and all kinds of movement.

03:39 So yeah, it might take 15 passes to get from one end to the other, but during that time

03:44 they're moving the ball to move the opposition and create openings.

03:48 Now there were openings at the edge of the box as well, as Dundee just defended deeper

03:53 and deeper.

03:54 You can see there's a whole five and then a three all back inside their box.

03:58 That is something that I think if Hebs get those kind of chances at Tyne Castle, Nick

04:04 Montgomery will think it's a pretty good week's work for him.

04:09 Now some bonus content here on the video that's not in the article, because I know how us

04:13 nerds love our set-pieces.

04:15 And listen, it's not new, it's been in for years, this idea that you borrow tactics from

04:21 basketball in particular where screening and blocking is such a key thing.

04:25 This was a really simple corner kick.

04:28 Boyle's drilled out to the edge of the box, Newell's coming in to hit it with his left

04:32 foot, Dylan Venti very cleverly just blocking his man from getting there.

04:37 You can see that really clearly here from the reverse angle.

04:42 You know what, you're never going to get called for it, are you?

04:44 It is like screening in basketball if you're just standing your ground.

04:47 So that's something to watch out for.

04:50 Anyway that's this week's Tactics Zone, I hope you've enjoyed it.

04:54 Tune in next Monday when we should have your best analysis of the Edinburgh Derby.

04:58 [BLANK_AUDIO]

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