*****The Official Hearts v Rangers Match Thread *****

[billscott 2,464]

hearts lost 5 1 at home to spurs 4 of the goals against a very young spurs team  3 nil away to fleetwood and also lost to leyton orient so there pre season is as bad as ours

[JackAlex93 12,470]

Souttar and Davies at the back is giving me the fear

[SeparateEntityMyArse 55,254]

Killie beat us away matchday 1 last season. I was there and we were in disarray. Given its likely to be almost the same, if not worse, starting line up as that day I'd not be surprised to see the same outcome.

[NamibianBear 1,853]

1 hour ago, billscott said:

hearts lost 5 1 at home to spurs 4 of the goals against a very young spurs team  3 nil away to fleetwood and also lost to leyton orient so there pre season is as bad as ours

Well, that's a positive, at least.

Hearts are just as shite as we are? 🤣🤣

[RDB14 2,872]

17 hours ago, Darrenmt7 said:

              Butland 

Tav Souttar Davies Yilmaz

      Diomande Barron

 Cerny  Lawrence  Cortes

              Dessers 

Mostly going by the game against Union Berlin, would take a punt and put Cerny in see how it goes and hope for the best 😂

I’d line up the same but Balogun for Davies. My plan is the same too - hope for the best!

[Professor_Chang 1,169]

Not long until they ruin one of many weekends. 

[Jamie0202 12,960]

7 hours ago, JackAlex93 said:

Souttar and Davies at the back is giving me the fear

Obviously they're miles away from being amongst the strongest of central defensive pairings which we've had at the club but most of our defensive problems in pre-season have been down to others in the team and our shape out of possession. Both full-back areas are a bigger worry. 

[Jamie0202 12,960]

6 hours ago, SeparateEntityMyArse said:

Killie beat us away matchday 1 last season. I was there and we were in disarray. Given its likely to be almost the same, if not worse, starting line up as that day I'd not be surprised to see the same outcome.

Killie had already played 4 competitive games before playing us last season. Opposition wasn't great but playing games that are competitive definitely counts for something. You see upsets all the time in European qualification matches against much weaker teams from nations who are already in the flow of competitive matches. Hearts haven't had that luxury and have been shocking in pre-season. 

[JackAlex93 12,470]

11 minutes ago, Jamie0202 said:

Obviously they're miles away from being amongst the strongest of central defensive pairings which we've had at the club but most of our defensive problems in pre-season have been down to others in the team and our shape out of possession. Both full-back areas are a bigger worry. 

Full back areas are a concern as well. The whole back 4 is a worry but for me it's at centre back where you have to be solid, that's the base of your defence. Souttar gets caught out far too many times with poor concentration and Davies is a soft touch. You need a commanding figure in the middle who'll attack everything in your own box and we don't have that in those 2.

[Jamie0202 12,960]

5 minutes ago, JackAlex93 said:

Full back areas are a concern as well. The whole back 4 is a worry but for me it's at centre back where you have to be solid, that's the base of your defence. Souttar gets caught out far too many times with poor concentration and Davies is a soft touch. You need a commanding figure in the middle who'll attack everything in your own box and we don't have that in those 2.

I'm not disagreeing that we need an upgrade at centre-back but you could have peak Cannavaro and Baresi in our team and we would still be easily cut open repeatedly going by the pre-season games. The full team needs to tighten up. 

[JackAlex93 12,470]

3 minutes ago, Jamie0202 said:

I'm not disagreeing that we need an upgrade at centre-back but you could have peak Cannavaro and Baresi in our team and we would still be easily cut open repeatedly going by the pre-season games. The full team needs to tighten up. 

Tavernier can't be starting on Saturday but I think Clement will play him for his experience. He was absolutely awful on Saturday. I'd feel far more comfortable on the left hand side if Ridvan starts ahead of Jefte.

[Jamie0202 12,960]

1 minute ago, JackAlex93 said:

Tavernier can't be starting on Saturday but I think Clement will play him for his experience. He was absolutely awful on Saturday. I'd feel far more comfortable on the left hand side if Ridvan starts ahead of Jefte.

Aye Tav was woeful. Hopefully Sterling is fit.

On the left I'm not really a fan of Ridvan but I completely agree that he needs to start as Jefte either doesn't look ready (which we're all hoping considering he's only 20) or simply isn't good enough. On two of goals we conceded on Saturday where Cortes lost his man where the fuck was Jefte? It was Union Berlin's right sided forward twice who ran off him so no chance should Cortes have been the man who was marking him. 

[SeparateEntityMyArse 55,254]

2 hours ago, Jamie0202 said:

Killie had already played 4 competitive games before playing us last season. Opposition wasn't great but playing games that are competitive definitely counts for something. You see upsets all the time in European qualification matches against much weaker teams from nations who are already in the flow of competitive matches. Hearts haven't had that luxury and have been shocking in pre-season. 

I was at the game. The problem was us. We were clueless, disjointed, looked like strangers, hadn't a clue what they were meant to be doing.  Sounds familiar eh.

Maybe Killie were sharper, but Hearts are a better team than them.

Nothing from preseason suggests we're in a good position going into this.

 

[Rigamonti 56]

9 hours ago, JackAlex93 said:

You need a commanding figure in the middle who'll attack everything in your own box and we don't have that in those 2.

We had one. And replacing him won't be easy.

[.Williamson. 87,117]

26 minutes ago, Rigamonti said:

We had one. And replacing him won't be easy.

Who?

[adam2102 660]

34 minutes ago, .Williamson. said:

Who?

Albertz 😂

[.Williamson. 87,117]

5 minutes ago, adam2102 said:

Albertz 😂

I don’t know who he means because we haven’t had a cb that fits that mould in years.

Every time the opposition has a set piece I have a genuine fear we are about to concede and it’s been like that basically the whole time we’ve been back in the top flight 

[Rigamonti 56]

35 minutes ago, .Williamson. said:

Who?

When long balls, crosses, corners, long throws came into our box Goldson attacked them. He won the vast majority of them - but as soon as he didn't it was "FFS Goldson". Even though the other centre back (pick any one over 6 years) was in comparison nowhere to be seen.

He had his faults, but attacking the ball in our box wasn't one of them.

If we don't sign somebody pronto, we'll see a difference this season, and not for the better.

 

[.Williamson. 87,117]

3 minutes ago, Rigamonti said:

When long balls, crosses, corners, long throws came into our box Goldson attacked them. He won the vast majority of them - but as soon as he didn't it was "FFS Goldson". Even though the other centre back (pick any one over 6 years) was in comparison nowhere to be seen.

He had his faults, but attacking the ball in our box wasn't one of them.

If we don't sign somebody pronto, we'll see a difference this season, and not for the better.

 

Well that’s all made up 

[The Godfather 75,478]

Gildson had a head like a 50p

Woeful header of the ball.

Obviously has been our best CB in recent years but that speaks more about our god awful recruitment than anything else.

[Rigamonti 56]

59 minutes ago, .Williamson. said:

Well that’s all made up 

Well no it's not. We'll see this season, unless we get two new central defenders in.

 

[adam2102 660]

1 hour ago, .Williamson. said:

I don’t know who he means because we haven’t had a cb that fits that mould in years.

Every time the opposition has a set piece I have a genuine fear we are about to concede and it’s been like that basically the whole time we’ve been back in the top flight 

I misread his post - please don’t think I thought Albertz was a defender 😂

[ciggy 17]

Get a cb in and we're looking better than we were

[docspiderman 1,293]

We have only one decent cb and he is at the veteran stage of his career.

[McEwan's Lager 31,966]

22 hours ago, SeparateEntityMyArse said:

Killie beat us away matchday 1 last season. I was there and we were in disarray. Given its likely to be almost the same, if not worse, starting line up as that day I'd not be surprised to see the same outcome.

Last time we lost the opening game at Tynecastle we won a treble so there’s always that to clutch at 😂