WINNERS
Hibernian’s defence
After Hibs defeated Livingston on Saturday, I was an unhappy man. It didn’t have anything to do with Hibs earning three points. Even though some of you will believe that, as a Hearts supporter, I am programmed to want Hibs to lose at all times, this is not actually the case. Besides, I am programmed as a human being to root against a side that decides to select a man guilty of assault with a baseball bat as their captain – nice, Livingston, nice.
No, I was unhappy because they didn’t win by more than one goal, thereby knackering two bets I had in the process. I mean, come on! This was bottom of the table Livingston we were talking about. If Hibs really believe they are being disrespected by Dave King and all this ‘Rangers are champions’ presumption then they need to start showing it. And above all they need to not cost me money.
Jeez, I’m still pretty peeved about that.
Anyway, I began looking at it from a different perspective after I’d calmed down a little and listened to Alan Stubbs’ post-match press conference, where he talked up his defence. Then I looked at the stats and saw they hadn’t conceded a goal from open play since the 6-2 hammering against Rangers in the Petrofac. The very next day I would make the case that Aberdeen could be legitimate title contenders based on their ability to chalk up clean sheets. I had to concede that the same was true of Hibs. But then again, was their defence really that good or had they just performed adequately against a bunch of jobbers? Fast forward to Wednesday and, yeah, turns out that back-line is pretty damn good.
As I’ve just eluded to, Aberdeen aren’t going to blow away every opponent this season, but they’d still scored in all but one of their 14 matches prior to the League Cup meeting at Easter Road. Not to mention the Dons’ confidence riding high and a real belief they could win the competition. Everyone expected an away win and yet Hibs shut them down.
It’s all very un-Hibs. Grinding games out, showing solidity throughout the teams, loads of mental toughness. We’re still early into this season but my interest has been piqued, I’m looking forward to the weeks ahead to see if they can haul themselves back into title contention.
Aberdeen’s title challenge
I can’t decide whether I’m more impressed with the victory over Celtic or the win at Hearts. I don’t want that to sound like I’m bigging up my own team here. There’s no doubt most, if not all, sides in this league have the capability to win at Tynecastle. However, we’re all waiting on Aberdeen slipping on the non-Celtic banana skin and, let’s face it, in this season’s top flight there should be no trickier game than a trip to Edinburgh. Instead, Aberdeen just made it look so, so easy.
Seriously, it reminded me of watching the Old Firm come to Tynecastle. Good start where Hearts are up and at them… and then goal. Then the bottle crashes, the better team settles into their rhythm… and then goal. This shakes my side out of their slumber, the pace is picked up once again, hope rises just that little bit… and then goal. In terms of Tynecastle emotions, it was a textbook Old Firm administered pumping in the first 45 minutes. They didn’t quite replicate that in the second, but they didn’t need to. They’d shown enough and already had the match one.
I’ve said this a few times now but Aberdeen could be the Athletico Madrid 2013/14 team of this year’s top flight. They’re not hammering everything; they’re just making every victory look routine.
Tom Rogic (Celtic)
The Australian has gone from blending in with the pitch whenever he’s played in a Celtic starting XI to running the show against one of the better sides in the league. Coming into this season I thought he’d be the next Jackson Irvine (no offence to big Jackson, love him as a player, but I doubt he had hopes of playing in Dingwall every week when he first arrived in Scotland) but instead Rogic has shown off some terrific close control which has allowed him to routinely side-step past players in the final third, and his finishing technique doesn’t look too bad either. At this moment in time he’s playing better than Stefan Johansen.
Scott Fraser (Dundee United)
Dundee United fans hate everything in life right now. They hate the laughter of a small child. They hate the smell of freshly cut grass. They hate it when they find a surprise £10 note in their pocket. They hate that special bedroom activity their loved one does for them only on birthdays. They hate it when they’re a few pence short of buying some groceries and the shop keeper lets them away with it anyway. They hate the sun and clear, blue skies. They hate snow days. They hate being bought a pint in the pub. They hate getting presents. They hate holidays.
They like Scott Fraser.
Josh Magennis (Kilmarnock)
Goal machine. There was something so wonderfully unusual about the striker’s second goal in Killie’s loss to Hearts in midweek. I remember reading a description of the strike at the time and thinking it sounded odd. ‘Magennis turns away from his man before coolly slotting the ball into the corner.’ Coolly? Magennis has never been cool on a football pitch in his puff. I still wouldn’t have believed it if the evidence wasn’t there in blue and white on the BBC website. Confidence is a wonderful thing. If it can turn Magennis into a ruthless, 20-goal a season striker, it may be the greatest thing ever.
In all seriousness, though, Magennis seems undroppable at this moment and time, and it goes a lot further than him scoring three goals in the space of a week. Kilmarnock are at their best in a 4-2-3-1 with a supporting triumvirate that includes three of Greg Kiltie, Rory McKenzie, Tope Obedayi and Kallum Higginbotham. Having that sort of trio playing off Kris Boyd could still work, but it would lack the fluidity it possesses when Magennis is there. He just has much more dynamism and his running, and general being a nuisance, can open up space for those team-mates.
Liam Boyce (Ross County)
Remember the time Boyce was sent off against Dundee United on Friday night football? It was a game at Dingwall and County were well beaten 3-2. He was just another diddy in a squad full of misfits signed by Derek Adams. Imagine that point in time and try to think of what your reaction would be if I’d say to you:
“See him, he’s going to be a great player and a contender for the Scottish Premiership’s top goalscorer. And County will stay up this season and challenge for top six next. And this is just about the last game Dundee United will ever win.”
Would you believe me? Would you fuck.
And you know what’s really mental about all that? That game took place less than 10 months ago.
LOSERS
Blazej Augustyn (Hearts)
His display against Aberdeen was one of the worst centre back displays I’ve ever seen from a player in maroon – and I’ve watched Kevin James. If anyone thinks that’s an overreaction to his mistake at Niall McGinn’s goal, go back and look at the highlights, particularly the two chances Aberdeen carved open right through the centre of the Hearts defence in the second half because one of our centre backs went missing.
He then followed that up by getting embarrassed by Josh Magennis at Kilmarnock’s second goal on Wednesday. Looking at the other two games he’s played, Hearts shipped four goals to St Johnstone and Dundee. Though he may not have been at fault for much there, the stats are still terrifying. Four games, no clean sheets, nine goals conceded.
I’m willing to grant him a little patience before I start laying to him, though I will readily admit a large part of that is from my own bias. If he played for Ross County I’d be making all sorts of jokes about his uselessness right now. His one saving grace could be that, aside from Igor Rossi, he’s been part of a wholly useless defensive unit.
Rangers invincibility cloak
I considered putting ‘Warburton’s magic hat’ as the title, then I realised I don’t have the humour of spanner and left it as it is.
The cloak had actually slipped down ever-so-slightly in recent weeks. Nothing too exposing, just a little sight of shoulder skin under the hefty blue and white garment. When it was expected they’d put ten past Livingston, it was only three, and then Dumbarton made them sweat for their efforts the following week. Of course, they still won both games relatively comfortably, but it did show they were perhaps human after all. A feeling confirmed by St Johnstone’s trouncing in the first 46 minutes of Tuesday’s match.
Rangers supporters are describing it as a blip, with every justification, considering how well there season has unfolded so far. Though it was interesting to see Warburton make his first poor tactical choices of his time at Rangers. First was the arrogance to not station the defensive line further back, to try and deal with the pace of Michael O’Halloran. Then he took far too long in trying to change things further forward. James Tavernier was constantly being double-teamed when he went forward, which St Johnstone were able to do as Martyn Waghorn, naturally, drifted inside from his starting position on the right. Rangers needed to either switch their wide players or bring another winger onto the park in place of Kenny Miller.
Not that it’ll probably matter, though. St Johnstone have shown a way to expose Rangers, but then so did Hibs in the 1-0 defeat at Ibrox, they just didn’t take their chances. The problem is that most other sides in the Scottish Championship lack the personnel to inflict similar punishment or be quite so resolute in defence.
Ian Baraclough (Motherwell)
For more on Baraclough and the mess he created for himself, read here. Kris puts it better than I ever could.
The only thing I would add is that I do wonder whether they could have given him a little more time, at least until he’d figured out what his best team was. They have Partick Thistle at home this weekend. One victory can turn things around and I’m betting Baraclough was dying to get through unscathed until that match, where he’d be hoping a win would see things click into place. Although I admit he did seem to be an incomprehensibly guff manager, and Motherwell may be right to trust a complete unknown in Stephen Craigan over him.
Gary Locke (Kilmarnock)
You may think he belongs in the winner’s section seeing as he appears to have turned things around at Rugby Park. Even though they lost to Hearts on Wednesday, they did give a good account of themselves, and would have deservedly advanced to the next round were it not for the late collapse.
However, there were a couple of very Gary Locke type things which went on in the game’s final stages. Firstly, he brought on Scott Robinson, because reasons.* Then, with just five minutes remaining, when most managers are looking to shore things up, he brought Kris Boyd into the game. Did he substitute him in a like-for-like swap with Josh Magennis in a bid to get some fresh legs? Of course not! Don’t be silly. He brought him on for Greg Kiltie and stuck Magennis, who’d done a power of running and was out on his feet, on the right. Killie lost the impetus, Hearts scored twice. Game over.
*It should be noted that Robinson came on at 1-0 and Killie did score after this, but I’m not prepared to let this fact get in the way of a little Locke bashing.
Alan Archibald (Partick Thistle)
Anyone who cared to listen to me last week would have heard how well Robbie Muirhead played in his Partick Thistle debut. How he not only shone individually, but that his presence in the team brought back the fluidity we’ve come to expect from a Thistle front four. That the team may not have scored against Dundee, but they created several great chances and goals would come for them if they kept playing that way. So of course Alan Archibald dropped him to the bench in their visit of Ross County.
Who wants to win matches, anyway?
Written by Craig Fowler (@craigfowler86)
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