Lee Johnson admits Lewis Miller's Hibs debut campaign has been more transitional than he hoped as he outlined key areas needing developed.
The full-back arrived at Easter Road as part of the major summer overhaul at the club and featured in all four group stage games of the Viaplay Cup. He has since just picked up three Premiership appearances due to a combination of injuries and taking a bit more time than expected to adapt to Scottish football.
Hibs boss Johnson is in no doubt over his key attributes that are his strength and physicality but has outlined the technical and tactical elements of his game as areas they must improve and develop to get him reaching his full potential in the capital. Speaking about the 22-year-old, Johnson told Edinburgh Evening News: "He’s here and he’s in the squad but I think it’s ended up being a bit more of a transitional year for him than we would have wanted in terms of where we saw him.
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“It’s very difficult – and this is a lesson learned for all of us – to judge the weighting of the leagues.
"In the A-League I was watching a player who is physically super-powerful on big pitches and can stretch games and he was excelling, but it’s taken him a bit of time to adapt to Scottish football.
"There’s been the injuries but it’s a higher tactical focus too and I think the tempo is higher. Lewis is a really strong, physical player but that technical and tactical element is the bit we have to develop.”
He continued: "It certainly isn’t a case of Miller versus Cadden versus Egan-Riley. CJ was brought in so we could reduce the squad numbers, because he’s able to cover three different positions.
"Ahead of the St Mirren game Cadds had a bit of a patella tendonitis issue and while he was okay and could have played, it was deemed better for him if we could rest him and not give him the 90 minutes, and I thought he did well when he came on as a sub.”
The Hibs boss has also revealed Ewan Henderson had the chance to leave on loan in January but he wanted to stay and fight for his spot as he opened up on his expectations for the midfielder.
He added: "If he can bump up his weaknesses by one or two points and accentuate his qualities by one or two points then we’ll have a really top player. But I just want that bit more pitch personality from him, a bit more consistency.
"That’s the demand and that’s what we’re working on, and he can’t do any more than show that in the last game from the amount of minutes he had on the pitch.
"I think he’s best as a ten, receiving between the lines. I liked him in the first game of the season against St Johnstone when we played 4-3-3 with a six, an eight, and a ten, I thought he occupied that half-space really well. He was really potent in that Kevin de Bruyne area.
"That’s where he’s best, but he’s got to be consistent in his will to win, with his attitude to playing forward and his desire to make things happen. He’s working hard and he performed well against St Mirren. He actually had the chance to go on loan in January but he didn’t want to, he wanted to stay and prove his worth at Hibs."
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