Anyone who has pulled on a Hibs jersey knows there’s a demand from the stands to play a certain way.
The Easter Road punters like to be entertained. The want fast, attacking football and plenty of goals.
At some clubs it’s all about winning – or not losing – and the supporters will be happy no matter how they do it.
Like Hearts, for example.
There’s always been a Hibs way of playing over the years but there has to be a time and a place.
It wasn’t on Sunday against Celtic – but Shaun Maloney showed there are more ways than one to skin a cat.
I know it wasn’t pretty to look at but it was a great point and another clean sheet.
Maloney looks to have made Hibs hard to beat, and that’s always the first job a new boss needs to do.
He just needs to figure out the other side of the game now as they are looking a bit shot shy.
It’s hard to get the balance. I played at Easter Road under Bobby Williamson and Tony Mowbray and you couldn’t get more different approaches.
No one will be surprised to hear Bobby was more pragmatic. He liked to keep it tight and lob long balls up to Mixu Paatelainen.
It’s not a lot of fun for a striker playing that way sometimes, but funnily enough, I finished top scorer under him.
It was only with 11 goals but that was with about 15 chances! My stats were through the roof.
Under Mowbray it was a different ball game and he didn’t mind conceding three if we managed to score four.
It was a lot less lonely up front, that’s for sure. I actually had teammates for company rather than just chasing around trying to get on the end of Mixu flick ons.
In fairness, Mowbray had a strong squad to pick from – stronger than Maloney has right now.
But there are signs he’s going in the right direction. They were well drilled against Celtic and for all their domination of the ball, big Matt Macey didn’t have much to do.
There weren’t many – if any – chances at the other end and while you can maybe write that off as being against Celtic, it’s been a bit of a familiar tale of late.
I know Kevin Nisbet has not been hitting the heights this season but his injury is a huge blow and hopefully it won’t be long term.
There’s no escaping how big a miss Martin Boyle has been. That game on Sunday was crying out for him as Celtic were 50 yards up the pitch with acres in behind to hit on the break.
But there’s a lack of pace in the wide areas at Hibs right now and it’s making it hard to create much.
The strikers need to do more as well. Christian Doidge has had his injury problems but he’ll need to kick on.
Chris Muellar scored against Arbroath but they could do with him finding some form for the run in.
We’ve yet to see Elias Merlkersen, and that’s a bit of a strange one. I know he’s seen as a development player but when you spend six figures on a player, you’d think he’d be worth a look.
It might also be worthwhile having a look in the academy. The under 18s are top of the league and sometimes you can get a pleasant surprise throwing a youngster in to the mix.
I remember when Williamson chucked Derek Riordan a chance and look what happened.
The young guns can add a bit of freshness – as well as a burst of pace. That’s just what Hibs needs.
It’s been a bumpy ride at times this season but they have managed to get back up to fourth in the table, even though there’s a fag paper between about six clubs.
Hibs also have the bottom two sides up next, with Dundee on Wednesday night and St Johnstone at the weekend.
This should be the idea chance for them to dig out the shooting boots and stick a few in the back of the net.
I think Maloney is nearer to Mowbray than his approach than Williamson, despite what we saw on Sunday, and these games are an opportunity to play the type of game he would like.
This is a big week for my old club to take a huge step towards Europe – and they have to get back to doing it the Hibs way.
