[top_geezer]

Originally Posted by Greenmachine
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Mixu has to get the balance right in our midfield, and i'm afraid he won't be able to do that properly with the current group of players available to him. Therefore I believe that it will be next season before we see the Hibs team playing to the system and pattern of play that the manager really wants.

IMO in a proper balanced midfield you need someone to play just in front of the back four as an outright defensive midfielder, a grafter who can dominate in the middle win the ball and distribute accurately to others, and two attacking midfielders who can get forward and supply the ammunition to the strikers as well as chipping in with goals themselves. I think Mixu will bring in at least two midfielders in the summer.

For the reast of this season I would be looking to play Murray and Chisholm regularly as our anchor midfield players, with Rankin and Zemmama as our main attacking and creative threat. Not ideal, but for me that would be making the most out of hat's available. Players like Shiels, Stevenson, O'Brien etc can be used as back-up for these positions till the end of the season anyway.

The 1991 Skol Cup winning team had two tremendous attacking midfielders in Mickey Weir and Pat McGinlay, but they would be the first to tell you that they wouldn't have been able to get forward as much to score as many goals as they did without the insurance of McLeod and Hamilton grafting and covering behind them. This is what I mean by having the right midfield balance.

I am sure there will be several players leaving in the summer, and that will create space for the manager to bring in/promote players he wants to have in his team. At the moment we have too many players who are either out of their depth in the SPL, or just don't have the motivation and desire required to succeed in the SPL. Let's just give Mixu a chance to build a decent team. He needs time and backing from the board. I hope he gets both..

Agree with pretty much all this. Still didn't rate Hamilton though, think he and kerr have alot in common.