The defensive stats behind Hibs' impressive start to the season

What the advanced statistics have to tell us about Hibs’ improvement in defence

Paul Hanlon and Ryan Porteous celebrating after the 1-0 win over St Johnstone. Picture: SNS

With 49 goals conceded from 30 games, Hibs had the worst defensive record outside of the bottom three in last season’s Scottish Premiership. While the early-season struggles under Paul Heckingbottom were a significant reason for that, the 11 goals they shipped in their final four matches before the shutdown highlighted it as an issue Jack Ross had to solve this summer.

And solve it he has. Hibs have the fourth best record in the league thus far, conceding 10 in 11 games and just six from open play. While the manager deserves tremendous respect for whipping the unit into shape, and making one key signing, the players themselves are due enormous credit for improving their performances individually.

A quick look at Wyscout finds Hibs defenders dotted around the top five in just about every major defensive category.

Paul Hanlon has won 74.19 per cent of his aerial battles so far, contesting just over eight per game, which has him in third place in the league behind only the behemoths that are Celtic’s Shane Duffy and Aberdeen defender Ash Taylor. When you consider Hanlon has had a 68 per cent success rate for his career, and was down at 66 per cent last season, it shows he’s playing with real confidence in the air. There are a plethora of six-foot-plus target men in the league, so this success has not come easy.

The experienced centre-back’s willingness to put his body on the line extends to blocking shots. With 12 so far this campaign he sits second in the league behind Hamilton’s Shaun Want. It should come as no surprise that the fearless Ryan Porteous is another Easter Road favourite who makes it into the blocked-shots top 10, as he’s tied for seventh place with eight.

The Hibs centre-back pairing also rank very high for the number of interceptions made. Hanlon sits second of all players with 88 while Porteous is third with 84. Again, this speaks to the assertiveness that Hibernian’s defenders are playing with. They are being proactive instead of reactive.

Alex Gogic’s presence in front of the back four has been an obvious upgrade on the protection previously afforded to the defence. He too makes it into the top 10 for interceptions (joint-eighth), while right-back/centre-back Paul McGinn is in joint-fourteenth.

Those two have been the most aggressive thus far, as each sit in the Premiership’s top five for most defensive duels contested. McGinn is in third with 102, while Gogic is one place behind him on 101. Left-back Josh Doig also sneaks into the league’s top 20 with 78. It speaks to the youngster’s enthusiasm for battle that he has the highest average per 90 of any Hibs player.

Finally, they’ve been offered an extra layer of protection by one of the best goalkeepers in the league. Ofir Marciano has been in inspired form this campaign after a subpar 2019/20 campaign by his usual high standards. Hibs’ expected goals against tally would suggest they should’ve conceded 16 times. The Israeli is a big reason that number has only been 10.

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