Hibs debrief: Failure to again stand up to adversity, lack of changes while game in the balance, Youan picked up where he left off

A look back at last night’s match at Easter Road as Hibs lost 4-0 to Celtic.
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Player of the match

Elie Youan... probably... by default. And you could have given him it in the first ten minutes. He started just like he performed against Livingston, charging down the left wing, asking questions of the defence with his pace and putting some dangerous balls into the box. Unfortunately, Reo Hatate, despite playing out of position at right-back, got his act together and refused to let the Frenchman past him from that point forward. But there wasn’t much from any other player in green-and-white to say they were any better than him in the remaining 80 minutes.

Defining moment

Kevin Nisbet has his head in his hands after missing an excellent chance for the hosts at 2-0 down. Picture: SNSKevin Nisbet has his head in his hands after missing an excellent chance for the hosts at 2-0 down. Picture: SNS
Kevin Nisbet has his head in his hands after missing an excellent chance for the hosts at 2-0 down. Picture: SNS

This one is a lot easier. It was the opening goal scored by Aaron Mooy. There was a touch of misfortunate about it with Chris Cadden slipping, which then collapsed the defence and meant Mooy was free to rifle home when the ball broke for him in the penalty area. But how many times do we question if this Hibs team can respond to adversity and they fail to do so? Yes, it’s very difficult trying to fight back from a goal down against Celtic. But it was real domination from the champions after that moment and Hibs offered up very little as way of resistance.

Ref watch

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There was a strange incident in the first half where Celtic took a quick throw which was made to be brought back and taken again for reasons that were unclear, but other than that we can only assume Alan Muir and the VAR crew got the big decisions correct.

Benefit of hindsight

It’s hard to be too critical of Lee Johnson’s initial set-up after his side steamrolled Livingston on Saturday. He maybe should have done more to stop the bleeding instead of waiting until it was 4-0 to make changes, however.

Moment you may have missed

There was confusion as Hibs made a treble change in the 66th minute. The fourth official seemed to believe that only two home players had left the field as he stopped Aiden McGeady from entering. There had to be a quick head-check of those in green-and-white before the ex-Celtic winger was allowed to come on.

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