Exclusive:Hibs hoover up with player nicknamed the vacuum cleaner, a fishy over-achiever and quiet man of East Mains
International break provides Reedijk with room to reflect
An introvert, a fish and a vacuum cleaner walk into a dressing room at East Mains. If it sounds like the set-up for a joke drawn from the surreal end of the comedy spectrum, it’s also a combination responsible for Hibs fans grinning with glee as they head into this international break.
The Scottish Premiership hiatus gives everyone at Easter Road a chance to reflect on the first stretch of games under new manager Marink Reedijk, an affable character who has introduced a couple of interesting turns of phrase to the local lexicon. We’re just deciding to believe his claims that some of his more quirky statements will sound familiar to people back in his native Netherlands, incidentally; pedantry would be a particularly mean response to such entertaining content.
Record signing up-ending expectations
Reflecting on how things have gone so far, the 35-year-old coach can see signs of progress, with back-to-back wins of almost equal significance delivering tangible rewards for the improvements made in almost every part of the team. Following up their historic Premier Sports Cup semi-final win over Hearts at Hampden with a 4-0 thrashing of Aberdeen, a result and performance so seismic that it cost Stephen Robinson his job as Dons boss, has certainly change the mood among supporters.
Picking up on individual performances within the collective, it’s been fascinating to see some players develop in fits and starts, while others have taken giant strides. Somewhere in between the two falls Thibault Klidje, who netted just his fourth league goal for Hibs in Saturday’s pummelling of the hosts at Pittodrie.
The Togo international is the Easter Road club’s record signing, his fee reported at anywhere between £1 million and half as much again, depending on sources, and he engenders a priceless amount of goodwill from fans every time he takes the field. Having spent the second half of last season on loan at Danish club Randers, a bleak reflection on his first six months in Scottish football, he has been given a couple of opportunities under Reedijk.
Deployed as a lift winger early in the new manager’s time at the helm, however, Klidje’s inability to shut down the opposition build-up through the right back channel quickly became a sticking point. Reedijk, who has reverted to bringing the 25-year-old off the bench as a centre forward capable of stretching the game with his pace, has been clear in his demands of the slightly built attacker.
“You have different personalities who want to do things their own way,” said the Hibs manager. “Thibault is a more introvert guy, which is totally fine. And I have good conversations with him.
“You need to also respect the way people will like to be and like to learn, so they're not the most outspoken, not the most loud, but they also enjoy it with a quiet appreciation and an approach which works for them. And he works hard.
“Like last week, we were not happy with the way he worked against the ball, I’ll be honest. But against Aberdeen he took that on board and did the right things – and he also gets rewarded with the goal. This is only a good signal again for players like him, that if you work hard, keep on working hard, you'll get your reward also in the match.”
There’s no doubt that Hibs have been helped, under Reedijk, by the return to fitness of Jamie McGrath. Back in the starting line-up for the encouraging home loss to Celtic, he was influential as the new boss picked up his first league point at St Mirren – and then scored vital goals against both Hearts and Aberdeen.
Reedijk, happy to see a guy with such a high footballing IQ wreaking havoc in the final third, said: “Jamie is for us a very important player. Jamie is a good football player, he fits in the way we want to play very well, and has some different elements and can contribute in a different way than other players. And this is why we're trying to link everybody up, so everybody gets into their qualities.
“And I think at the moment he is, like we say in Dutch, I'm not sure if you have this saying, like a fish in the water. And you can see this, he feels good, and I hope we can continue like this.”
Team leader in defensive contributions
Starting a little deeper in the centre of the park, meanwhile, Miguel Chaiwa is developing exactly as former boss David Gray predicted, becoming a more than effective No. 6. He leads the Hibs midfielders in defensive contributions, interceptions, clearances, recoveries … pretty much every stat you’d want from a guy playing CDM.
Reedijk, inevitably, has a more interesting way of describing the Zambian international, declaring: “For me, I want to play with the clarity in the midfield so everybody knows its role. And Miguel, for me, is like our vacuum cleaner in the midfield.
“He is the guy who does a lot of dirty work, makes sure that we win the ball back a lot. And he also becomes more comfortable on the ball, with time, game by game.
“This is also good to see. So there is development individually, but also collectively. If you walk through all the individuals who played at Aberdeen, you could be impressed with all of them as individuals and as a team. That’s really good to see.”
For so long a team who have struggled to find goals, Hibs managing to hit the net when it matters against Hearts, and then following that up with four against Aberdeen, suggests something. Perhaps even that Reedijk’s quirky analogy about a ketchup bottle was based on something solid, although the former SK Beveren boss laughed as he insisted: “Yes, I suppose you can say the ketchup bottle comparison is correct. It's opened, yes.
“But it's not the definitive. We need to keep on working hard, make sure that we improve still the bits and bobs, which we can improve based on the Aberdeen.
“Obviously I think winning 4-0 is a good step forwards, like in the process where we were on before, from the first match to now. You see a lot of progress, I think, on and off the ball, but also in game management, and this is great to see.
“Of course. For me, the zero is always more important than the four. If you get the zero goals against, you get something out of the game. That is something that we also work on defensively.
“The work rate against the ball is good. Also from corners, we defended well; we focused on that especially looking towards Aberdeen.
“Again, well, if I see how the guys pick it up and work with it and try their utmost best to improve, that's rewarding to see. Not only in the 4-0, but the work that went into it.”