Revealed: How Hibs harnessed Sliding Doors moment and shape-changing stroke of genius to save crisis season
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In movie terms, we could call it Sliding Doors meets The Imitation Game. Part turning point based on a twist of fate, undoubtedly aided by a bit of code-breaking now beginning to look like a stroke of genius.
As they take a break from league action for this afternoon’s Scottish Cup tie against West of Scotland Premier League leaders Clydebank, Hibs are entitled to entitled to reflect with pride on a 10-game run of Scottish Premiership fixtures that has seen them suffer just one defeat, with six wins and three draws helping them move from the foot of the table to just inside the top six. More than once over recent weeks, players and coaches have testified to the importance of one particular game – hell, one brilliantly timed goal – in turning everything around.
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Hide AdFor the record, David Gray definitely saw last week’s line about the ‘live’ table that showed Aberdeen moving 28 points clear of Hibs when they went 3-2 up in injury time at Easter Road on Tuesday, November 26. As everyone knows, Rocky Bushiri scored the most dramatic of late equalisers – and that changed everything.
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While there’s been plenty of talk about momentum swings and Hibs putting a wrecking ball through Aberdeen’s campaign, though, it’s not as if that all-or-nothing performance just happened by chance. We can’t overlook the fact that the Dons game was the first time Gray’s men switched to a back three in a season where they’d been pummelled from pillar to post.
In the 48 hours available to the squad between losing 4-1 at Dundee and reporting to Easter Road for duty, there had been a players-only meeting aimed at drumming up some fighting spirit. And a coaching brainwave that, to hear Gray tell it, simply felt like the most natural thing in the world.
Asked when and where the switch from a 4-3-3/4-2-3-1 to some variation on a 3-5-2 first occurred to him, the first-year head coach revealed: “Really it was when Jack Iredale came into the team. He came on against Dundee because we got the red card in the game; Nicky Cadden went to left back initially and then Jack came on as a left back in the game
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Hide Ad“We were going to play Aberdeen, and I think by that point it was more just personnel. And I thought Jack was more suited to playing as a left centre back rather than out-and-out left-back against Aberdeen.
“The way Aberdeen were going to play, because they put real pace in wide areas, I also thought we could carry more of a threat going the other way. And naturally that was when Nicky came in and he was able to play on the left-hand side because Jordan Obita was suspended after being sent off - and then Nicky took his opportunity.
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“We got two strikers on the pitch, or rather two forward players on the last line rather than just two strikers because there were wide players playing up there at times. It's just really snowballed from there - and the confidence in the players is the big thing, the belief going into games.
“I’d have to look at the actual stats, but I don't think there's a massive increase in the expected goals and everything else since we change formation. Someone actually told me the other day that we've conceded more attempts on our goal in a back five than we have in a back four. Which doesn't seem right. But it’s been more about the personnel coming in and stepping up – and probably playing in positions that best suit them.
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Hide AdWhatever the reasoning behind the change, there’s no denying the impact of Bushiri’s late, late equaliser in a game that has impacted on both clubs’ campaigns, Gray smiling as he said: “Yeah, they were 28 points ahead, then it went to 3-3, which made it 26. Now 10 games later it's six points.
“One hundred percent, that was our Sliding Doors moment. I speak about it a lot now because we’re on such a positive run; I’ve used that moment loads.
“It was the turning point. One thing we needed to do was back that up in the next game. So to go to Motherwell and then win 3-0 backed up the benefits of getting the point in the last minute against Aberdeen
“So I think that was a huge moment and then, when you just look at where we've gone and fixtures since then, we’ve had a little bit of rub of the green that we maybe never got early on in the season. Which definitely balances itself out. People always say that.
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Hide Ad“When you think back to the Rangers game, Igamane going through in the very last minute and hits the post; if that goes in for 4-3, it's a completely different feeling. But confidence is everything and the players are really playing with confidence at the minute.
“That's the one thing I'm always going on about, the fact that where we need to get to. Where we are just now gives us a great opportunity with being in the top six; it's where we need to be.”
Pros and cons
A favourite pastime on coaching courses is to break into working groups with an instruction to discuss the pros and cons of a tactic, style or formation. Why is Gray’s variation on a 3-4-1-2 working so well?
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Hide AdThe gaffer, not blind to the fact that no formation covers every eventuality, said: “At the most basic level, it gives you an extra defensive minded player in the back, especially with modern day wingbacks, fullbacks, who are fit enough to get up and down. At times you can be a wee bit more solid behind the ball.
“And then, when you have to go back to front quicker, you've sometimes got the extra player up front because you can be slightly higher in the transition. So I think the pros to it are that. And you get natural width from your wing backs.
“The cons are if teams pin you into a back five, how do you then get out? How do you then get pressure on a back four? How do you get pressure on full backs because the distance from wing back to full back can be quite considerable?
“That means the strikers have to do a lot of running - and then have you got the legs in midfield to deal with when they get stretched? So I think there's always pros and cons to every shape.
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Hide Ad“The biggest thing is always the personnel within the system. That means individually doing their job but also understanding what you're trying to do.
“As I've said many times, I'm not fixed on the need to play 3-5-2 now, or whatever. I'm very flexible within it. But at the moment we're in a good place.”