Match Day Thread Heart of Midlothian FC v Sunderland AFC - Saturday 26th July 2025 - KO 15:00

I think they are suffering due to the midfield intensity and it’s something I’ve seen from us the entire of last season. Neil was the pivot for last season and now he’s back in it’s gone back to the exact same pace

Just screams to me that his style is why

 

Yeah this has been so poor so far. It's flat and very clumsy.

 

I do think neil only works when asked to sit off the ball or play slowly.

it’s evident and always has been

 

I just don’t think it’s a coincidence that the ELF and sadiki look like they are struggling for the first time this pre season when we’ve changed the pivot

 

Pre season, but ****e this. Doesn’t change the fact we need a lot of work on transfers

 

Hearts have played 3-4 competitive games already mind, but we haven’t got anything going forward right now.

 

Friendlies are absolutely boring and tell us nowt whatsoever. Throw in Brady talking about the move towards "possession based football" like it's 2010 and this is tedious.

 

I couldn't give a s hite about friendlies to be honest, they are nothing more than an elaborate training exercise. Games like this highlight only fitness and glaring issues in certain area's of the squad... I would think RLB will learn more about his squad today than in the other games we have played, but I bet he couldn't care less about the score

 

Correlation doesn’t equal causation. It’s pretty facile to blame every individual’s lack of effort and intensity on Dan Neil’s presence. He’s contributed yes, but so have 7-8 others.

 

Has Mayenda touched the ball?

 

this is awful

 

exactly can't read into anything it's preseason, players will never give 100% doesn't matter if we win 10-0 or get beat 10-0 exactly the same as the last 5 game of the season means absolutely nothing

 

Diarra injured now.

 

Very very true still think it’s not a coincidence for me though. Exact same all of last season. That’s more than an off chance to me

anyway is that Diarra now injured?

 

**** off with these physical challenges man.

 

Back on

 

Neil just seems miles off it but he's not the only one. I'm desperate for a CB to come in now.

 

Can hearts **** off clattering our players

 

Yep as I said before. Consistency concerns. This is a hearts team in competitive mode and they’re struggling