Some cool, sober, and brief analysis

Fair summary and Tav was nudges aside too easily for the header....hibs looked more eager and hungry.

I said during the week if Hibs play 352 they'll beat us. Under Warburton and his philosophy we have made tremendous strides. But the issue I have is seeing the players under perform and seeing Warburton stubborn in not protecting the players with changing the formation. He should have learned that Hibs were a credible threat to his success today if they'd played 352.

I'm gutted about not winning today but the overall performance wasn't good enough and in the future Warbs should take the ear of Walter Smith who knows how to win these sort of matches against good opposition. Leaving 2 and 3 up front at times was baffling in such a game with high stakes for both clubs.

Next season is going to be a cracker and might be Warbs defining season.

Lose the stubbornness and he'll receive less criticism.

BP - excellent summary, mate - take 5

"I'm less impressed by the suggestion that Graeme Rix is joining the setup"

Better get the banner back out, the guy has from.

I can't be too harsh on the team today as we've strolled the league and beaten Celtic this season which given where we were a year ago is incredible.

Considering how quickly Warburton had to put his team together there were always going to be weaknesses so I don't think we can be too harsh.

I'll judge Warburton next season. As long as identifies our weaknesses, fixes them and the team gives it a good go next year I'll be quite happy. I don't think we need to win the league next year but we need to see the team grow and probably finish 2nd given we'll have the 2nd biggest budget by a distance.

In terms of players going forward. Foderingham is suspect although he is young and some of his 'errors' are due to having weak centre backs in front of him. He clearly has confidence issues and I'm not sure he has the mental strength to be a Rangers keeper.

Taverier is quality going forward but a very poor defender, Stokes ripped him to shreds today and it's not the first time he's looked suspect defensively. He should be played as a winger with a more solid right back brought in.

Kiernan and Wilson are too similar and inexperienced to play together. I think Wilson is the better player and we need to bring a more experienced centre half to play alongside him. Kiernan loses his man all the time, his concentration is poor and IMO won't be good enough next year.

The midfield is decent enough but could use more depth. If we get Barton he'd be good but I'm not sure the midfield is as desperate as the defence. Sorting centre halfs and right back out will take a lot of pressure off the likes of Halliday to concentrate on playmaking.

Overall we need more depth and experience and a plan B for when things get tough. Hibs bullied us a bit today and our players couldn't stand up to it. Unless you have Barcelona quality players you can't always play total football. It's great when the players are clicking but if you are not totally at it (like today) which you can't be in every game of a long season then you do need a plan B where you can grind out a result or close out a narrow 2-1 lead with ten minutes to go.

I don't blame Tav (stokes header aside) - he plays the game Warburton wants us to play. The problem today was simply a lack of a defensive midfielder who drops back to cover the CBs when the wing backs are forward. Notice the difference when Zemalam went off - Sheilds came on and our midfield was consistently too far forward. This is especially important when our CBs don't seem to have any pace.

My main worry is that we didn't create enough chances. Are teams getting wise to the way we play? Maybe. We need more options in the final third. Miller was great, but Waghorn and McKay struggled. It's a real shame Forrester wasn't available.

Very fair summary Hibs managed to keep up the pressing longer than ususal, I did not see them coming back after going down, fair play to them.

You Bears see the team every week but it seemed like there was not much to change with, do you have any first 11 injuries?

Missing a few - O'Hallaren, King and Forester. Could've done with them today as Waghorn and McKay weren't on form. Ball (who was DM against Celtic) was suspended and he was a big loss.

The bench was really thin - only 4 outfield players and one of them is just a boy.

I also don't think the few weeks off helped.

We should've still beaten a wee team from the championship tho

PB

My main worry is that we didn't create enough chances. Are teams getting wise to the way we play?
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We scored two goals and hit the bar. We also had good runs in the inside channels that could have provided crosses for goals.

We've scored loads of goals this season. We don't always register loads of shots on the stats because a lot of our goals come from cut backs and moves with lots of short passes, so if the last pass doesn't come off we don't register a shot.

For me our problem is defensive. We've leaked really soft goals all season. That's fine in the championship where teams won't always punish us and we can generally outscore most of the opposition most of the time, but it won't do in the premier league.

Until we sort our defence and learn to grind out close games and close out victories properly I don't see us challenging for the title.

Don't get me wrong I'm delighted with our progress this season, Warburton's style has certainly been refreshing compared to the dross we've seen over the last 3-4 years. I just hope he learns from our weaknesses this year and brings in some experience at the back as well as a plan B when the tippy tappy stuff isn't working or we need to grind it out against a determined opposition, like Hibs yesterday.