Hibs boss hits out at ‘lazy and selfish’ players
Hibernian’s defeat to Dundee United brought a stinging rebuke from manager Jack Ross, who accused his players of being “lazy and selfish” in going down meekly to Dundee United.
Ross did not attempt to sugarcoat his side’s performance against the Tangerines, which he said had displayed their worst characteristics in a sorry 90 minutes.
The Easter Road boss attempted to clarify his use of the word lazy, insisting it was only meant to describe the fact his side did not work hard enough against their diligent visitors.
But it was clear he was left angered by a display that sees the capital side slip to fifth in the table.
He said: “It was the worst version of ourselves.
“We strive a lot to be the best version but today we were lazy, slow and selfish in our play.
“When you do that you produce that type of performance and subsequently the result.
“I’ve no qualms over the result. We deserved to lose the game and we deserved to lose it in that manner.
“It was way below the standards we’ve been at for a long time, and now we’ve got to respond to that.
“Don’t dramatise it. Lazy is an expression to say they haven’t worked hard enough, and I’ve told them that.
“I’m just giving an answer to the question, because they didn’t work hard enough in all aspects of their play.
“Why? That’s the question I’ll have to find the answer to over the course of the week.
“If I could provide an immediate answer to that then we’d all be geniuses.
“It was just way below the standards we’ve been at and have been fairly consistently.
“As I said, it was the worst version of ourselves.”
Hibs’ unbeaten run this season came to an end with defeat on their last outing against Rangers.
That came after being forced to play with 10 men for half an hour following the dismissal of Ryan Porteous, but there were few excuses for such a sub-standard showing against United.
And Ross has warned his side they cannot afford any more afternoons like this one if they want to repeat last term’s third-place finish.
He added: “It’s not like them, but it shouldn’t deter from us getting criticism – and I mean ‘we’ because it’s always my responsibility and my preparation, instruction and team selection, etc.
“I don’t want us to be a team that thinks that’s OK. The driver for me is to make us a Hibs team that consistently finishes in the area of the table we did last year – and doesn’t just have one season like that and then drifts.”