I’LL USE ALL MY POWERS OF PERSUASYOUAN
Elie will assist Hibs in bid to keep Maolida
ELIE YOUAN hopes he can assist Hibs in their bid to keep Myziane Maolida by setting up more goals for his French friend.
Winger Youan has five assists in his last four Premiership matches and has teed up on-loan Hertha Berlin forward Maolida for three of them.
That helped Maolida be crowned Premiership player of the month for March yesterday after the 25-year-old netted in four straight league outings.
The pair, who played together for France Under-18s, have formed a formidable partnership on the pitch and Youan would love his pal to remain at Hibs beyond the end of the campaign.
Youan, hoping to continue his own rich vein of form in today’s visit of St Johnstone, said: “The only thing I can do to persuade him is to give him assists to score.
“I think that’s Myziane’s choice. I cannot talk instead of him.
“He wasn’t in a good place a couple of months ago and now he is starting to enjoying playing football again.
“Before coming here he texted me to tell him about Hibs, which I did. Everybody is happy to have him around here.
“The most important thing is to reach the top six and we’ll see what happens after that.
“The connection is just natural, we don’t need to talk a lot on the pitch. I understand him well. We spend a lot of time together away from the pitch and we are on the same page to help the team.
“He is a good guy, we played a couple of games back in the days with the Under-18 national team.
“With a player like Myziane I can express the best of me. I can play free, I know if I make a run he will understand what I will try to do. He always tries to reach me.
“I do it with every player but with him it’s more natural because we are both from the Clairefontaine school.
“Offensively the manager just says do your thing, just don’t do silly things but try and let the magic happen.”
The prospect of European football would help manager Nick Montgomery keep and attract players in the summer. But Hibs face a battle just to get into the top six with two games left before the split. Dundee are one point clear with a game in hand.
But Youan said: “If you believe, everything is possible. You always want to be in a good place, not fighting until the last game and of course we want to be in better position but it is not done, we have two games and we know what we have to do, two wins.
“I know what the team is capable of. I know our quality and lately I think we’ve found a good balance. I’m just thinking about the win. We focus on us and the game.”