Livvy ‘burned’ Hibees, admits unhappy boss
Hibs manager Lee Johnson slammed his team’s display in the defeat to Livingston after confessing that too many of his players got “burned”.
It was a first league defeat for the Leith side under Johnson and the former Sunderland boss was not a happy man.
He said: “That was typical of the tough nature of Scottish football. We got beaten three times last season by Livingston – you can see why.
“You have to give credit to the opposition. I’m really disappointed with our start. We played into their hands. I thought we were sloppy.
“It was a little bit laissez-faire, a little bit casual.
“It took until half-time to get us going and I don’t think I should have to do that, chuck out the hair dryer, change the tactics too often to get a performance, which I thought was very good.
“We attacked the game, we went for the jugular. But there was a terrible moment with a poor goal conceded.
“I just made a really bad analogy. You ask a toddler to make a cup of tea, they get burned. A few of ours got burned today.
“I’ll be honest, I was disappointed, and it wasn’t just foreign players or new players. There was a domino effect of negativity until we got them in and were able to reframe them.
“It’s a steep learning curve after a really good week but that’s football.”
Asked if his team lacked mental resilience, Johnson said: “We need to train mental resilience.
“How can Jair Tavares, who has never been exposed to it, get that? So the mental resilience comes from having a poor game, reflecting and having a good week in training and producing the next time he gets the shirt.”
Johnson also defended his decision to throw on rookie defender Kyle McClelland for Paul Hanlon just before Ayo Obileye headed home the winner.
Hanlon was making his first appearance of the season after undergoing knee surgery in the summer.
Johnson added: “We had to take Hanlon off. He’s only had two 45 minutes and six sessions. He was cramping up and had a risk of his calf splitting off.
“Something had to be done. If you look at the goal, he’s (Obileye) got in between Christian Doidge and Nohan Kenneh. Rocky Bushiri would have started but he wasn’t fit.”