Johnson needs ‘tough talk’ to halt the slump
Lee Johnson revealed there had been some tough talking inside the Hibs dressing room following this latest defeat to St Mirren.
The Easter Road outfit haven’t won since the opening day of the season and Johnson knows big improvements will be needed if they’re to arrest this slump.
With little left in his budget, however, it will be down to those already at the club to try to turn things around.
Johnson said: “It does seem that there’s a little bit of a pattern repeating with this side. I’m very disappointed.
“We’ve got to look deep into what we can do to turn it quickly. Be organised but also upgrade the quality. That ain’t easy.
“Good players make good decisions but, for whatever reason, we didn’t have enough good decision makers on the pitch today.
“I’m massively disappointed after last week’s comeback and a good week in training. You set yourself up to get points. This was an opportunity for three points and we failed on it miserably.
“So I’m disappointed for ourselves and disappointed for our supporters.
“I know what’s got to be done. There is no question in my mind what we need to do, how we need to do it.
“We’re not going to be able to move much in the market so we’ve got to get injured players back fit.
“We’ve got to nurture the ones coming back to full fitness It will turn because we’re good at what we do and we’ll improve by nurturing and developing.
“The boys have to step up. They have to demand for themselves. They know that as we just had all that in the dressing room.
“Sometimes you have to let the ones speak that don’t usually speak because we are trying to create something here. The positive moments we have, like the two comebacks, the first win, builds momentum, builds team spirit.
“Every negative, like today and Livingston, basically resets the rules. We have to make sure we drive it forward. Rightly we are going to get stick today.
“We deserve to own that today. Myself more than anybody else because I pick the team, I put the team out there. For whatever reason not enough produced their best game today.”