Pressure mounts yet again on Hibs: what is wrong with this current Easter Road team?

Hibs are finding new ways to torture their supporters.

After last season’s underwhelming campaign, finishing in the bottom six and going through two managers, there was hope that under club legend David Gray and with a raft of new signings, fortunes would change in the 2024/25 campaign.

After eight Premiership matches, they have changed - but for the worse. Hibs slipped to the bottom of the league at the weekend after a 3-2 defeat by Dundee United that epitomised their season.

The expression on Hibs head coach David Gray says it all after the capitulation against Dundee United. | SNS Group

Going into the 85th minute, Hibs led 2-1 at Tannadice. The provisional table had them in seventh spot. But then Joe Newell correctly picked up a second yellow card for a poor tackle. Eight minutes of stoppage time flashed up on the board. Panic stations for the away side. The Tangerines scored not once, but twice to inflict the most painful defeat so far during Gray’s tenure.

Hibs have only won once in the league this season, overcoming St Johnstone 2-0 at Easter Road on September 14. That victory was supposed to be a springboard to better things, but they have lost their three matches since. They sit on five points.

Capital rivals Hearts leapfrogged them into 11th with their own thumping 4-0 win over St Mirren. The Edinburgh duo meet on Sunday in the basement derby, the likes that we have not seen since 2014 when Hearts - then bottom - defeated Hibs 2-1 at Easter Road, who were tenth. At the end of that season, both teams were demoted.

Is it too early to mention Hibs and relegation in the same breath? Not for some supporters, who are becoming increasingly concerned about their club’s trajectory. It will be a long week down Easter Road way before their neighbours visit Leith for Sunday’s high-noon showdown. Hearts have been derby kingpins of late and should they follow up Saturday’s win by beating Omonoia at Tynecastle on Thursday in the Europa Conference League, they will travel across the city in buoyant mood under their own new head coach, Neil Critchley.

Hibs' last two matches have been marred by red cards. | SNS Group

The scenario facing Gray is not what he envisaged at the start of the season. This is the 36-year-old’s first permanent gig and his inexperience is being tested to its extremities right now. His Hibs team has some major flaws. Only one clean sheet in the league all season, eight goals scored, two red cards, and a worrying propensity to concede the moment the heat is turned on.

Some are labelling Hibs soft. It’s an oft-worn trademark of them in recent years. The evidence right now is hard to argue against. In the last ten minutes of matches this season, Dundee and Kilmarnock have scored late equalisers, Motherwell and Dundee United late winners. Promising positions have been squandered.

Then there are the individual mistakes. Against St Mirren (0-3), a slack Marvin Ekpiteta back-pass. Against Dundee (2-2), Warren O’Hora losing sight of Simon Murray. Against Kilmarnock (1-1), Jordan Obita conceding a stoppage-time penalty. Against Rangers (0-1), Mykola Kuharevych missing a penalty with a lame effort. Against Motherwell (1-2), Hyeokkyu Kwon not tracking Andy Halliday’s run. Against Dundee United (2-3), goalkeeper Josef Bursik punching his own defender when coming for a cross, leading to the winner.

And then there are red cards for Nectarios Triantis against Motherwell and Newell against Dundee United, all at times of the match when Hibs were in relative control.

Hibs owner Ian Gordon, right, and Malky Mackay. | SNS Group

There are too many sinners in this Hibs team right now. “We have to hold ourselves a lot more accountable,” experienced striker Dwight Gayle rightly pointed out after the latest debacle in Dundee.

They are not the only ones at Hibs who need to do so, though. The hierarchy, spearheaded by owner Ian Gordon and including chief executive Ben Kensell and sporting director Malky Mackay, continually get it in the neck from an angry fanbase. Hibs have had five permanent managers in the past four years. The issues are persistent and are not going away.

Gordon spoke to this media outlet just last month about the mistakes of the past and how with a summer recruitment focused solely on players with experience of British football, they were going back to basics. There is major trust from within that Gray is the right man to spearhead the revolution. The stated target for this season is at least the top six. On current evidence, Hibs will do well to pull away from the danger zone.

At board level, there is currently little appetite to be trigger happy and throw Gray to the wolves. The next three games for Hibs, though, are huge. The importance of the derby does not need to be spelled out. On October 30, they travel north to fellow strugglers Ross County. A midweek date in Dingwall is never easy for Hibs. Then they face Dundee Utd again, at home on Sunday, November 3. No wins from that trilogy would mean only one victory 30 per cent into the season. Alarm bells would ring louder.

Without marquee summer signing Kieron Bowie due to hamstring surgery, Gray needs to regroup this Hibs squad - and fast. He is being let down by poor goalkeeping from Club Brugge loanee Bursik, a porous defence and a limited middle to front. All of Hibs’ creativity comes from out wide in the shape of Junior Hoilett and Martin Boyle. The midfield is stodgy, lacking in stardust. The most enigmatic player is Elie Youan, but after failing to get his big-money move in the summer and being subjected to racist taunts from his own fans, his impact has been non-existent. The flamboyant French forward didn’t even grace the pitch at Tannadice.

Hibs goalkeeper Josef Bursik. | SNS Group

Gray himself cannot escape criticism either. The team lost to Kelty Hearts in the Premier Sports Cup after he rested many first-team regulars, costing them a seeding in the next round. In-game tweaks and substitutions have been queried. For a defender himself, his team does not wear his playing attributes of robustness and determination.

“Hibs, Hibs are falling apart, again,” is the chant from opposition fans right now. After slumping to the foot of the table - for the first time at this stage of a campaign under the Gordon regime - those words are vindicated. It is now up to Gray and his players to change the mood music, and fast.