It won't feel like it at the moment but Hibs' horror show at Falkirk on Tuesday night might just be the best thing that could have happened to Lee Johnson in the long run.
The new boss might have been looking at a decent pre-season against English opposition and a 5-0 scudding of Clyde on Saturday and thinking he was on the right track, but losing to Falkirk - and the first half display in particular - will have told him that there is still plenty of work to be done right through the team. It must also have drilled home to him that some of the players who didn't do the business last season and who played at Falkirk, simply aren't going to cut it at Easter Road if the club is to progress.
A manager learns more about his team in adversity than he does when it is winning, so I'm sure he will now know who he can rely and where he needs reinforcements. For me, he has got to find the right blend in midfield. He played Jake Doyle-Hayes, Josh Campbell and Joe Newell and whenever that trio played together last season it just didn't work. That was the same on Tuesday. They are just too similar, so Johnson has got to find someone who is going to go beyond the strikers and get a goal.
The forward area also needs addressed. Elie Youan is also going to be coming in from France to add more competition in attack so that bodes well. I hope he is going to the man because I'm not sure Christian Doidge - even though he got a hat-trick against Clyde - is going to be the man to get you 15-20 goals in a season. Nor Elias Melkersen, for that matter.
I watched Youan - who is just waiting on a work permit - during pre-season and he's got the pace to stretch defences, which is something they've missed since Martin Boyle left. Falkirk played a reasonably high line but Hibs had nobody to run in behind, so hopefully he make a difference.
Falkirk were excellent, played with high energy and pressed Hibs, but it would have been a worry to a decent Hibs travelling support that their team couldn't deal with it. But as I said, that might just have been enough for Johnson to have made his mind up about a few players. We might not see too much of some of them again to be honest, because the new gaffer doesn't strike me as someone who is going to accept performances like that one against League One opposition.
He's certainly got more to think about now than he did on Saturday when couldn't have asked for more than a 5-0 win in his first competitive game. no matter who the opposition was.
When I was at Hibs under Tony Mowbray I scored in pre-season games against Cardiff and against Leeds United, I was scoring goals against good opposition. Then we played the first game of the season against Kilmarnock and I had a stinker.
I missed two absolute sitters and we lost 1-0 to a Kris Boyd goal. One of my sitters was a snip from a few yards out and I blazed it over the bar so these early games are important for Hibs but it's all about making sure they are ready to put the ball in the back of the net when it matters most against St Johnstone later this month.
They'll have a better chance of that happening if Youan and another couple of signings can get in the door before the league action gets underway.
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