‘Super qualities’ of players will be allowed to shine through
Hibs fans have been promised “intensity and entertainment” under new management -inspired by the very best football of Jurgen Klopp’s all-conquering Liverpool. And Marink Reedijk insists he wouldn’t have taken the Easter Road job if he didn’t believe in his new players’ ability to deliver on that promise.
Reedijk, who has enjoyed two full weeks of training, including a warm-weather camp in La Manga, since succeeding David Gray during the international break, takes his team to Tannadice to play Dundee United tomorrow afternoon. He’s eager to get started – and already making bold promises.
Sign up to our Hibs football newsletter
Asked to sum up the footballing philosophy that earned him a PhD in coaching, the 35-year-old declared: “Two things. Intensity and entertainment. For me that is because we play football not only to win matches but also to entertain the people. And I'd rather have a match where we ... If it's a draw that we try to win that we dig in to get the point. And don't get me wrong, if we need a point sometimes and we have the difficulties that this is the case to win something else then okay, I take it. That's circumstantial.
Inspired by the best
Jurgen Klopp won the Champions League with Liverpool (Peter Byrne/PA)placeholder image
Jurgen Klopp won the Champions League with Liverpool (Peter Byrne/PA)
“But for 80 per cent of the times I would want to win. And that sort of entertainment I think we need to bring to the full. And that requires bravery. Bravery from us as a staff but also bravery from the players to do what they think is best at that moment in time. And from the mistakes we will make, which we will make, we will learn.”
Pressed on his entertaining principles, Reedijk volunteered the example of Premier League and Champions League winners Liverpool under the energetic Klopp, explaining: “For me, it's about that you see players on the pitch who do everything in their power to win a match, to work for the team, leave everything behind. We all know football. You will have days where it's hard. It's not working like you wish it would work. But then still, we can be entertaining and we can make sure that we show something on the pitch where people can identify themselves with.
“And for me, one of the best examples was the Liverpool of Klopp, which was this. And then also the individual quality of individuals there come to life. This is also what I want with my players.
Read More
“Players have certain qualities and super qualities, if you like. And these need to come alive as soon as possible and the best possible. Because then the sum of all individuals will be bigger and will have a bigger outcome, in my opinion, than the normal sum would normally be. So this is how I see the entertainment.”
Reedijk has watched a lot of Hibs games on tape. Unwilling to make a judgement on where they’d been going wrong, without inside knowledge of what his predecessor had been telling his players, he provided a blunt answer when asked if this group had the quality to perform with the intensity needed, saying simply: “Otherwise I wouldn’t have come here.”