Will Hibs see attack as best form of defence in Rangers Cup clash?

It’s not a great philosophical debate, is it? The best teams know how to attack AND defend. Mastery of the game on both sides of the ball is kind of essential, if you’re not to spend your footballing life swinging between crazy highs and crushing lows.

Heading into this evening’s Scottish Cup quarterfinal at home to Rangers, Hibs will feel encouraged by a recent upturn in their ability to prevent opponents from scoring. Having been conceding goals at a fair old lick in the Scottish Premiership, their numbers working out a little way north of one-and-a-half per game, last weekend’s clean sheet – at home to Ross County, admittedly – had to be a positive.

Ask Nick Montgomery about the newfound miserliness of a team with a more solid shape, however, and he’s inclined to turn the argument on its head. And credit his side’s goal threat as key to keeping opponents at bay.

“I’m not someone who thinks you always need a clean sheet,” said the Hibs boss, explaining: “You need to win a game by scoring goals. What you can’t do is rely on getting clean sheets to win you games, because that puts you in a negative mindset.

“At times, we had that at the start of the season, winning games 2-0. I’m the sort of coach who is looking for another goal in that situation. But we sat back, conceded one, then it’s 2-1, the clean sheet you’ve been hanging on to is gone. Then you’re almost asking to concede another one late in the game – which we did on numerous occasions.

“We’ve looked at those games, the goals we’ve conceded where we gave up wins, they came from sitting back and not continuing to play attacking football. And that attacking style is what I’ve tried to implement since I arrived at the club.

“Now, in a quarter-final, at 2-0 up, that would be a bit different! But then you’ve got to be smart, got to have the right squad of players and the bench to help you make changes. We’ve had that in recent weeks.

“There have been times where we’ve stopped playing when in a winning position. If you do that in this league, you invite crosses, balls into the box, set pieces, and opportunities for decisions to go against you. That can’t happen if you have the ball and you’re on the attack.

“It’s something we’ve spoken about a lot. I think we’ve managed the games really well since we had everyone back.

“I don’t need to convince the players. They’re convinced. They know we should have had a clean sheet against Hearts. We should have had a clean sheet against Celtic. I don’t believe the penalties awarded against us in those games were penalties. So the defensive performances have actually been very good, and we should have had more clean sheets.”