Hibernian defeat by Aston Villa hurts Lee Johnson 'more than anybody'
- Published
Highlights: Hibernian 0-5 Aston Villa
Lee Johnson says Hibernian's struggles "hurts me more than anybody" following a chastening midweek home loss to Aston Villa.
Hibs trail Villa 5-0 going into next Thursday's Europa Conference League play-off second leg in the Midlands, having won two earlier qualifying ties.
The Easter Road side have also lost their opening two Scottish Premiership games and host Livingston on Saturday.
"It's not easy," said manager Johnson, who took over at Hibs 15 months ago.
"We have a lot of pride and if that pride gets dented with a performance we could have dealt with situations better against an outstanding opposition performance that clearly showed a gulf in class, it hurts. It hurts me more than anybody, it hurts the players but we have an honest appraisal that is often emotive.
"As a manager you need to be as controlled as you possibly can in that environment, and as a player you need to deal with it and learn your lessons as quickly as possible after a game like that.
"You will be judged no matter what. This is football and we are being judged all the time. Internally, we have to be honest with ourselves. We watch the games back, sit down with the players. I must have spoken to eight or nine players this morning. Checking in on them making sure they are okay and reframing them, making sure they are physically okay."
Johnson believes the mental aspect of defeat can "absolutely" affect players.
"A good friend of mind Bill Berwick, one of the top sports psychologists in the country, if not the top, always talks about 'the mind is the athlete and the body is the means'," said Johnson.
"The mental capacity required to play in these games can often affect the physical. And clearly that affected us at Motherwell. The performance we put in three days earlier [against Luzern] cost us.
"We have to find the balance on Saturday between refreshing the energy with the team but still having the threats as much as possible and protecting those threats to allow us to have energy in key moments and that's going to be important.
"It's absolutely worth it. I promise you it's worth it because this is about building the club out. This is about being tested and being stretched. I talk about purposeful practise.
"You drive your car in today and you are in auto pilot. I stick you in a Formula One race and you go, 'phwoar, this is different' and that's the equivalent between playing these high level, high intensity matches. But what you do from that is you grow and you learn and your [level] bar gets stretched. Therefore, your bar is higher because of the experience you have."
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