We hear a lot about bravery in football. About players being strong enough to ask for the ball under pressure, to take chances when the risk is equal to the reward.
But what about the gaffers who have the cojones to lay everything on the line, when the heat is being cranked up and every point is a prisoner? They often get overlooked.
Let’s hear it, then, for Kilmarnock manager Derek McInnes. A coach whose reputation for caution belies a boldness laid bare in Saturday’s home win over Hearts. While the theme of a rip-roaring afternoon at Rugby Park may well have been one of home defiance, especially when the hosts were reduced to ten men for the last half hour, there was also much to admire in the courageous approach they took to stymieing a visiting side boasting some fairly fearsome firepower.
McInnes deciding to simply go man-for-man against the Hearts starting front three of Josh Ginnelly, Alan Forrest and Scotland striker Lawrence Shankland was a master stroke.
Admittedly, left centre-back Jeriel Dorsett didn’t make the best of starts, gifting Shankland possession for the early opener. But it was partly a forced error, with how effectively Hearts had closed down the defender’s options.
It demonstrates how the back three of Dorsett, Lewis Mayo and the absolutely outstanding Joe Wright were willing to take individual responsibility in a good collective performance.
Using twin strikers Christian Doidge and Kyle Vassell to unsettle the Hearts back line, Kilmarnock made no apologies for playing off second balls and looking to whip in crosses for the two target men. And they pressed, in the right areas, in good numbers.
The home side also understood that, any time you play a back three, the left and right-sided defenders can’t just stay in a line with the sweeper when they have the ball; there is an onus on this unit to play out from the back (which also shows midfielder Liam Donnelly dropping into help with the build-up).
It helped, of course, that Killie had a pair of forwards capable of terrorising the Hearts defence every time a cross came into the box, although a hirpling Zander Clark – already at fault for conceding a penalty for the equaliser – really should have claimed the ball for the home second, however good the delivery.
Once Rory McKenzie was shown a straight red card just after the hour mark, of course, the situation became much more straightforward. Kilmarnock would defend in the right areas, look for Doidge and Vassell to make things stick up top … and effectively cede large swathes of the Rugby Park pitch to the visitors.
The plan now was to let Hearts have the ball, in the main. Even allow them to play all the “U-bend football” they wanted by shifting possession around and in front of a very compact defending unit. Knowing that, unless it’s moved at what the old Barca boys used to call “half touch speed”, the nine outfielders still on the park would be able to shuffle across and deal with anything that might come at them.
And when Hearts did try to mix things up by going through the middle? They found 18-year-old David Watson harrying and hounding his elders, including cheekily robbing Robert Snodgrass in a perfect illustration of the difference between these teams, on the day.
The kid had apparently missed almost a full week of training after rolling his ankle on Monday. Yet taped it up, suited up and fronted up on game day. Brave lad. One of several in the Killie ranks.
