Robbie Neilson is trying to implement a style at Hearts and that's admirable. But you cannot have delusions of grandeur and you cannot be one-dimensional.
Right now, that’s how it’s coming across and it needs to change. Hearts are in the midst of a very tough spell and I understand it is difficult. All the travelling for Europe, games every three or four days, a long injury list. But, to be honest, I don’t think I saw it being this difficult and, while some of the issues are outwith their control, other problems on the park are worryingly self-inflicted.
Listen, I’ve been so positive about Hearts, but I’ve also been so disappointed with recent games. I was at Kilmarnock a week past Sunday and Hearts were all over the place. The rain was battering all ways on an artificial surface, but there was this grandeur of: We can play out from the back, we are better than that, we have this new style. Sometimes you just have to play the situation. It’s Rugby Park on a Sunday, it’s p****g with rain, just get go and win the game.
Kilmarnock’s defence was not so mobile and you are just thinking: Get down the sides. The time they did that they scored. Playing out from their own bye-kicks, playing around the back. Playing crazy balls. They did it continually.
Fiorentina was the same. It was just incredible. Any time they went in behind Fiorentina, Hearts were a threat, but they were 4-0 down before they started to do it.
Aberdeen last Sunday, same thing again. Lessons are not being learned and the perfect way to assess the Celtic game is to look back just recently to when Rangers went to Tynecastle for a lunchtime Saturday kick-off.
Same again. Same way of playing, bang, bang, 2-0 down almost immediately and game gone. See you later.
You need to squeeze, win the battles. I don’t know if it is this grandeur and we’re going to build from the back and do this and that.
That’s fine if the situation suits. There will be many games when the time is right to do it.
But I just found it one-dimensional. Every time Craig Gordon put the ball down, you knew he was going to play it along his six-yard box and they were getting caught.
You don’t want Barrie Mckay picking up possession 35 yards from his own goal. Or Alan Forrest. You want them 40 yards further forward trying to make things happen.
I’m not saying just kick it and run. That’s not the message.
But, right now, every team knows what Hearts are going to do and it is so easy to play against. So easy.
The best teams in the world change it up. Look at Liverpool last Sunday against Manchester City. Changed to play counter attack. Look at their goal. One long ball up the park 60 yards from the keeper, one touch from Mo Salah and through to score a goal. Playing the situation.
There are times when you need to batten down the hatches. Hearts are on a bad run, the schedule is tough, there are a host of players out injured.
Let’s just play the occasion. There will be a crowd at Tynecastle and they just want to see blood and thunder and getting stuck into Celtic.
There is nothing wrong with changing up when the situation requires and this is a needs must scenario. When you are in the position that Hearts are in at the moment, have that many players out, have a team out of form in the middle of so-many games and facing a Celtic side who will be ready to pounce on weakness and mistakes, you buckle down.
If that means just going all out, playing the game in the opponent’s half as much as you can and getting at them, I think you have to do it. Like I say, there will be games when Hearts can implement their new style successfully. With a fully-fit squad and a team in form, they will have time to do it.
This is not the time. It is time to show another dimension.
As much as everything has been positive, it’s been brilliant being in Europe, I can see it and the fans can see it. Maybe it’s time to go back to the old-fashioned Hearts way and get a few results on the board.
READ NEXT
