How Hearts breezed into knockout stage: Surprise line-up & standouts.

Heart of Midlothian cruised into the Premier Sports Cup knockout stage with a 4-0 home win over Dumbarton, but will have to wait until the weekend to find out if they will be seeded in the draw.

Derek McInnes made numerous changes to the team that defeated Stirling Albion, as well as a system switch.

Lawrence Shankland opened the scoring early, so it made little difference. The home team had to wait until halftime to add a second with another set-piece goal, this time an own goal.

A change of formation at halftime resulted in more goals, with substitutes Alexandros Kyziridis and Claudio Braga adding to their tally early in their careers.

Hearts face Sunderland in their final friendly before the Scottish Premiership season begins. Craig and Joel reflect on the events of Gorgie.

Hearts will be confident of securing one of the three seeded spots with 12 points and a healthy goal difference, but there are four other groups in which teams can finish with 12.

Partick Thistle are on nine points, but they must beat Ross County in Dingwall to reach maximum points. The winners of Airdrieonians vs. Alloa will advance to round 12. Ayr United face St Mirren in Paisley on Saturday, looking to make it four wins out of four. St Johnstone should easily get the maximum when they host Elgin City. Not only that, but all teams would need to win by a large margin to beat Hearts’ plus-15 goal difference.

The Jam Tarts have had an extremely productive League Cup group stage. All four victories have been comfortable, new signings have settled in, McInnes has been able to give minutes to the vast majority of the first-team squad, all strikers have scored, the team has performed well at set-pieces, and the head coach has experimented tactically.

Overall, Hearts are well prepared to begin league play a week from Monday.

Set-up and Stephen Kingsley

When the Hearts starting XI was announced, it took some time to figure out how they had set up. No one would have predicted a back three featuring Sander Kartum and Blair Spittal as wingbacks.

In the Premier Sports Cup group stage, McInnes’ side has not been afraid to go direct, even if it means going the distance.

They were much more possession-based here, but still moving quickly with a large number of bodies forward. When McInnes’ side had the ball, their shape changed slightly. Kingsley would play like a traditional left-back, defending the area and moving forward to provide support.

Michael Steinwender, on the other side of the back three, would join Frankie Kent to form a two-man central defence.

It meant there was space behind Kartum when he naturally pushed on, but Cammy Devlin provided defensive cover, allowing his midfield partner Calem Nieuwenhof to push on a little more.

Hearts’ play was primarily focused down the left, with Kingsley linking up with Spittal and Elton Kabangu, drifting over to the left wing from the three-man attack.

In the first minute, the trio worked well together to win a corner, from which the home side nearly took the lead. Kingsley sent in a number of dangerous crosses in the first half, including a fantastic ball that found an unmarked Shankland for the opener.

Aside from that, Kingsley slipped Kabangu down the wing for a dangerous cross, which was foiled by a last-ditch intervention from the Dumbarton defence. Later, he found Kabangu in the centre, but the striker missed his header.

Since the sale of James Penrice, all eyes have been on the left-back position, with Harry Milne expected to fill the void – and so far, he has done so, albeit against lower-league opposition.

Kingsley’s performance demonstrated depth, if not competition, if he can avoid injury.

Half-time changes

The second goal just before halftime allowed McInnes to try some new things, and he made a double substitution at the break, bringing on Adam Forrester for his first competitive appearance under the new manager. He was joined by Alexandros Kyziridis, who played on the right wing following an impressive debut on the opposite side against Stirling Albion on Saturday.

The two linked early in the half, exchanging a one-two that the Greek followed up with a chipped pass.

Hearts were now in a 4-4-2 formation and Kyziridis was positioned narrower than he was on Saturday, at one point popping up to link with Spittal on the left. A few minutes later, he collected the ball just outside the area and under the attention of three defender, dribbled into the box before finding the net via the inside of the far post.

In-game formation changes are something that we have seen a lot from McInnes during the Premier Sports Cup group stage. Some of that has been using these matches to play around with different combinations against lower-league opposition.

That said, when the Scottish Premiership action gets underway, the Hearts head coach is not averse to changing his shape during matches depending on the circumstances.

It was another change that made it 4-0 when Claudio Braga guided in Devlin’s cutback. Kyziridis was involved, slipping the Aussie midfielder in with a through ball.

Sabah Kerjota

The Albanian made his debut with just under 20 minutes remaining. He only received international clearance earlier this week, but he has been in Scotland for longer. With only a few games until Aberdeen a week from Monday, McInnes was eager to get him some minutes.

Starting on the right side while Kyziridis went to the left, Kerjota’s first move was to cut inside around the halfway line before playing a crossfield pass with a little too much on it for his Greek teammate. Next, he collected the ball on a congested right wing and, after waiting for a beat, cleverly selected Braga, whose shot was blocked.

Kerjota also demonstrated the opposite side of his game at one point, harrying a Dumbarton defender to win a corner. He also attempted to take those, and while they could have been better, he fizzed in an excellent cross from a wide free-kick that Shay Kelly had to save in the away goal.

The winger also had a good chance to score after exchanging one-twos with Wilson on the edge of the box, but the move fell apart. Kerjota put on a good first performance after Hearts fans had to wait to see their new signing in action.

Always want to get on the ball and make something happen, he is another option in the mould of what McInnes looks for from his wingers.

Kartum and Kabangu

The Norwegian midfielder started one pre-season game, against St Mirren, as a right wing-back, with Michael Steinwender behind him at right centre-back.

So, while it was a new role for him, he had some experience prior to his first competitive start.

With the options McInnes has and the way the head coach wants to play, it’s difficult to see where he fits in the team’s future, but he’s shown signs of creativity.

When asked to provide width on the right, he would never go down the line, beat a full-back and cross it, but when he cut in it allowed him to cross or better yet, slide a through ball, as he did perfectly early on.

It wasn’t a natural fit. Dumbarton found it easy to force him back or sideways at times, and he gave the opposition too much of the ball on a few occasions.

He can’t be faulted for effort, digging in when the ball was lost to win in the back and working hard defensively.

Kabangu, on the other hand, was a combination striker and wideman. He began brightly, collaborating with teammates and making good runs.

There were a few threatening balls in the box. When he did play as a striker, his decision-making was erratic, including one instance in which he shot instead of setting up Wilson.

Both were replaced during halftime. As things stand, the duo appear to be squad members rather than first-team regulars.

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