Exclusive: Changes at Hearts as head coach Derek McInnes reveals his thinking.
Derek McInnes’ decision to change his Hearts team for tonight’s Premier Sports Cup match against Hamilton makes sense.
Traditionalists may expect the same starting lineup at Broadwood after defeating Dunfermline 4-1 in their first match on Saturday, but McInnes believes otherwise.
He spoke exclusively to the Edinburgh News about his thoughts while juggling a 30-man squad. He needs everyone fully fit and sharp for the William Hill Premiership opener against Aberdeen on Monday, August 4. Although there is no desire to experiment with Premier Sports ties, there will be some rotation to keep Hearts fresh given the short turnaround between matches.
Stuart Findlay, an on-loan centre-back, and Alexandros Kyziridis, a Greek winger, are both expected to make their debuts. Others on the bench this weekend could be promoted. “We will look at everybody and look at the numbers,” McInnes stated.
“I think, at this stage of the season, it’s difficult for players to be at their best Saturday, Tuesday, Saturday, so we’ll probably freshen it up in some areas on Tuesday. Then we will get the benefit of doing that again on Saturday [against Stirling Albion. In certain areas we are a wee bit stronger than others, clearly. My thinking is that a few boys who didn’t start on Saturday will be involved on Tuesday.”
McInnes was pleased with Saturday’s central defensive pairing of Frankie Kent and Craig Halkett. Introducing Findlay, who was suspended against Dunfermline, is therefore not a straightforward task. “I wanted a clean sheet, and I thought we could have defended the situation a bit better when Dunfermline scored, but I thought Halkett and Kent were terrific,” added the manager.
“Stephen Kingsley comes on as well and gets a brilliant goal and shows his quality. I thought Harry Milne was good. I think, when you actually look at it, there were still a lot of positives and a lot of pluses. There are still things we can do better, clearly. Even if you change the team up on Tuesday, it’s not really any real assessment of the players who are left out.”
Hearts tactics and team selection in Premier Sports Cup
One aspect that will remain constant is Hearts’ desire to harass and press opponents when not in possession.
It is a key aspect of McInnes’ approach, as demonstrated against Dunfermline. “Yeah, I think the team we picked, we knew that Dunfermline’s wing-backs had the responsibility to go forward because they’ve got good legs,” said the football coach.
“It was their responsibility to jump to full-backs, and we knew our full-backs would see a lot of the ball, but we wanted to disrupt their back three. So, when their wing-backs jump forward, they go three for three against [James] Wilson, [Claudio] Braga, and [Lawrence] Shankland.
“We wanted Braga to come off his shape from that left side and play like a No.10, we wanted James to stretch the game, and we wanted Lawrence to be that focal point.
We actually did so much of that right in the first period, and we get the goal with two or three other chances. Lawrence would probably take his chance to pull back early on, so we had a couple of chances early on in the game. A lot of what we were asking for in terms of the press was good.
“Funnily enough, the one time we didn’t get the press right, we were a little late to the party, and they benefited from it. So we’re either all in for the press, or we’re all out and remain calm. The goal we lost is a little too simplistic for my taste.
“For all of the chances and decent play we had, as well as crosses into their box, I believe we had a lot of penalty box entries, which was exactly what I was looking for in terms of putting pressure on the opposition.
Despite that, we remained at level at halftime, which was disappointing.”“Funnily enough, the one time we didn’t really get the press right, we were a wee bit late to the party and they scored from it. So we are either all in for the press, or we were all out and we stay calm. The goal we lost is just a bit too simplistic for my liking.
“For all of the chances and decent play we had, as well as crosses into their box, I believe we had a lot of penalty box entries, which was exactly what I was looking for in terms of putting pressure on the opposition. Despite that, we remained at level at halftime, which was disappointing.”
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