OFFICIAL HEARTS JUGGERNAUT THREAD 2020-

[Crùbag]

Last night was great. Ground was buzzing and the team is playing like we've signed 11 new players.

Playing with intent and attitude while keeping it tight at the back. Omonoia probably equate to a top four SPFL team though their finishing was woeful.

[Nutmeg Richard]

Great result last night, and some interesting reading today. 

Nick Harris writes on the business of sport on his brilliant Sporting Intelligence Substack… and, every month, turns his focus to Scottish football writing for Nutmeg Magazine. 

Here's his latest piece:

Brighton owner on cusp of a deal to shake up Scottish football and make Hearts Bloom

[VincentGuerin]

1 hour ago, Crùbag said:

Last night was great. Ground was buzzing and the team is playing like we've signed 11 new players.

Playing with intent and attitude while keeping it tight at the back. Omonoia probably equate to a top four SPFL team though their finishing was woeful.

Agree. f**king loved that last night. We made them look shite in the first half, and they showed in the second that they can play. 
 

We maybe lacked composure second half, but the team did well to recognise they were playing poorly and work on limiting them to no real chances. 
 

A job well done. Brilliant. 

[Insert Amusing Pseudonym]

1 hour ago, DC92 said:

You just have to compare the performances at Tynecastle in Naismith's interim spell (was it 60 shots on goal between the Ross County and Aberdeen wins?) to how his team played when he got the job permanently to know this probably won't last.

Still, Critchley's said and done all the right things in his first week. The changes last night were all either tactical or based on player condition rather than the rotation for rotation's sake we had in August.

Obvious performance levels and results will fluctuate - the problem Naismith had was he changed the style.  If we continue to play that c style we'll win a lot more than we lose at home certainly. 

We've also got players better suited to that than the possession game Naismith was going for

[topcat(The most tip top)]

1 hour ago, Nutmeg Richard said:

Great result last night, and some interesting reading today. 

Nick Harris writes on the business of sport on his brilliant Sporting Intelligence Substack… and, every month, turns his focus to Scottish football writing for Nutmeg Magazine. 

Here's his latest piece:

Brighton owner on cusp of a deal to shake up Scottish football and make Hearts Bloom

Two take aways
1 I didn't realise that Hearts Scottish Cup Winning Centre Half Davie Weir was technical director at Brighton 

2  £8m-£10m investment for a stake of 20% to 25% in the club would value it at around £40m which seems a reasonable offer
 

[DC92]

36 minutes ago, Insert Amusing Pseudonym said:

Obvious performance levels and results will fluctuate - the problem Naismith had was he changed the style.  If we continue to play that c style we'll win a lot more than we lose at home certainly. 

We've also got players better suited to that than the possession game Naismith was going for

But did he deliberately change style or did things just go a bit stale after the initial bounce and once teams had figured us out a bit more?

Not saying the same will happen with Critchley, but it's early days. That's all.

[VincentGuerin]

Should be noted that that's us now won 50% of our Conference League group/league matches since they started the competition. Four from eight. Two each home and away.

The only games we've not won have been against teams you'd expect to pump us.

Obviously the format has changed since last time and it's not like we've beaten Real Madrid, Liverpool, Milan, and Bayern, but this is the standard of the competition and last night is an example of the kind of result we (and the likes of Aberdeen and Hibs) should be looking to make routine. This competition is a chance for us to make real progress and really just enjoy the fitba a lot more.

The big thing for me last night is that, while it was a great night at the fitba, it also felt fairly comfortable. It's not like we clung on through a battering and mugged them. We need to be in this thing all the time.

This kind of competition is one that the non-OF clubs in Scotland can target as a chance to have relatively frequent last 16/last 8 appearances. We should be getting the foot down.

 

Edited 14 hours ago by VincentGuerin