Neil Critchley has won over plenty of Heart of Midlothian fans with the way he has taken to the position of head coach. The way he has spoken, the way he has managed and, most importantly, the way the team has won the last two games.

Much of what he has said has resonated with the support, notably comments made in the aftermath of Thursday night's 2-0 win over Omonia Nicosia, when he talked of playing "our rules" at home.

The way he has conducted himself has not gone unnoticed by club legend John Robertson. He spoke effusively on the Englishman ahead of the Edinburgh derby, his third game in a week after replacing Steven Naismith.

The club's all-time record goalscorer in the league understands why fans may have wanted a "sexy appointment" but has been impressed so far.

“I really, really like his mannerisms," he said. "I thought he spoke very, very well last week. He was calm and measured. That's one of the traits you'll require in a derby game.

“He looks a solid appointment and now I think Hearts fans have got to get behind the team, get behind the manager, see how he gets on. And if you get the results that you need, then you'll become a success and the fans will want you even quicker. 

“If he goes and wins the derby, it's probably the perfect week for him to settle himself down and settle all the Hearts fans down as well.

“Hearts fans are probably, like other fans, seen the success that Jimmy Thelin’s had at Aberdeen and thought, 'This is somebody who's had nothing to do with Scottish football, he's not part of the merry-go-round as they call it or the British football. He's come in with a fresh thing, fresh ideas. He's got performance out of his players and they've had an unbelievable start'.

“So, Hearts fans think we want a sexy appointment - a Scandinavian, Spaniard, Portuguese or a German. Somebody completely different. When Neil arrived, I think it's not quite what we were expecting.”

It's not just his appearance in front of the cameras that has impressed Robertson, who managed Hearts during the 2004/05 season, but the way he has approached his management of the squad while not making any grand announcements in terms of the style he wants to play.

"He didn't look too over-excited," he said. "He's not come out and said we're going to play like Jürgen Klopp, heavy metal rock. Look at Liverpool, the Arne Slot's come in. I'm a Liverpool fan. You hear Slot speaking and think OK, he's nice and calm. Not the biggest name, but look what he's done. 11 wins out of 12, unbelievable.

"Neil Critchley's come in and he's just been very matter-of-fact about it. This is what I'm here to do, I'm here to get results, develop players, take the team forward. He's not defined what style of play he wants. And you can't because he might look and think, well I'm going to play this full press or drop off. But he might not have the players to play that.

"[Daniel] Stendel tried to play the full press and go one for one at the back, but didn't have the players to play it so he struggled.  So what he's done is he's come in very measured, he's come in very calm and he'll take his time now."


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Critchley, of course, arrived following a process that was guided by analytics, namely Jamestown Analytics. The company that has worked with clubs to good effect in the UK and Europe.

For Robertson, he believes it is "going to be very, very interesting times for Hearts going forward" with it shaping recruitment as well as other areas of the club.

He noted his fascination of seeing what it would have been like under former Hearts manager Alex MacDonald, "putting on a GPS and running up Gullane Sands" while also noting Jim Jefferies approach of wanting to ensure you watched the player with your own eyes.

"Those were the days when you didn't get bottles of water to rehydrate yourself during training," Robertson said. "It's just the modernisation of the game. We've all watched the Moneyball film. It worked. Baseball, where they showed you get rid of one big player, but the three guys you bring in will actually contribute more than he did. 

"So it can help in certain ways, there's absolutely no doubt about it. With Inverness, we used Wyscout, Huddle, and all these things. You can watch players all over the world. You target certain leagues for you, or what you're requiring. I still liked to go out and watch players. Jim Jeffries always said to me that these two things - your eyes - will tell you a lot more than computers do.

"Analytics will not tell you how the boy does his warm-up. Is he good at the warm-up? Does he take it seriously? Does he mess about? Does he disrupt other people? You then watch him in games, watch him for seven-minute spells, just that player, home and away.

"It doesn't tell you about their attitude, it doesn't tell you about their character, which is still a big part these days, I think. But, as I say, it's an exciting process. We've seen the success it's had at Brighton."

Hearts fans have been informed from various angles that it is shaping up to be a very interesting and exciting era for the club. Brighton, under the ownership of Tony Bloom, are the big ticket example of how analytics can help a team punch above their weight in terms of where their position on the footballing food chain is regarded to be.

Robertson was keen to stress the need for patience. Brighton wasn't an overnight success. There was no "magic wand". It took time. But he views Critchley as being the "start" of the process.

"Brighton, the last four or five years, have become a real strong team, with strong coaches and strong players," he said, using the example of the Seagulls. "But Tony Bloom was at Brighton another five years before that.

"It's going to take a wee while, in terms of the coaches' philosophy. That's the one thing Brighton did have. Chris Hughton got them up, they changed it, then they found their style of play, and once they've found their style of play, it's a lot easier to bring a manager in to fit that.

"Because if it's all about passing, then you can look at stats of managers passing points, games, win percentage, expected goals, attempts at goals, so you can factor those things in, but not right away. So I think, Hearts have got to put the horse before the cart, and get a style of play that they're thinking about, and then that will start. So hopefully, Neil Critchley will be the start of that process. He'll define a way they're going to play.

"Once they've defined that way of play, hopefully, as I hope for every Hearts manager, Neil Critchley remains there for a long time and does a really good job, and he's successful. If he's not, the next one in will be looked upon as, that's how we play, this is the guy we need. And then that's when you start to get your conveyor belt of players coming in that fit the system. You look at, say, Brighton, Union Saint-Gilloise, at the moment, they're bringing players in to fit the jigsaw puzzle.

"That won't happen overnight, it will not happen in January, it might not happen next summer. It will start to evolve, it will start to get better. Hearts fans just have to have a wee bit of patience. Patience is a hard thing for a supporter, because we need to see results on the pitch, and progress on the pitch. If you see that, then they'll give you the patience and the opportunity for this new system to come into play."

John Robertson was a guest on The Warm-Up, the essential William Hill SPFL preview show. Watch their exclusive Edinburgh Derby episode here.