Heart of Midlothian will go in search of their second victory on the road in the Conference League when they take on Cercle Brugge on Thursday night in Belgium.

Neil Critchley's men are in a very good place to advance to the knockout stage despite the recent loss to Heidenheim. Wins over Dinamo Minsk and Omonia Nicosia give the Jam Tarts a 93 per cent chance of progression with three fixtures remaining.

Ahead of the fixture in Bruges, Joel caught up with Belgian football consultant Scott Coyne, a member of the Belgian Football Podcast, for the lowdown on Cercle Brugge.

You can watch the video below (also available as a podcast) or read the full Q&A...

Are you able to provide a brief overview of Cercle Brugge and their standing within Belgian football, just because they're not one of the bigger names like Standard Liege, Anderlecht, or their city rivals, Club Brugge?

Historically they've been in the shadow of their local rivals for quite a long time now, obviously Club Brugge, which a lot of football fans will be very well aware of. Cercle's heyday really is kind of pre-Second World War. They've won a number of titles and were a reasonably big club in terms of their place within the Belgian footballing landscape, kind of up to that point. They've fluctuated a lot and I would say over the last sort of 15-20 years their story's been one of relegation, promotion, relegation, promotion and they've they've been struggling to be a consistently safe, say, mid-table side in Belgium for a while.

They were bought a number of years ago by the owner of Monaco, the Russian billionaire Dmitry Rybolovlev. I think there was a perception that Cercle are now very heavily backed financially and the truth is they're not. It's very, very modest. They do take advantage of Monaco's wider scouting network and their significant sports science department. So there's a lot of infrastructure support there that really benefits the club itself, which is very small. Over the last three or four years, there's been some really important infrastructure things put in place at the club that have really helped them stabilise and develop really effectively. They've had some really smart people in key operational positions, really good directors of football. Their scouting has been very good and the club has managed to progress, particularly over the last two or three years, under some good coaches. So the club is becoming more stable and last season they had an extraordinarily good year.

[Last season] They managed to finish in play-off one, which is the championship play-off for the very first time and that allowed them to qualify for European football. That was the reward for having a really strong, consistent season. They've had a few troubles over the summer leads them to their current frustrations. But they're a club who, broadly speaking, are on the up in a number of ways.

Why was last season such a success?

Well, I think they had a very stable side and they have a way of playing which that particular squad last season had become very, very comfortable with, having been playing regularly that way from the year before as well. So there was a 12-18 month period there where that squad had really bonded and started to develop some results. You could really see that and a lot of last season's success was obviously down to one particular player and him being the top scorer in Belgium last season, a certain Kevin Denkey. He finished the top scorer in Belgium last season and that was a big part of that, but they also had some really important players there who were performing consistently as well, which was so important for them.

Ironically and somewhat unfortunate as well, most of those players have now left over the summer and that was the beginning of some of the challenges that they've seen in the pre-season and in some respects that are still ongoing at the moment.

They're sitting 14th in the league. They lost to Standard Liege on Saturday evening and they lost 5-0 before the international break to Anderlecht. Why the big shift from finishing so high up last season to now looking over their shoulder?

I think there's a few things that are worth contextualising here. A number of key players left over the summer, arguably the most important players in the core of the squad. To be fair to Cercle what they actually did was they brought in a lot of players early, they were very early in a lot of their transfer business this summer which was a positive thing I think. But Cercle for a number of years now have had the youngest squad in Belgium and it still is one of the youngest.

Again a lot of young players coming in, you have additional challenges embedding them into a squad and also they've had the added complication of playing European football regularly. They had the European qualifiers early before the season even started as well which was something they were not used to. So there was a lot of turnover and what Miron Muslic, the head coach at Cercle, has done, I think wisely, is a fair degree of rotation. There was a decision taken, a deliberate decision taken, to use the squad very heavily and give everybody a good amount of game time and that was to allow these players to acclimatise coming to a new country but also to get used to the system that Cercle play so that hopefully not only does their fitness improve but they're able to just click into the system that's going to be demanded of them and the only way to do that gives a lot of new players game time. There's been some practical disruptions there that have been difficult to manage, embedding in new players and also juggling European football and the schedule that comes with that.

Losing Kevin Denkey now is a huge miss for them because Kevin has already scored 11 goals across 23 games so far this season. Nobody is close to being able to replace that output and score at the moment so the money that's come in from that transfer is going to have to be used extremely wisely because I think Cercle's technical director Rembert Vromant has got a really big decision to make now. I think he has to get that call right as to who Kevin's replacement is. It's going to be really interesting to see who they go for because I think if they don't get that call right I think the second half of the domestic season in Belgium for them could be really, really torturous so they need to find a solution to that and quite quickly.

(Image: Rob Casey - SNS Group) That transfer has been a long time coming. It should have really happened over the summer. It looked like he was going to stay in Europe over the summer. It didn't quite happen. They held off because although there was a number of offers on the table, none of them were to Cercle's liking or particularly to Kevin's so the fact the window closed without Kevin leaving led to a bit of further disruption in the camp obviously because Kevin got distracted understandably and then I think that affected some of the other players so he had quite a slow start to the domestic season as well. Once the window had closed and it looked like he was going to be staying probably until January I think he got his head down again and got refocused and I think in recent weeks leading up to the international break recently there have been some signs that their form's starting to improve.

Unfortunately, the results still aren't coming yet but they have been looking a little bit better, and some of those defensive issues that they've had because defensively they've been a bit suspect this season because of a number of changes and it seems to be improving.

What's the general feeling around the club as well as the press or the fans about the situation they're in? Is the manager under pressure?

Well, I think Miron Muslic is probably one of the most talented coaches in Belgium at the moment. There's quite a lot of people keeping an eye on him. Miron's a very good coach. The players over the last few years, you can tell they respect Muslic and want to play for him. He always handles media obligations very well. He's a very good speaker and I think he's a good fit for the club. I think he is under pressure in a way that he hasn't been before at the moment largely because of the results but you've got this added challenge of losing key players and having to hopefully get those new players as close to the last season's level as possible as quickly as possible.

They're now in a situation where I think the second half of the season is going to be tough for them even if they do get the right replacement for Kevin Denkey because the Belgian league is incredibly competitive for the most part right across the top division of the pro league as well. It's entirely possible for smaller clubs to take points from bigger clubs. The competitiveness right across the division is there and the reality is a lot of those new players that have come in, although there have been individual improvements in some of them, I think it is probably going to take the best part maybe of another six months before we really know whether they're going to be effective replacements for who came before.

What they want to avoid is a yoyo situation where they have a season like they used to do five years ago or before where they would be in real relegation battles most seasons. They've been able to avoid that through a lot of the great infrastructure work that's been put in place that I was talking about earlier.

Looking ahead to the game, what can Hearts expect from them in terms of how they play and what system and style they play in?

Cercle tend to play a very high-press, high-intensity game, so they're going to look to squeeze Hearts, particularly in Hearts' final third, look to win most of the second balls, and then be down Hearts' throats as quickly as possible, so they'll look to win a lot of knockdowns as well. They do like to go long quite a lot, which allows them to win knockdowns and deliberately force a lot of those duels. Belgian football domestically has a lot of dueling and a lot of transitioning, which Scottish football does as well, so this is quite an intriguing game.

Cercle played Kilmarnock and we saw a similar game, a game that was actually quite close over the two legs, partly because it was so early in the season and neither side were particularly ready for a game like that yet. But I think physically and tactically this game's quite even. The big unknown obviously is with Kevin Denkey being missing offensively, how are Cercle going to handle that? Because nobody really has been able to step into Kevin's mantle in terms of that offensive output, so they're going to be looking at some of the key players to have big nights for them.

They'll look to squeeze the game, I think, and not allow Hearts to settle, particularly in their defensive 20 yards. I think home advantage will help them a little bit.

Denkey knits the team together by allowing them to go direct. Who's likely to come in and replace him?

There are a number of options that Miron could go for. I think the front three are a bit interchangeable in terms of the wingers can play either side, and there are a couple of attacking midfielders in the squad who can play as a striker if necessary and have done occasionally.

There are some key players to look out for. Thibo Somers, Mr Cercle, as some people call him. He has spent his entire career there, 25-year-old, came through Cercle's academy. He's very, very important. When Thibo plays well, generally Cercle play well and he can play up front if necessary. He doesn't score a lot but he can play up there and he can play on either side.

Alan Minda is worth watching out for as well, really exciting Ecuadorian winger, who has got real pace and power, a tricky player. His offensive output in terms of goals and assists hasn't really been there this season, but he does have that in his game, so he's definitely a player to watch offensively. Felipe Augusto might start up front. He came in last season, and I think the idea when Felipe came in was to long-term be Kevin Denkey's successor. It hasn't really worked out that way. I actually think he's better wide than he is up front, although he can play as a striker. From what I've seen of him this season particularly, I'm not sure he's going to be a striker, to be honest. He's missed some really quite bad opportunities, particularly one-on-ones, that when you consider the situation Cercle are in, hugely frustrating, hands up in the air, kicking water bottles type stuff from the dugout.

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It's going to be interesting to see who Miron goes with upfront on the evening. You might find he mixes it up a little bit as well. The striker that finishes the game probably won't be the one that starts it because we've seen that when Kevin hasn't played as well.

They've been quite open in recent weeks about the league being more important because of the situation they find themselves in, and they had a little bit of a drama in the lead-up to the Vikingur game when Miron was told quite late on that some of the senior players in the squad were not going to be allowed to travel for that game because they were being rested for the domestic game that weekend, which caused a bit of an issue in the camp. I think he was quite public about not being happy about that, and I think neither were the fans.

They then went on to lose that game. A game they probably almost certainly shouldn't have lost, partly because they rested players that ordinarily they wouldn't, and that disrupted the camp a little bit. So, I think they've learned that really they can't really do that. It is going to be interesting to see who they start.

Injury-wise, the squad is kind of there. They are missing Warleson at the moment, their first-choice goalkeeper. He is a bit of a miss. He is an important player for them, particularly in an offensive sense as well. His footwork is very good, and he actually starts a lot of their attacks. He is known for a long ball that can be down your throat before you know where you are. In fact, he was credited with a number of assists last season for a goalkeeper.

Other players to look out for are Hannes Van der Bruggen, an attacking midfielder, he is a very competent player technically. Christian Ravych, a young centre-back, he has been very good this season. He is one of the few players who has been at a consistently good level. Bruninho, a young Brazilian midfielder, again, good technical ability. He may well feature this week in the game and could be important for them. He has the ability with line-breaking passes to have an impact. Kazeem Olaigbe - formerly of Ross County - is quite a talented Belgian under-21. Offensively, he can play on either side as well. He has goals and assists in him.

Returning to the Vikingur game. The manager was told he couldn't use these players?

Yeah. There was a discussion about it internally, but it was quite obvious from some of the press conferences that there'd been an internal disagreement to a certain extent as to how best to handle that.

Essentially, Miron was told here's a list of players that won't be travelling for the game because we want to rest them for their big league game that weekend. I think that came down at very short notice and something similar happened actually recently just the other week when Kevin went to the States to finalise his deal with Cincinnati. That happened very, very quickly as well and Miron was told at very short notice that he was going to be unavailable for the game that weekend, which is quite disruptive as well for him and I think he had to choose his words very, very carefully. Thankfully, he did.

He's very good in his media relations, Miron, and he's particularly good at being honest but in a diplomatic way rather than just avoiding questions. So there have been a few issues in terms of managing the squad overall throughout the season and I think they're doing their best to deal with that.

They're trying to avoid injuries but also get that squad up to speed as quickly as possible and it's been difficult when you're constantly rotating and changing and trying to find solutions to problems while tackling a squad which, on the whole, is underperforming really at the moment.

What are the areas where Hearts will be hoping to take advantage of? Are there specific areas where they are weak?

Defensively there have been some real question marks surrounding them all season. I think they've been guilty of switching off at key moments in games and just a lot of really basic mistakes. I mean, they lost this weekend to Standard Liege narrowly in the league 1-0 and that really came down to just not defending a simple ball into the box because actually, they didn't play too badly. Arguably, they were the better side on the whole and certainly had the better of the opportunities. The opportunities they have been creating, and they've been creating a fair bit offensively, they've not been taking them.

There are questions around, okay, who's going to step up? They do rely on having kind of quite a strong team unit. That carries them through a lot and that's important no matter what side you are and it's more important now than ever.

Their concentration is something to watch out for and I think if Hearts can exert some pressure in the game, then it'll be interesting to see how Cercle respond to that because playing at home, they will be expected to set the tempo of the game and control it as much as possible as you would expect of any side at home. If Hearts can hold on to some possession and try and take a little bit of heat out of the game, then that could be interesting.

(Image: Craig Foy - SNS Group)

They really do have a very young squad and you're looking at the players that were playing on Saturday, a 19-year-old centre-back and a lot of guys in their early 20s. If you look at their signings, the vast majority were between the ages of 18 and 21. I take it that's a focus for the club and they accept that there's going to be these challenges and there's going to be these mistakes as they grow and develop?

Yeah, absolutely, that's the model and that's been the plan for a number of years now and, you know, will continue to be the plan.

The interesting thing about Kevin leaving is I think a lot of the money from that large fee, that's £16.5 million, will go into building the new training centre which is ready to go. They just needed the cash in place to make that happen, they've got that now, so the remaining cash obviously will go into funding Kevin's replacement who I'm sure they have a very good idea who they want that to be anyway because that deal was so long in the making.

The model of developing young players longer term who will accrue value to bring in good fees is absolutely the model there and because of the relationship with Monaco they have quite an effective exchange programme every season where normally three or four young players from Monaco's academy come to Cercle and train with them over the summer and if they do well they will get an opportunity probably to come to Cercle on loan to play regularly.

If you're a young player, Cercle Brugge are a good club to be at and a good place to develop because in Belgium generally, the academies are very strong so the pathways for player development are absolutely there. Young players get a chance to play at a senior level regularly in Belgium across most smaller clubs and the larger clubs as well. It's a great environment to develop talent, it's one of the reasons why more and more people are watching the Pro League in Belgium now because young players get those opportunities, develop faster, and obviously, if they do well they get their move and also there's real added value there in Belgium.

A lot of Belgian clubs get mugged for transfer fees, young players leaving for what are very modest fees who are actually probably worth a lot more just because of the timing. It's a difficult balancing act because clubs that don't have a great deal of revenue have to judge that right moment when's the peak moment for this deal and often they lose players a year or two earlier than they would like just because the deal is too good to turn down and financially a lot of the medium to smaller size clubs in Belgium don't have any choice in that sense.

The new TV deal in Belgium is being negotiated at the moment, it's certainly going to be worth less to clubs than the previous deal so that means we're going to see a situation I think where clubs are going to continue to look to really maximise in a big way these sales in the coming years in order to continue funding that cycle because there's less TV revenue money available.

What can fans expect from Bruges city and the stadium and are there any recommendations for people that are travelling to Bruges?

Yeah well, Bruges is a very, very special place in truth, it is definitely one of those places where once you've been once then you will rave to people about it. The centre of the city itself, the medieval centre is a UNESCO world heritage site as well, it's that special and a lot of that has to do with the fact I think that it's completely untouched and undamaged from the first and second world wars. It's incredible to think that it's probably arguably the most perfectly preserved medieval city in Europe as well.

A few things to kind of look out for if you get the chance to do, take in a little canal cruise, it's always great to see Bruges from a different perspective because it's a canal-based city and it's great to see it from the water as well. The Belfry, a really famous landmark just off the Grote Markt, can't miss that, you get really good panoramic views of the city if you get a chance to get up there. Lots of good museums as well, there's a really good chocolate museum called the Choco-Story, it's really really good. There's a really good beer museum as well called the Beer Wall which has a little museum inside and has a really nice terrace that overlooks the canal and has some brilliant photographic opportunities and a literal beer wall with hundreds and hundreds of Belgian beers.

There's some really good museums in the city as well. There's one called the Groeningemuseum which is really a kind of history of visual Flemish art and they've got a lot of really good works in there by famous painters like Hieronymus Bosch and Pieter Brueghel as well.

Get out and about on foot. The Jan Breydel is about a 25-minute walk from the city centre, pretty much a straight line. The stadium is quite old. Hearts fans will find the away end in a bit of a state of disrepair. You will find the Cercle fans very, very hospitable and welcoming. There is a Cercle club shop at the stadium, it is very, very small. Club Brugge have a shop in the city centre.