Saturday’s 2-0 win over Aberdeen felt like a momentous one for Heart of Midlothian. The victory saw Steven Naismith’s men move 10 points clear of Kilmarnock in fourth and opened up a 19-point chasm between the men in maroon and the Dons. Barring disaster, the thinking went, supporters could surely be forgiven for dreaming of a European tour next season.
The result means that Hearts have now collected 19 out of the last 21 points available with the team finding form as their rivals for third place stumble all around them. Ross County are the only side to have interrupted Hearts’ momentum in that time, claiming a 2-2 draw at Tynecastle Park shorty before the Premiership’s winter break.
Saturday’s match wasn’t entirely dissimilar to the 2-2 draw with Derek Adams’ side at Tynecastle Park or last week’s 3-2 home win over Dundee. On both occasions, Naismith’s men started slowly before finishing the match on a high note, with Naismith instituting the necessary changes to turn the game in Hearts’ favour.
So, why were Hearts once again slow out of the traps at home to the Dons? How did Naismith’s men react when things weren’t going their way to turn the contest on its head, and ultimately claim the three points? Let’s take a look.
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Beating the press and second balls
As Joel Sked pointed out in his examination of the data from the 2-0 win over Aberdeen, Saturday’s match can be broken down into three distinct parts. There was the opening 35 minutes or so when the Dons were in the ascendancy, followed by 20 minutes or so of parity before the momentum shifted behind the home team entirely.
For the opening half-hour on Saturday, Hearts toiled. Barry Robson’s men were steadily accruing chances and only an intervention from VAR prevented the visitors from taking a first-half lead. At the other end, clear-cut chances – heck, even well-worked attacking moves – were a rarity.
Part of the reason for this is that Hearts struggled to build out from the back. Naismith stuck with the 4-2-3-1 shape that was so successful during the second half of last week’s 3-2 win over Dundee, but this also had its pitfalls. A big advantage of the 3-5-2 is that there are plenty of simple passing options when building out, always a man available to receive the ball. The back four can run into trouble if pressed correctly – and that’s exactly what Aberdeen did. Below is a typical example that leaves Dexter Lembikisa in a tight situation. In the end, he wins a throw-in, but it demonstrates how effective Aberdeen were at disrupting Hearts' rhythm.
The result was that too many of Hearts’ attacking moves broke down before they could truly get going. With the man in possession (usually the full-back) under heavy pressure, too many long balls were shelled down the flanks more out of hope than any real sense of expectation.
Then there was the issue of second balls. Hearts would often find themselves forced to go long and although the initial ball forward was almost always contested, all too often Hearts found themselves at a numerical disadvantage in the immediate aftermath.
Below is a typical example from the first half. Zander Clark goes long, playing a pass into midfield.
The initial challenge is 2v1 in Aberdeen’s favour and the visitors are likely to win the aerial duel. If they can play the ball forward, then Hearts are in big trouble. Look at how much space Baningime has to defend all by himself.
Aberdeen win the header, and now they’re man-for-man with the Hearts backline and running at them at pace.
Hearts, usually so deliberate and measured in their build-up play, were quickly reduced to playing the percentages – and the chips rarely fell in their favour.
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Pressing problems
It wasn’t working much better at the other end of the park, either. Jorge Grant and Lawrence Shankland led the team’s pressing efforts but required an extra pair of hands when applying pressure to Aberdeen’s back four: something that caused the men in maroon to be carved open too easily. One of Beni Baningime or Calem Nieuwenhof would get forward to support, but this played into the visitors’ hands. They would wait until they had drawn the extra man – once they had, the trap had been set and they could launch the ball into Hearts’ largely unguarded midfield.
In the example below, Aberdeen are patiently passing it around the back in the hope that Hearts over-commit. The ball is eventually worked to Graeme Shinnie, and Baningime gets up to support. The No.6 gets dragged into a battle he’s unlikely to win. He’s showing too much of the inside to Shinnie, who drives past the midfielder with a drop of the shoulder.
Aberdeen are breaking now, and Shinnie advances ominously. He spots Leighton Clarkson infield and quickly shifts the ball over to him. Look at how much space the Aberdeen man is in.
A few minutes pass and it happens again. This time, Baningime is again sucked in by Shinnie – but on this occasion, the former Everton man recovers superbly. It’s a dangerous opportunity, and Shinnie should probably release it to the left winger earlier, and it serves as another warning for the men in maroon.
Usually, however, Aberdeen would play a long ball into midfield. In the example below, Nieuwenhof has been drawn to the ball. Kelle Roos waits until the Aussie commits, then loops the ball into midfield.
Again, look at how much space Aberdeen have. Dante Polvara goes up for the header and if the ball lands anywhere in the yellow box, then the visitors are in on goal. Thankfully, on this occasion, Polvara ends up second best.
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Decision-making
Hearts started to evade the Aberdeen press more regularly as time wore on, but the men in maroon were guilty of poor decision-making.
Take a look at the example below. Grant has the ball and the Englishman is carrying it up the park when he spots Yutaro Oda out on the right in acres of space.
He makes the correct call by releasing the Japanese at just the right moment, and then drives forward, leaving himself open for the return pass. Oda carries it towards the edge of the Aberdeen area and by this point, Grant is screaming for it.
Instead, Oda elects to have a pop at goal and the defender blocks it easily.
In another example, Grant gets the ball in a similar position. This time, Dexter Lembikisa is in plenty of space on the right, and Oda is telling Grant to play it to the on-loan Wolves defender.
Grant plays it out to the Jamaican, and now Aberdeen are in trouble. Oda drifts wide and asks to be slipped through, and Richard Jensen has no choice but to follow him, leaving space for Shankland to attack the front post. If Lembikisa plays it into the striker, he’s got an excellent chance of opening the scoring.
Instead, Lembikisa slips through Oda. He gets the weighting slightly wrong though, and by the time Oda latches onto it on his preferred right foot, Aberdeen have got eight outfield players in the area. Oda’s cross fails to beat the first man.
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Half-time tinkering
Something had to change if Hearts were going to get anything from this one. The team’s attacking forays forward tended to be focused down the right during the first half, with Alan Forrest and Alex Cochrane struggling to make their presences felt. For the second, the play was more evenly distributed. Lembikisa dropped a little, and Forrest and Cochrane got a bit wider and further forward.
Cochrane was now always looking to play the early ball down the line to Forrest. Forrest, meanwhile, was taking on his man and forcing them to commit before quickly releasing it. Look at the example below, where Forrest draws five men towards him before winning a corner kick.
That warning would go unheeded by Aberdeen. A few minutes later, Forrest would be front and centre as Hearts took the lead through a lapse in concentration from the visitors.
It started with Hearts moving the ball around the back. The ball is worked out to Cochrane, and Aberdeen’s press is triggered. He plays it back to Stephen Kingsley first time, but Clarkson has made a mistake. The midfielder rushes over to Baningime when Frankie Kent was his man.
Kingsley plays the early pass to Kent, who is now unmarked and has all the time in the world to plot his next move.
The ball is eventually worked to Lembikisa, and Hearts are able to commit men forward.
Hearts eventually lose the ball, but Aberdeen can only launch it clear to the opposite flank, where it’s worked to Forrest. The winger stands up his man before driving into the space behind him.
Forrest beats his man and crosses it as the ball strikes the arm of Nicky Devlin. A penalty is awarded, Grant converts and Hearts take the all-important lead. And it all started with a rare lapse in concentration with the Dons’ press.
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Seeing out the game
The ball was now in Aberdeen’s court; Hearts had the advantage, and it was down to the Dons to find a way back into the game. Now, the home side didn’t commit as many men forward to press the visitors’ backline. Instead, Hearts kept their players clustered close together in the centre as they awaited the inevitable long ball forward.
Take a look at the example below. Aberdeen have launched the ball into midfield but this time, Hearts are expecting it. No one even challenges Devlin for the initial header – the focus now is on winning the second ball. The yellow box shows where the ball is most likely to land and Hearts have four players in there, with a further four on the periphery.
Oda eventually snaps up the loose ball and shifts it forward to Grant in space.
A few passes later, the ball is worked to Shankland in a great shooting position. He doesn’t score on this occasion, but the contrast to the first half is stark.
If that ball was played during the opening 45 minutes, then chances are Aberdeen would be breaking at goal. Not only did Hearts’ new approach to second balls help to stop those opportunities from even occurring – now, it provided a platform for Hearts to have a go themselves.
Here’s another example towards the end of the match. Aberdeen are chasing the game and commit men to the press. Clark bypasses the lot of them with one deft punt forward.
Grant is there to receive it, and just look at the space the playmaker has. He’s able to get the ball under control and move it on before the Dons’ midfield can recover, and now Hearts are on the offensive and looking dangerous. Again, the contrast to the first half is night and day.
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Slow start before cruise control
There’s no getting around it – Hearts were slow out of the traps on Saturday afternoon. At one end, they struggled to find a way through the Dons’ pressing and at the other, they often over-committed and found themselves caught out. The midfield didn’t have enough cover, and the battle to win second balls was one-sided as a result.
However, like the 2-2 draw with Ross County or the 3-2 win over Dundee, Naismith and his coaching staff got their in-game decisions spot on. The tactical tinkering wasn’t as clear-cut as it was in the two previous home games, but the subtle changes in pressing helped the team stem the flow against Aberdeen and ultimately turn the tide. The result was three well-earned points – and another sizable step forward in Hearts’ quest to secure European group-stage football next season.
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