In some ways, it was surprising to see Heart of Midlothian start with a back three against Hamilton Academical.
On closer inspection, it made perfect sense. Derek McInnes himself said after the game that his hand was somewhat forced due to an illness affecting Stephen Kingsley and not wanting to take any risks with Harry Milne, who was feeling some tightness after Saturday’s win over Dunfermline Athletic.
It meant Alan Forrest in an inverted wingback role. In anticipation of Accies starting in a 4-2-3-1 formation, Forrest and Christian Borchgrevink, playing on the other side, were intended to progress the ball into the spaces left by the opposition.
Instead, John Rankin also lined up in a back-three formation. “They play their two wide players high off shape a lot of the time, [Kevin] O'Hara coming in off the left, [Steven] Bradley coming in off the right,” explained McInnes.
“And we actually thought we'd be able to play in the spaces for Borchgrevink and Forrest as ball carriers and get out against their shape. But then they've gone with a 3-4-1-2. So it was just a similar shape against shape, really, in all honesty.”
Squad still being assembled
You only have to look at the squad and transfer activity to see another reason why McInnes may have favoured the back three. There are plenty of options in the centre of defence. Jamie McCart is out injured but that still leaves Craig Halkett, Frankie Kent, Stuart Findlay and Michael Steinwender. Kingsley can play there also.
In the centre of midfield, Beni Baningime and Cammy Devlin started against Dunfermline, while Blair Spittal and Calem Nieuwenhof made positive contributions from the bench.
The latter pair were brought in to join Baningime in a three-man midfield against Hamilton, where Spittal was the most advanced and drifting to the left and Nieuwenhof was more of a No.8 on the other side.
On top of those four, we still have not seen Oisin McEntee get a runout as a midfielder.
It’s a similar story in attack. So much so that McInnes started three of his forwards in the opening game, with Braga playing from the left and drifting in as a No.10. The Portuguese came off the bench through the middle on Tuesday night and grabbed the headlines with a goal, an assist and some eye-catching skill.
He has competition from Lawrence Shankland, James Wilson and Elton Kabangu – all of whom, like Braga, are off the mark already.
Contrastingly, out wide, Alexandros Kyziridis has missed out so far after taking a knock in pre-season against Crawley Town and McInnes is still trying to bring in other wide options. So it is no surprise that Hearts started with a shape to accommodate so many central players.
Size and set pieces
Given that every Hearts centre-back is a giant, playing three of them gives a threat at the other end, evidenced by Findlay’s early goal. Their formation allowed them to “keep the size of the team”, as McInnes said.
Finlay scored five minutes into his debut, heading in a corner after getting the better of his marker Scott Robinson.
It is still in the very early stages of the season, against lower-league opposition, but a goal from a corner in each of the opening two matches is a positive sign. Set-piece coach Ross Grant joined last month and during pre-season in Spain, he worked with the likes of Kent, Halkett, Findlay, Steinwender and McCart.
Both the size of the defenders and the presence of Grant should also aid Hearts at defensive set pieces.
How it worked
In addition to being physical, the back three provided Hearts with plenty of recovery pace and quality on the ball. Findlay and Steinwender are comfortable in possession, though the latter gave the ball away a couple of times, and there was the odd occasion when Kent burst forward through the centre.
In the third minute, Hearts won possession on the edge of their box and Findlay progressed with it. Spittal then darted out from the centre towards the left to receive his pass and fed Forrest on the flank, creating an attack.
Up front, the idea was to have Kabangu stretch the play and Wilson work off him. Although McInnes always wanted one of them running in behind. At one point, the head coach could be heard instructing just that when no one made the move for one of Forrest’s runs down the left.
Within a minute, after Hamilton cleared, Kent tried to find Borchgrevink on the other side with a long pass. Another minute later, Hearts had maintained the pressure and were ahead after Findlay again found Forrest, who won a corner.
Like at the weekend, it was an intense start from McInnes’ side and it forced the opposition to retreat.
The first half followed a similar pattern to the win over Dunfermline: Hearts dominated from the off but didn’t capitalise after an early goal. Hamilton got some encouragement from that but were denied a shot on target in the first half. They managed one after the break.
Unlike Saturday, the opposition didn’t equalise and instead Hearts doubled their lead before half time. That gave the second half a much more comfortable feel and allowed McInnes to give minutes to some other players, making a quadruple sub on 65 minutes, rather than making changes to win the game.
Read more
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The 8 unused Hearts players and where they stand after two League Cup games
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Derek McInnes on Hearts shape change, Claudio Braga impact and 4-0 assessment
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Hamilton 0 - 4 Hearts: McInnes' flexibility, Braga on fire, set-piece threat
Substitutes
With around 25 minutes to go, McInnes made a quadruple change. After also playing 90 minutes on Saturday, Forrest had run his race after another tireless contribution. On the other side, Steinwender was starting to have one or two defensive issues. Halkett and Harry Milne came on for them.
Hearts kept the same shape and took it up a gear. Milne added some solidity on the left and posed an attacking threat, eventually displaying both qualities in setting up Braga to round off the scoring with seven minutes remaining.
McInnes said afterwards that tired defenders are, more often than not, tested by fresh legs. “It's the same for our boys, you've got to be ready for those changes,” he added.
“Most managers will change strikers at some point in the game and defenders have got to be ready for it.”
Accies weren’t ready for Braga, who, given the Hearts shape, was unleashed through the middle. He buzzed around either side of Wilson, set up the teenager for a tap-in from one side, created another chance for him from the other channel and eventually scored himself.
“I thought Braga was bright as a button when he came on,” said McInnes, “really sharp with his work, and good to see him scoring.”
