Derek McInnes suggested tweaks rather than changes to his line-up for the trip to Falkirk, and so it proved.
It was a key game in Heart of Midlothian's season. The impressive result and performance the week before against Celtic had once again raised expectations.
As pointed out by Claudio Braga, scorer in both fixtures, it wouldn’t make sense for Hearts to beat Celtic and then not follow it up at the Falkirk Stadium.
And with Wilfried Nancy’s side contesting the Premier Sports Cup final, there was an opportunity to extend their lead at the top of the Scottish Premiership to six points.
To do so, Hearts had to battle through a tough opponent and even tougher conditions.
The line-up picked itself, but also made sense in the swirling wind and lashing rain at a venue wide open to the elements.
Midfield tweak
At Celtic Park, an exact shape wasn’t easy to pin down, with Oisin McEntee mirroring the movements of Reo Hatate. Roughly, it was a 4-2-3-1 with Tomas Magnusson in the No.10 position.
On Saturday against Falkirk, Cammy Devlin anchored the midfield three between McEntee and Magnusson. The Icelander played more to the left than he did against Celtic. In Glasgow, Hearts paid more attention to defending their right side, allowing Auston Trusty to have possession on the other side.
The average positions from each game show the Magnusson is pretty much the only difference, other than Hearts players being further away from their own goal against Falkirk.
It meant that Hearts more or less matched Falkirk’s shape. Like at Tynecastle, John McGlynn’s side was again slightly more direct than usual but still looked to build play through their two sitting midfielders, Brad Spencer and Henry Cartwright.
Due to injuries, the Bairns are short in defence and attack, but are still strong in midfield. They have two ball-playing sitting midfielders in Brad Spencer and Henry Cartwright, who were both forced into sloppy passes.
Ahead of them was a dangerous attacking trio who, other than a few opportunities – including a gilt-edged one for Kyrell Wilson – were all kept quiet.
A lot of the time, a Hearts player would simply step in to intercept the ball. The away side did so on 25 occasions.
Michael Steinwender had more interceptions than any other player, with five, according to Statsbomb, ensuring Ethan Ross didn’t make his mark on the game. In the first half, the winger was dropping deeper and deeper to escape the Austrian's attention.
Aerial ability
We know that this Hearts team can, and likes to, mix it up. They aren’t afraid to go direct when the circumstances call for it. Saturday was one of those occasions.
Both teams tried to play football at times and both also recognised the pragmatism required. Although it took a half-time debrief for McInnes to reinforce the message.
“We caused our own problems, we were guilty of overplaying,” he said. "I'm all for showing we've got good players, but we were trying to play in the wrong areas.
“We gave Falkirk a bit of encouragement with that. And when we caused Falkirk problems, we played more in their half and tried to turn them, play percentages.
“I’ve played in loads of games like that myself. You just want to get in and out, play against your direct opponent.
“And at half-time, we spoke about playing the game we needed to play, not the game that some of them wanted to play. And we played percentages.”
In the second half, Hearts "were far more robust,” McInnes added. “The game was a wee bit open at the start of the second half for my liking, but we played against a direct opponent.
“The game needed trust and needed responsibility and needed just playing the conditions. And it was so important that when we did have a chance to show quality, that we showed it. Kingsley was exactly that.”
After the win over Celtic, it was pointed out how effective Magnusson was at winning flick-ons, contesting headers for others to scrap off. At Falkirk, he and McEntee were useful in this respect, one on each side of the pitch – though they would often end up on the same side.
That was the case for both goals and both were involved in the build-up to each.
After already hitting the ball long from kick-off, Hearts do so again just as the game passes one minute played through Alexander Schwolow.
McEntee contests the header and even though he doesn't win it, Magnusson is in close proximity and there to collect the second ball when it runs loose.
Magnusson then tries to find Alexandros Kyziridis down the right, it is cut out and McEntee picks up the second ball before starting the move that leads to the opening goal.
The set-up is similar just before substitute Stephen Kingsley fires Hearts into a two-goal lead in the 77th minute, albeit from a throw-in rather than a long ball.
As Steinwender prepares to take the throw, Magnusson and McEntee are in similar positions but with the roles reversed.
The ball is thrown down the line and is headed away by Hart again. You can see that Magnusson has made a run to contest the header, again without winning it.
This time, McEntee is there to mop up and he manages to loop his header to Kingsley, who does the rest.
There were better performers on the night, but McEntee and Magnusson were key to both goals.
One of the first things McInnes identified when he came in the door in the summer was more height and physicality in midfield. Saturday night was an example of why.
