Back in September, with an international break’s worth of time to plot his game plan for Ibrox, Derek McInnes came up with an idea that had his son questioning if the Heart of Midlothian head coach had overthought it.
After kicking off the 2025/26 Scottish Premiership season with consecutive wins, Hearts exited the Premier Sports Cup at the hands of St Mirren before fighting back from 3-0 down at home to Motherwell to take a point.
In the game before their first trip to Glasgow of the season, Hearts again came from behind, this time to take all three points away at Livingston, but it was far from convincing.
Rangers had made a slow start to the season but were still unbeaten domestically and Hearts hadn’t won on their patch for 11 years. So it was going to take a smart approach from the manager and a heroic effort from the players to take all three points.
They did just that, lining up in a lopsided 4-4-2, as shown below, and leaving with a thoroughly deserved 2-0 win.
It kicked off a run of four wins in a row without conceding a goal, which was followed up with the 3-1 win against Celtic, and took them to the top of the league – a position they haven’t relinquished since.
The curveball in their tactics at Ibrox was the catalyst for one of the phrases that will define Hearts’ season: Harry Milne on the right. Stephen Kingsley came in for his first league start of the season, allowing his fellow left-back to play an inverted role on the other side.
“I wanted a lefty to play in on the right,” McInnes explained after the game. “Coming here with [Sabah] Kerjota, Kyzi [Alexandros Kyziridis], [Claudio] Braga and two strikers. We're not quite there yet.
"I think Rangers' left-hand side is their strongest side. The heat maps, all their attacking play comes down to that side... So we almost went double full-back.
“Rangers play a higher line, and because we're playing with two strikers, a lefty coming in can penetrate pretty quickly. A righty from the left, Kyzi. That was the thinking.”
Milne went on to play the role in a few different ways across the next couple of months. Sometimes the focus was to keep tabs on the opposition’s threat from left-back, on other occasions it was with attacking in mind – it was both of those at Ibrox, as explained by the Hearts boss above.
At Easter Road on Boxing Day, introduced at half-time, Milne played as a right-wingback to nullify Jamie McGrath after two balls from that side had led to goals. In other games, like the 3-0 win at Kilmarnock, Milne was asked to tuck in like a third midfielder.
The latter of those isn’t a million miles away from how Jordi Altena played the position in Saturday’s win against Dundee, albeit he is a right-footer playing on the right.
McInnes asked Altena to play as a “high 8”, tucking in from the right and allowing Oisin McEntee to “attack the space”. Defensively, it helped to nullify one of Dundee’s main threats in Tony Yogane.
As pointed out by McInnes himself, the right side has been more problematic this season than the left. However, Altena and McEntee's performances last weekend, along with the return of key players, could mean we see more of this shape between now and the end of the season.
Kingsley’s return from injury will help to allow Milne to play on the right when required, but even without one of those, Altena has shown that he can play the role well.
And, of course, there are more attacking options for the right side if Islam Chesnokov starts or Kyziridis is moved over. McInnes also hinted that Kerjota was being considered to start against Dundee.
Like Milne, Altena has shown great versatility, even if only from a handful of appearances so far. It’s no wonder, given his journey from an inverted left winger not so long ago, and could be crucial for McInnes for the title run-in.
The Dutchman finished the game at Rugby Park as a midfielder and was even considered for left-back when Craig Halkett was a late call-off last Saturday.
Another crucial part of the formation, and a huge part of its successful deployment earlier in the season, is the central-midfield pairing, boosted by the recent returns of Cammy Devlin and Beni Baningime.
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Along with Marc Leonard, signed in their absence and now one of the first names on the team sheet, two from the three give good options for a strong pairing in the centre of the park.
McInnes had moved to more of a three-man midfield in recent times with so many players missing, though that was also a knock-on effect of not having Lawrence Shankland dropping off from attack, as well as having two of his best midfielders ruled out.
All going to plan regarding players returning to full fitness, the Hearts boss is going to have some big decisions to make between now and the middle of May. Although it is preferable to the spell they have just come through, when anything up to 11 first-team players were unavailable.
McInnes has also shown flexibility to change his shape to suit who he has available or to counteract the opposition. However, with some of his best players returning, it would not be a surprise to see something close to that lopsided 4-4-2 formation more often than not between now and the end of the season.
