For the first time since the game at Pittodrie in November, Heart of Midlothian started a game in a back-three formation.
Derek McInnes began the league season with the shape and has returned to it a few times in-game when reacting to the flow of a match.
There have also been recent games when they have lined up in a back four but effectively played a three with Harry Milne pushing high on the left and Michael Steinwender tucking in on the other side.
McInnes' reasoning against Motherwell on Saturday was his desire to stick with a front two of Claudio Braga and Lawrence Shankland while also having an extra man in the middle of the park against a side very good at building out from the back.
He also stressed that the likes of Beni Baningime, Cammy Devlin and Stuart Findlay are understandably not 100 per cent due to recent injuries, which also came into his thinking.
A 4-4-2 had been used in both previous meetings with Motherwell. Both ended in draws. This time, McInnes went with an 11 that started as a back three but had the players to switch easily to a back four if needed.
Despite the change in shape, it played out in an eerily similar way to the 3-3 draw between the sides earlier in the season: not much between them in the first half before a period of Motherwell dominance and a late Hearts rally.
The race charts from both games show that, too.
The difference on Saturday was that Motherwell squandered good chances and Hearts took theirs.
Another big difference was Braga playing from the start. The Portuguese forward showed his value out of possession against a team like Motherwell from the off, persistently chasing down defenders.
In the opening seconds, he challenged for the ball on the touchline deep into the Motherwell half. In the 12th minute, he robbed goalkeeper Calum Ward and almost set up an early opener.
The press
That is maybe why some in the Hearts support were jeering or otherwise showing impatience when Ward was allowed to stand with the ball at the edge of his box unopposed so often.
At one point, the Motherwell keeper stood still with the ball for 21 seconds, the boos growing louder and louder, before he curled an askew pass out of play in the direction of his manager in the dugout.
Soon after, he had the ball for another 30 seconds in a similar position after almost letting a poor long pass from Stuart Findlay bounce over his head and into the net.
Shankland, who could be seen gesturing towards the home supporters at one point, without criticism or condescension, said after the game: “You think they're doing nothing, but you're maybe leaving the keeper on the ball for other reasons because they like to drag you out and kind of play around you.
“So I understand the frustration for the crowd in terms of watching it – but for us on the pitch we need to stay in control.
“We know what we're doing, we know what we've worked on. [Motherwell] do cause you problems at times because they drift into really good areas, they've got really good players at the top end of the pitch.
“But all in all, I thought we dealt with a lot of it well.”
Leaving Ward with the ball forced the keeper to go long more often than not and Hearts were all too happy to defend against it, restricting Motherwell to two shots on target in the first half, both from outside the box.
Why didn’t they press the goalkeeper?
Given the first half he was having, it is understandable for the fans to want to see Ward put under pressure whenever he receives the ball.
However, that is exactly what Motherwell want you to do as it leaves someone else free and makes it easier for them to get the ball up the pitch. One of the few times Hearts did press Ward showed exactly why.
That led to Motherwell's best chance of the half, when Ibrahim Said forced a good save out of Alexander Schwolow.
Otherwise, Hearts stood off Ward and man-marked the rest of the Motherwell team.
This led to some moments when Craig Halkett would leave the backline to pick up Said. The Nigerian was playing through the middle but constantly dropped off the front in what was effectively a strikerless formation.
It can be a risky strategy, especially when Motherwell have clever players like Elijah Just making third-man runs to exploit the gaps that inevitably open up. But if everyone buys in and does their job, it can be very effective, as it was in the first half on Saturday.
Motherwell take the lead
A few minutes after half-time, Hearts failed to execute the press the way they had in the first half and were behind.
Like the game in general, the finish from Emanuel Longelo was strikingly similar to the one he scored at Tynecastle in the 3-3 draw.
Braga starts to make a run towards the keeper, leaving Blair Spittal with two players to pick up. Tom Sparrow is also free and Spittal gestures to Stephen Kingsley, coming from a long way back, to pick up the Motherwell player.
By the time he gets there, Motherwell have broken the first line. From there, it’s a really well-worked move, sparked by Said wriggling free of Baningime.
One of the only other times Hearts pressed Ward in the second half, it led to Tawanda Mawanhise shooting wide from the one-v-one he carved out for himself. The best chance of the game besides the opener.
Go get the 4-4-2
With an hour gone, Braga equalised. By that point, Hearts had switched to a 4-4-2, the Hearts boss’s “go-to if we’re chasing a goal”.
He admitted that it didn’t work, as the Motherwell midfielders enjoyed more space and the side spurned some excellent opportunities either side of Braga’s goal and some good Hearts pressure.
Before the Dundee game, McInnes challenged his players to be the best from set pieces between then and the end of the season. That’s how the winner came about that day and it’s how Hearts won this one.
Braga, who did well to win the corner initially, executed an instinctive finish for the equaliser after Findlay headed back across goal.
Five minutes after the goal, Sabah Kerjota and Landry Kabore were brought on, with Braga moving to the left in a front four. Kerjota is someone McInnes likes when spaces have opened up in the game and Kabore, while providing a goal threat, is an excellent pressing forward.
The goal that put Hearts ahead came from the penalty spot but the build-up to the kick on Kabore was from another set piece.
By that time, Hearts had reverted to three at the back with inverted wing-backs Kerjota and Jordi Altena. It immediately stopped the Motherwell attacks and led to the period of pressure from which Hearts took the lead. Kerjota, including from set plays, was key to the Hearts attack during that spell.
Kabore’s goal then comes in injury-time when Motherwell are committing players forward in search of an equaliser.
Just like the previous meetings between the sides this season, it was a game that could have gone either way.
What is notable is that at such a big moment in the season, and after seeing their lead cut to just one point the weekend before, Hearts showed resilience to dig out three points after falling behind against a tough opponent.
