Gary Mackay: Why Hearts fans should trust Robbie Neilson with exciting attacking options

I started receiving texts from friends after Hearts announced their team on Saturday and there were a few concerns being voiced about the selection.

Hearts' coaching staff Robbie Neilson, Lee McCulloch and Gordon Forrest.

It’s amazing how we are all managers and coaches in our own minds. As outsiders looking in, sometimes you need to put faith in those in charge. Sometimes you forget what a good job Robbie Neilson did previously in the Championship with Hearts.

He has come into this division again, we have a new acquisition again in Gary Mackay-Steven, so he is increasing the competition for places up front. Ultimately, it’s about letting him have his head and letting the players have their heads.

What we think as supporters about what team is picked is largely irrelevant. It boils down to what comes out in the results. People were maybe worried about changing the team around on the back of a poor result at Dundee.

When you think about it, the coaches work with the players every day and at Alloa the playing surface would have impacted team selection. That’s the case for various players but the result justified the starting line-up.

The team which started had Hearts 2-0 up by half-time. If you take the second half in isolation, it was a 1-1 draw, so that fully vindicates the decisions Robbie and the coaching staff made in picking the side.

It’s easy to criticise but it’s about bouncing back. I would rather we didn’t need to bounce back from defeats in this league but we’ve done it again and given ourselves a nice seven-point gap at the top of the league.

It’s a useful cushion and we need to build on it. I don’t care if it sounds like a broken record but it’s all about three points in every game now. When we play Raith Rovers on Saturday and then again next Tuesday, it’s about doing the absolute maximum to get six points out of six.

Hearts can stretch their lead with games coming thick and fast over the next few weeks. That has become all the more possible with more creative options in the personnel.

That in itself can have an impact. If you are in and around the team, you have to be close to maximum performance whenever you get an opportunity to play.

When we revert to just one game a week, I would think the team will be selected on the back of what has been done during this congested period of matches.

Hearts need to use their squad – a squad bigger and containing more quality than other squads. I’m excited by the options going forward, although I’m not sure what the best front three is. I don’t even know if the manager is certain.

Nobody is sure about the right group behind the front three to create things either. That just keeps everybody on their toes. All the players want to start every week and if you don’t then you’re in the wrong profession.

Whenever you do get on, put yourself in pole position to play in the next game. There are some huge matches ahead in a period that will, ultimately, define Hearts’ season.

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