New Hearts boss Neil Critchley discusses differences between EFL and SPFL after Blackpool & QPR spells

New Hearts head coach Neil Critchley has plenty of experience in England having been manager of Blackpool and Queen’s Park Rangers in recent years.

However, this weekend the former Liverpool coach will get his first taste of the Scottish football when he takes his place in the dugout as St Mirren visit Tynecastle. With the Jambos looking to get their first domestic win of the season under their belts, the 45-year old will be hoping his experiences in the EFL will stand him in good stead in the SPFL.

His first foray into management with a senior side, excluding his two stand-in spells with Liverpool, came with the Seasiders in 2020 and in his two and a bit years there he not only took them from League One to the Championship but also secured their survival in the second tier. His time at QPR though was memorable for all the wrong reasons as he lasted just 12 matches and won only one and this was followed by a second stint at Blackpool which lasted just over a year and did not yield the same success as his first stint.

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Critchley spoke at his official unveiling as new Hearts head coach earlier this week on those spells, saying: “It might be wrong of me to speak about what happened. I say I don't look at them as negative.

“QPR, you talk about your first 100 days at a job and I was less than that. So sometimes you know the decisions that you need to make, but you need to get the time to make them in the future and I didn't, but the club continued losing after I left.

“I still think they're third from bottom now in the Championship. So it's still not right. You need time sometimes. I'm not foolish, I know you have to get results, particularly here.

“You've got to win games of football. If I can do that, then I'm really excited with the conditions and the people and the support I'll get, what we can achieve in the future.”

Speaking on the perceived negative opinions of the SPFL in English football, Critchley commented: “I've watched numerous games over the years from Scottish football and I've watched all the games so far this season, and I think that it's in a place where something could happen that's quite exciting in the future.

“I think there's good stability around the league, and I look at some of the players who I've worked with previously or had the opportunity to come up against and I see how well they're doing, then I think that speaks volumes for the level of where this league is at at this moment in time.

“The game's the game, something that was labelled at me when I left Liverpool to go to Blackpool was, 'Oh he's only a youth coach, what does he know about men's football?' We got promoted in our first year.

“My formative years as a coach were at Crewe, which was League Two, League One, and they had a hugely successful spell in the Championship, I think it was like 10 or 11 years consecutively. I played non-league football a little bit, so I've seen a broad spectrum of what it looks like right across the board, and I've seen what it's like at the top end as well, so I think I've got a good broad spectrum of what football looks like.”

New Hearts boss looking forward to first taste of European football as senior head coach

Critchley has experience managing in European football with Liverpool’s youth teams but taking over at Hearts will give him his first taste of UEFA competition as a senior head coach. It is something he is very much looking forward to and is confident he can balance domestic and continental games thanks to his experience in the EFL where teams in League One and League Two play a minimum of 51 matches per season.

He said: “Yes I am (looking forward to it), I've had, and again at a different level, but it gives you a similar feeling or similar preparation, it's not exactly the same obviously but at Liverpool we played in many tournaments, we played in the UEFA Youth League which was an under-19 tournament which was all over Europe and I know this is on a different scale, but playing in Europe is different.

“Whether that's the interpretation of the rules from the referees or the opposition that you play against and from watching the first game the week before, it's a different type of game. We've got a tough game coming up after St Mirren but we had a good first win and our aim is to try and progress out of there, to get as far as we can in this competition.”

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On balancing the squad rotating players and possibly making the most of the younger and B team player, he added: “I think we played 59 games last season (at Blackpool), something like that, so it's quite relentless, so I'm used to preparing, recovering, preparing, how to manage the squad during the course of the season. Our injury record was very good last season, availability was very good and it is now, it is a squad game, it's not about the starting XI, so making sure that every player is respected, given everything that they need to give themselves the best opportunity for when they're called upon, even if they've not been in the team for two or three games, is something that I've got good experience with.

“Without a doubt (looking at youth players). Liam being with me at the moment, and I've already spoken to him, but him being with the B team, he knows all the young players and that's been invaluable for me. We had some of the young players training with us on Tuesday and because of my background, I believe in young players and giving them opportunities. They have to earn it, it's not just giving to them, it's not a charity, but I think we all love our own players coming through our academy and seeing them out there on the pitch.”