Hearts debrief: Craig Gordon's masterclass, manager's formation switches, Peter Haring's impact

A lock back at Hearts’ second consecutive league away win as the visitors came out on top at Tannadice thanks to goals from Liam Boyce and Armand Gnanduillet.

Player of the match

There is only one real contender, even though there were no failures in maroon today. The importance of a great goalkeeper was laid bare in the club’s unfair relegation/demotion season and had they been able to bring back Craig Gordon that January, instead of having to wait until the summer, there’s no chance they’d have finished the curtailed season in 12th place. He’s underlined that since then with his performances and today was another example of that. He made six good saves, two of which were described as “world class”.

Key moment

Gordon again! His save from Ryan Edwards showed tremendous reflexes, but it was a moment which ignited United and they put heavy pressure on Hearts for the following 15 minutes. The last time he was properly tested was Charlie Mulgrew’s free-kick. Gordon even took an ill-advised step to his left as Mulgrew struck, but he showed the out-of-this-world agility that’s been a staple of his career to immediately change direction, spring into the air and push the shot round the corner.

Ref watch

Greg Aitken isn’t known as one of the league’s premier officials but he had a decent game – unless you’re a Dundee United fan. The home supporters were enraged with his display but, in all honesty, there wasn’t too much he got wrong.

Benefit of hindsight

Robbie Neilson changed the shape of the side from a 3-4-3 to a 4-2-3-1 and Hearts lost a bit of the initiative as they immediately played about 15 yards deeper. It gave United momentum and was partly the reason for the deluge of chances for the hosts. Credit to Neilson for realising his mistake and switching back to the 3-4-3 for the final 10 minutes.

Moment you may have missed

Peter Haring was distraught with his first half miss and looked pretty gutted with his second. The Austrian seems to split fan opinion in this current set-up. Encouraged to get forward and support the attack, the former centre-back’s attacking limitations are exposed. However, in terms of winning the midfield battle, him and Beni Baningime continue to be imperative to Hearts controlling games.

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