SPFL Premiership leaders look to extend their lead over Rangers and Celtic

Changes to the Hearts team are inevitable this weekend following the 4-2 defeat at Rangers. Falkirk arrive at Tynecastle Park without key players, but Derek McInnes is preoccupied with his own selection dilemmas. Who replaces the injured Oisin McEntee at right-back? What is the best midfield combination? And how many attackers should be tasked with hunting down a weakened visiting defence?

Falkirk cannot field on-loan centre-back Lewis Neilson against his parent club, while Liam Henderson is suspended following a red card against Dundee United last week. Hearts are seeking to recover from losing at Ibrox as they prepare for back-to-back home games. Aberdeen visit Edinburgh next week, but Falkirk are the priority right now.

Claudio Braga is certain to start in attack after a tremendous display including a fine headed goal against Rangers. If McInnes goes with two players up top, Landry Kabore would be the obvious partner. Kabore came on at half-time in Glasgow alongside Dutch right-back Jordi Altena. Both players could find themselves in the team this week. Much will depend on whether Hearts select two or three central midfielders. Beni Baningime, Marc Leonard and Tomas Magnusson are the men in question.

Deploying Magnusson in behind Braga may offer even more goal threat than a straightforward front two of Braga and Kabore. Falkirk’s depleted resources at centre-back suggest a weakness waiting to be exploited. However, John McGlynn’s team knocked Hearts out of the Scottish Cup on penalties at Tynecastle just last month, so their memories of success there are fresh.

“It’s a tough game but the cup tie was a third game in six days for us on the back of playing with 10 men for a couple of matches,” said McInnes, speaking exclusively to the Edinburgh News. “I just felt we lacked a bit of energy going into the latter part of the game and then we lost on penalties. I thought we were the better team for the majority of the first half, then in spells at the start of the second half I thought Falkirk were the better team. I felt we were negligent in not ramming home our advantage early on. I thought Falkirk’s subs helped them get a bit more of a foothold in the game.

“I’ve been impressed with Falkirk. They have good speed, good energy, good freedom to their play at times, and they are in the top six for a reason. They have shown real consistency. They came up with bags of enthusiasm and loads of anticipation for the league. Slowly but surely, they have realised they have a lot to offer in this division. We have had a couple of good wins against them in the league this season [3-0 and 2-0] so it would be nice to get a third.

“To do that, we will need to neutralise their threats, particularly on transitions. They have a lot of speed on the counter-attack. We also need to be clinical in the moments when we put them under pressure. We will do that at times and we need to make those moments count. Even when Falkirk lose games, they are never totally out of it. They are nevery totally outplayed. They always have good spells even if they don’t dominate for 90 minutes. It’s difficult for any team to keep on top of that, including the Old Firm when they have played them.”

McInnes won’t overemphasise the absence of Henderson and Neilson. “Every team has key players. Lewis hasn’t played against us and Henderson is a good player for them. They have good options, though. They have experience with Coll Donaldson, plus Filip Lissah who has been really impressive, or they can play Connor Allan who might be back. He has been Henderson’s partner more often than not this season. Every team runs into injuries and suspensions during a season. We just need to concentrate on our own performance, regardless of who plays for Falkirk.”