Hearts explain Rangers defeat, the £40-£50m, plus Oisin McEntee injury latest

Derek McInnes remained philosophical after watching Hearts lose 4-2 against Rangers at Ibrox. The Tynecastle head coach voiced some frustrations with his team leading twice in the first half before eventually succumbing. Their lead at the top of the Premiership is now cut to two points as a result of the loss in Glasgow.

Hearts twice led in the first half through goals by Marc Leonard and Claudio Braga. Rangers equalised through a Michael Steinwender own goal and then Youssef Chermiti’s strike. The hosts controlled much of the second half and Chermiti scored another two goals to claim a hat-trick. Hearts had changed formation during the interval, switching from 4-2-3-1 to 3-4-3, but they were soon chasing the game after Chermiti headed Rangers 3-2 ahead on 57 minutes.

McInnes was disappointed with Rangers’ first goal, which came only four minutes after Leonard’s superb strike put the visitors ahead. Hearts lost the ball in midfield after Beni Baningime’s pass and were soon victim to a swift counter-attack. “We've got a chance to really transition on Rangers, and we don't see it. I don't know how we don't see it,” said McInnes. “We could really have hurt Rangers on that moment. They've got their bodies forward. Their full-backs are high and wide and there was space to go and hit. Yet we play the easier pass and not the pass we should have played.

“The pass we should have played would have caused Rangers all sorts of problems. So it's just that decision-making sometimes. Instead of us taking them and running them into the box, we then lose it by playing the wrong pass and they counter on us. After that, it was just a bit messy. But listen, we're against a team who have spent £40-50 million in a couple of windows. There's no shame in losing this game today.

“We're disappointed but we're still fighting. The fact that we're up there with two heavyweights, Rangers and Celtic, says a lot about the lads. We’ve got 11 games to go. We don't feel as if we're going to go anywhere. We've got work to do to keep ourselves there. When you see the strength of Rangers today and what they can bring on and the quality of players and the crowd, this is exactly where we want to be. We want to be in amongst it and try to win games like this. I feel there's enough wins in us between now and the end of the season to keep it going.”

Hearts remain top of the Premiership on 57 points. Rangers are now on 55, while Celtic are lurking on 54 with a game in hand. McInnes praised his team’s application throughout the match in front of a partisan Ibrox crowd. “I love the courage of the players. It would be easy for teams to go under when the crowd gets up but we reminded the players we're not playing the crowd,” he said. “Obviously, the crowd is there to help the Rangers team, but we're here to do our job. I thought we did our job well at times. It's just really on the goals. Whenever we were set in more shape, I didn't think Rangers really caused us too many problems. They didn't really play through us. They played a lot of back and square passes and it was actually how we wanted to play.

“It's just when the game got quickened up, and we were in their half and putting bodies forward, that we lost poor goals. Hopefully we learn from that experience because we've still got Celtic and Rangers to come. Both teams who, on those spaces and on those transitions, have got a quality player to hurt you. So there's still a lot of pride about the performance. And I think the support can see we're going to keep fighting and see where it takes us.”

McInnes admitted some players had already started geeing others up in the away dressing room. “Yeah, I think one or two of them stole my thunder a wee bit with that in the dressing room already before I spoke. And I did say that win, lose or draw, nothing was going to be decided today,” said McInnes. “I think it was an opportunity for us today to come and get a positive result. We've missed that opportunity but we're still top of the league. We still need to keep a bit of calmness and a bit of where we are. Recognise what's good about us.I thought we were good at times. We just weren't good enough at conceding the goals. That's partly us and partly down to Rangers.

“We're all good, honestly. We're not taking any pleasure from losing a game of football because we put a lot into it. I do believe that points will be dropped in and around us. We've got some good fixtures coming up on paper. We've got plenty of home fixtures between now and the split. It's important we try and keep ourselves in and around things, which I believe we will.”

Hearts lost the versatile Irishman Oisin McEntee after only 12 minutes of the match following an awkward fall. McInnes revealed that the full extent of the injury has yet to be determined. “I don't know yet. It's not his bone. It's more a nerve,” said the manager. “He just struggled to move his arm at all. He couldn't get it past a certain level. We'll get it looked at tomorrow but it doesn't look great. I don't know if it's something that will maybe settle a bit quicker, but certainly we didn’t want to lose him so early on, which was a bit of a blow.”

McInnes changed the Hearts formation from 4-2-3-1 to 3-4-3 at half-time. He explained his thinking behind the switch. “It was 2-2 and the game was a wee bit like basketball for me,” he remarked. “We just looked for that extra body at the back. You know, we needed to take the sting out of the game given the way the Rangers finished the first half. I thought, by and large, we did. I thought we needed a wee bit more of a focal point at times just to play beyond Rangers’ press. Obviously, they come in with their two big strikers. We actually anticipated that they might go with two strikers and maybe go a 4-4-2.

“I think when a Rangers team goes 4-4-2 at home, it takes anxiety out of trying to build the play too much. They can hit their strikers a bit quickly. I thought that, at times, that paid dividends for them. We anticipated that but it wasn't those moments. It wasn't a direct play up to strikers that caused the problems. It was our own transitions.

“We just thought that, by keeping Kyzi [Alexandros Kyziridis] and Braga tucked in close to [Landry] Kabore, I thought we started the second half really well with some good moments. I thought we'd seen the benefit of a focal point in Kabore. But the third goal is a disappointing goal to lose. And obviously, everything gets looked at then. But the changes were the right changes for me and we were in the game. We just lost poor goals. Partly down to us. And partly some good play from Rangers.”

With 11 league games remaining, there is certain to be plenty drama yet to unfold in this Premiership campaign. Hearts intend to be at the forefront of it without relinquishing their place atop the table. “I've seen enough today that there's still a lot of fight and courage about our performance,” commented McInnes. “We've now got some good games on paper coming up and it's important that we try and maximise the games coming up.

“Hopefully, as I said, going into the post-split games, when we play with Rangers and Celtic again, there's still a fight to be won. I think there will be twists and turns, to be honest. I think you only look at how it plays out at Rugby Park today [Kilmarnock losing 3-2 to Celtic after leading 2-0]. A Kilmarnock team fighting to stay in the league can make it still go to the 97th, 98th, whatever minute it was. So there are a lot of teams fighting.

“I think you will see a lot of dramatic finishes because there's so much on it for so many teams, whether it's teams fighting at the top, teams fighting for Europe in the top six, and teams fighting for their lives. It just shows what can be done. I think that's why you see a lot of goals. I think you see a lot of late finishes and there's so much on it for so many teams. So there's work to be done for us. As I say, we've got, I think, three of the next four games at Tynecastle. It’s important that we try and maximise that before the split.”