Wouter Vrancken has a specific schedule for next three weeks

Three weeks without competitive football is a new phenomenon at this stage of the Scottish football season. FIFA’s decision to blend the September and October international breaks creates a three-week hiatus for top clubs. Hearts are well prepared to deal with the gap in Premiership fixtures following Saturday’s 1-1 draw at Kilmarnock.

Wouter Vrancken will not name a team for a competitive fixture until 10 October, when St Mirren visit Tynecastle Park. The intervening period will be spent on work, rest and play. It also gives injured players time to recover. Hearts should have both defender Malachi Fagan-Walcott and versatile Irishman Oisin McEntee back next month, while midfielder Finlay Pollock is also close to returning after 18 months out.

While supporters will be counting down the days until they return to Gorgie, there will be vital work taking place in the background at Riccarton. “It will be an important break in different ways, I think,” said Vrancken. “We give them a bit of time off for the physical part, but also the mental part, emotional part, so that you can switch off from football for a few days, for sure. Before we give them off, we can also go in volume again [with training sessions].

“Because we had the short preparation time [in summer], we couldn't do too much there and then you have game after game. We can use this break to get extra volume, to get a bit of fatigue in the legs, and then give them time off to handle this fatigue and to get rid of the fatigue in the days off. Then they come back to go back into intensity towards the game. So in different levels, it can be a good thing.”

Vrancken had less than a month to work with the Hearts players before entering July’s Champions League qualifying tie against Sturm Graz. Since then, the club’s schedule has been relentless. A run of 15 games in just over eight weeks ended at Rugby Park on Saturday night. Another 15 in the same timeframe starts against St Mirren. For now, there is time to pause, reflect, work on more of what Vrancken wants, and fine-tune the approach he wants his team to perfect.

“I think there is a mix,” he explained. “What we want to do is in the cardio and the extensive duration and volume, with principles to match this and doing maybe an alternative thing with competition. Stuff like this, so we will be a bit creative there. When we come back, we have training sessions and a friendly to go towards what we want, to go on specifics again, to work in groups instead of all the team. Just now, you have one part of the group in recovery and the other part has to do compensation. So you can do other stuff, so it's always good to have those things to tick on.”

Hearts will play a closed-door friendly at the end of next week for players who are not away on international duty. It will help bridge the gap between league games and ensure players remain match-sharp for the Premiership resuming. It also gives Vrancken and his coaching staff an opportunity to try out a few things and give game time to players who have been on the periphery of the squad.

“After the Killie game, we train,” remarked the Belgian. “We try to have some volume there and then we give them four or five days off and then we come back. Of course, the day after the [closed-door] game is also one or two days off, but then it's a normal week, I would say, towards the [St Mirren] game. We play a friendly. I don't know how it's communicated, but normally we play a friendly in closed-doors, I think, before the second weekend.”

Vrancken will also use some time off to go home to visit family and see his son on his birthday. “Yeah, I go a for few days back to Belgium. During the break, it’s my son's birthday so it's also convenient. It's good also to switch off, I think, for us. Because you can get a refresh. It's 24-7 that you're thinking about the team so it's good to switch off for some days and enjoy the friends I didn't see for a few months. I think it's good. And then coming back with a lot of energy to go in again in a lot of games.”