Hearts must change to take on Celtic as Wouter Vrancken reveals when he will make key decisions
Celtic Park hosts Sunday’s William Hill Premiership meeting
Hearts could make several changes to their team for Sunday’s Premiership trip to Celtic Park, with head coach Wouter Vrancken pondering how to freshen up his starting line-up. Thursday’s opening UEFA Conference League tie against Nordsjaelland came five days after last weekend’s league win over St Mirren, but Vrancken knows recovery time is short for the visit to Glasgow.
The fixture at Celtic Park is the third of nine games in a month for Hearts as they compete in the league, Premier Sports Cup and in Europe. They travel to eastern Turkiye to face Trabzonspor in their next Conference League match on Thursday. Players are under instructions to look after themselves and rest between games to manage the schedule.
Vrancken and his coaching staff are planning to rotate some players over the coming matches to avoid fatigue and potential injury. “It's huge game after a huge game this month. We had it already months ago, so we know what it is, taking care of your body, showing there and being there ready for the next one,” said the manager, who said he may make last-minute team selection calls.
“You have some things in your head, of course, of what you want to do or who you want to see sometimes. The most important thing is how they recover. There are little issues, maybe, but how they recover tomorrow and the day after. Maybe it's on matchday itself, when you only have two days' rest, maybe it's matchday itself that you make the decisions.” Asked if he could make a few changes for Sunday, Vrancken replied: “Yes, that's possible.”
He was content with the first 70 minutes of Hearts’ play in the 1-1 draw with Nordsjaelland and expressed disappointment at losing an 86th-minute equaliser. Celtic lost 4-1 at Benfica on Thursday and Vrancken can recall Hearts’ 6-1 drubbing there in August. “We were there also. It's all different games, and they are a good side,” he said. “Again, it's all moments like this, so we have to be top-level every time in energy and quality in what we want to show and see on the pitch. We have to take the confidence of our performance from the first 70, for sure, to the game on Sunday.”
Hearts are returning to Parkhead for the first time since May’s title decider. Vrancken’s predecessor, Derek McInnes, was in charge back then and many players involved that day have since departed Tynecastle. For those who still have memories of Celtic’s late surge to win the title and the ensuing chaos thereafter, it is imperative to erase all emotions for Sunday.
“That's the most important thing, I think,” commented Vrancken. “I'm convinced that the players will have their heads in the game on Sunday and not in the past. You cannot live in the past; this is sports. You have to move forward, and you have to look forward, and you have to take on the next one. I'm pretty convinced and confident that it will be like that.
“I hope the fire is there every game that we play, and not only because something happened in the past. Like I said, you don't have to look in the past too much because otherwise it's negative energy, and we need positive energy. This fire has to burn when you play every game, especially the top games, and when you can make a result there, we do a good thing in the league.
”Going further on what we showed against Nordsjaelland, I think the first 70 minutes were really great. Talking about what we want to see on the pitch and playing football, I saw short combinations, short spaces, which is really good, with a lot of runs, a lot of good chances. I think in the last third we had to be more efficient because we took some chances ourselves when the other one was totally free to have an even better chance. We have to take all those positives towards what's coming.
“I'm looking forward to every game we play, also in midweek to show yourself in Europe. But again, you live for those top games, and you want to play those top games. That's why you're a top professional in sports. You want to perform on that level, and you want to also show you are at a level and have results on that level, and we will work hard for it.”