Hearts transfer prediction cast as one area could be bolstered in January and trio branded Premiership's best
Hearts are flying high at the top of the Premiership at present.
Steven Naismith reckons one area of the Hearts team is the Premiership’s best - as the Jambos are backed to get even stronger in January.
The former boss and player at Tynecastle has been discussing his ex-side’s ascent to the top of the Premiership alongside Rangers hero Kris Boyd and Celtic favourite Charlie Mulgrew on The Warm Up. Hearts are nine points clear at the top of the league after putting a 2-2 draw with St Mirren behind them to thump Dundee 4-0 at Tynecastle.
Brighton owner Tony Bloom’s investment into the Jambos has brought his Jamestown Analytics software to Gorgie, and unearthed gems like Alexandros Kyziridis, Claudio Braga and more. He reckons the attacking pair and Lawrence Shankland make up the league’s best attacking trio
Steven Naismith on Hearts
Naismith said: “Brilliant. I think Alexandros Kyziridis, Claudio Braga and Lawrence Shankland are the best front three in the league as a group. Best front three in the league. And now you've got Pierre Landry Kabore coming on and bagging a double.
“What I’d say is the game on Saturday is one of the wee... I've said before the big thing for Hearts is going to be at each little stage, are you going to have it? When they're playing on a Sunday and the team on the Saturday has went ahead, that type of thing. I think after dropping points at St Mirren midweek, this game becomes a challenge of, right, can we? They've rose to the challenge very comfortably.
“When you're part of a title race, it's points dropped, it's points gained, and that was a challenge, can they bounce back? They did, and with changes in the team.”
Will Hearts make January signings?
Mulgrew got involved in the title conversation and said “there's nothing in my lifetime that's shown me a team outside Celtic and Rangers can mount a serious challenge,” but Naismith had a recruitment themed response. He responded with: “What you've never seen in your lifetime is the Jamestown Analytics. That then becomes the question, can the players come in, replicate what Braga has done, what Craig Halkett has done, but they do come in and they play well.”
Boyd reckons January signings will be abound a Tynecastle, with winger Islam Chesnokov already signed up. He said in a prediction: “I think you've got to look at it and say that if you're part of a squad and you can see something building. You know, everybody's buzzing, you'd imagine they'll be strolling out to training with the chest out, I want to show the manager I'm good enough to play.
“When you're given that opportunity, because the team's been doing so well, that might be the only opportunity you get for the next three or four or five weeks, whatever it may be. So you have to take it. And that's where Kabore, Steinwender, Spittal come in. So they come in, and they need to show that they're good enough to be there, because there'll be changes at Hearts in January again. If you're some of the players that are out of the starting team, and maybe just in the squad, you might be getting moved on to bring better quality in.”
Naismith added on where he could see Hearts improving: “The right back's an area that he could get somebody else, I think. But also they've got Ageu. There's no obvious areas that you need to go, they're really weak. It's just about constantly building and raising the level for me.”