How Hearts have adopted and tweaked the Ajax system for added goal threat

A centre-forward flanked by two wingers and supported by two attacking midfielders. Sounds like a footballing purist’s dream.

Hearts are not quite at the point of playing total football on the muddy winter pitches in Scotland’s Championship. Nonetheless, they are employing their own version of a 4-3-3 formation developed by Johan Cruyff and Rinus Michels at Ajax in the 1960s and 70s.

The need for more goal threat has prompted manager Robbie Neilson to introduce a system which allows midfielders to get forward and support a central striker. The much-maligned “big, physical Hearts” hasn’t entirely been consigned to the bin, but the early signs are encouraging.

Neilson’s version of 4-3-3 is fluid and able to adapt to specific conditions within a game, such as Saturday’s 2-0 win at Morton. Both wingers – Steven Naismith and Jamie Walker – were pulled in behind striker Craig Wighton to let full-backs Michael Smith and Stephen Kingsley attack.

How the Hearts team looked for much of Saturday's 2-0 win at Morton.

Finishing

Walker scored both goals, Andy Irving thrived as the deepest of the three midfielders, and defensively there was little cause for consternation in Greenock. It had been a different outcome the previous week at Alloa in the Betfred Cup, underlining the need for clinical finishing when applying pressure.

“I thought we passed the ball well at Alloa but at Morton we had that cutting edge,” Neilson told the Evening News. “We probably had a similar amount of chances at Alloa and didn't take them. At Morton, we took two of them.

“People came away saying, 'oh, what a brilliant performance,' but if we score the two one-on-ones against Alloa then it's a different story. We try to look at the game as a whole and our performance level was decent. We carried that into the Morton game and got the goals.

Hearts' midfield three controlled the game at Morton.

“We played 4-3-3 at Alloa as well. The only difference was we had two wide players in the forward line at Alloa. On Saturday, it was two narrower players – Naismith and Walker – almost like No.10s behind the striker.

“That allowed us to get the full-backs higher so it was tweaked a little. It's much the same system and something we are trying to stick to for the rest of the season.”

Bottleneck

Walker is especially used to cutting in from the left and shooting with his favoured right foot. He scored an abundance of goals from that position during his and Neilson’s previous spell at Hearts.

Robbie Neilson could make a number of changes for the Betfred Cup clash with East Fife. Picture: SNS

The right and left midfielders can find pockets of space around the striker, or run beyond him, or use their freedom to pull wider and link up with full-back. Olly Lee does this especially well.

In the middle there is something of a bottleneck. Irving is most effective as the deepest of three midfielders but that is also where Peter Haring operates best. The same argument could be made for Halliday, and then there is Loic Damour.

Smith and Kingsley are both strong defensively. They are also athletic and intelligent enough to get forward down the flanks with the required technique to deliver dangerous crosses.

All in all, there are many positives to a 4-3-3 for Hearts. It allows them to dominate large spells of possession against weaker teams in Scotland’s second tier and to force their opponents back.

“With the personnel we've got, I think 4-3-3 is the formation that suits them most,” added Neilson. “We've got some good players who can play the No.10 positions, although we are missing our wide players.

“We generally like to play with width but, with Elliott Frear, Josh Ginnelly and Jordan Roberts all out recently, we don't have a huge amount of width. That's why playing with narrower wide men helps us a bit.”

Precise player switch

The tactic is expected to continue against Queen of the South in Saturday’s Championship encounter at Tynecastle. Whether Neilson decides to be as adventurous in the following week’s Scottish Cup final with Celtic at Hampden Park remains to be seen.

At Cappielow, his ploy worked thanks partly to a precise player switch midway through the first half involving Irving and Halliday.

“The 4-3-3 is something we've been working on. It can change within the game. It's designed to get the two attacking midfielders closer to the striker,” said the manager.

“Instead of a flat three in midfield, we had Olly Lee and initially Andy Irving getting forward to try and get more numbers in that attacking third.

“Initially we put Andy Halliday in the middle as the sitter because we thought there would be a lot of second balls and knockdowns. We had to compete for them in that area. We hoped to get Andy Irving a bit higher to play the final pass and shoot at goal.

“We decided to change it because we were getting loads of time in the middle and Andy Irving has a brilliant range of passing. He was able to get on the ball and spray the passes, then we had Andy Halliday getting into the box. I was pleased how that change worked out.

“Jamie obviously scored the two goals and it was great to see those finishes from him. We all know he has that ability.

“The surface wasn't great and Morton were up for the game as you would expect, but we controlled everything. We had a lot of possession and got into good areas. Both full-backs did very well, our two centre-halves were comfortable.

“All in all, it was a good performance at a notoriously difficult place to get points. We want to keep that momentum going now.”

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