I watched Neil Critchley's Hearts live for the first time vs Rangers and what I witnessed leaves me encouraged

There’s little joy to be found in glorious defeat but I can’t help but feel positive about what Hearts can be under new head coach Neil Critchley.

This was my first time getting to see Hearts in the flesh since the sacking of Steven Naismith. I’ve watched on over the games since my last live helping of Jambos action, but in terms of games inside stadia, the last one I was at prior to Sunday’s 1-0 Premiership defeat to Rangers was the loss to Viktoria Plzen in the Europa League play-off second leg by the same score.

So much has happened between then and now, but on that night, Hearts had their opposition not playing to their optimum level and waiting to be knocked to the canvas. They couldn’t do it, and Sunday’s game against Rangers played out much the same, the hosts booed by their increasingly-agitated fans amid their own struggles.

That Plzen defeat was near the middle section of a run that ultimately cost Naismith his job, and confidence was evaporating with every defeat before a hugely important win away at Dinamo Minsk under interim head coach Liam Fox built some back. Critchley has been brought in after a robust boss hunt guided by analytics.

Off the back of what I watched against Rangers, it’s clear to me that if he can get this side clinical in both boxes, they are onto a winning formula. There is a very clear style of passing football. Hearts were putting plenty of good passages of play together and only went long or diagonal when the chance presented itself. Every single hit of the ball was calculated.

Lawrence Shankland might have a scoring touch alluding him right now but some of his touches and movement really carried this system forward, providing a good focal point. The ball-playing stars of Blair Spittal, Beni Baningime and Yan Dhanda will thrive in a system that allows them time to pick passes, with the threat of Kenneth Vargas in behind a useful weapon.

Two wins in 13 league games is not the standard Hearts expect, that much is obvious. For a moment in the sixth minute of the game at Rangers, they switched off and were painfully punished, but outside that they were the better team. They were a Vargas shot a couple of inches inside the post away from at least taking one point, which would have been deserved.

Calm and composed passing football like this will see Hearts begin to pick up points more often than not. They split 50% of possession with their hosts on Sunday, the closest to that number away to Rangers in the league being St Johnstone with 36%. And it’s not time on the ball for the sake of it, they try and pass through the opposition and it’s good to watch.

Already, Critchley is seven games into his Hearts tenure. The games have been coming relentlessly but he would be keen for another match ASAP. He will have picked up plenty about this Jambos side in the last few weeks, and the next fortnight of getting ideas across with precious time on the training pitch could be key if they are to build on some of the positive performances they’ve put in under him to date.

“I'd obviously rather get this feeling out of my system and be playing again and have a chance to win another game,” Critchley said post-match at Ibrox when asked if the break was coming at a good time.

“I don't like losing games of football regardless of who we're playing and where we're playing at. You could feel Rangers' quality and everything. Today on the side you could feel it, their physical power, their technical quality. But we wore them down I felt. I thought our mentality wore them down but our quality let us down. So no, I wish we were playing again.”