Neil McCann sends Hearts challenge to Jambos squad over element he feels they're 'struggling' with right now

Neil McCann reckons Hearts need to find a way where they can operate without Lawrence Shankland in their starting XI.

The Jambos were without their skipper and top scorer from the last two seasons on Sunday when suffering a 1-0 loss against Kilmarnock. Derek McInnes’ men played with 10 men for most of the game after a Robbie Deas red card but still had more shots on target than the Tynecastle side.

Head coach Neil Critchley was left stunned by the performance that he didn’t see coming for his side. Next up is a key Conference League clash with Petrocub on Thursday as they look to make it out of the league phase.

Action against Kilmarnock was reviewed by the Sportscene panel of Scott Allan and Tynecastle hero Neil McCann, who both pointed to how Hearts looked without their main man in attack. Former Hibs star Allan said “Hearts need to find a way without Lawrence Shankland because that is not a good report from a manager” and it is something the former Tynecastle star agreed with.

He believes the Jambos are in a place to be struggling for those answers without their talisman. McCann said: “The concern is what Neil's talking about there about making wrong decisions.

“You can make wrong decisions, but Kilmarnock were a man down. I know we're talking about retaining two strikers, but they shouldn't have more attempts on target.

“You should be absolutely peppering and coming up with better ideas. Scott's spot on. When you've not got Lawrence Shankland in the team, you need to find other answers to the questions and they're really struggling to do it. They've got a big couple of games coming up.”