New Hearts identity and the reason behind the recent Tynecastle resurgence

Progress is steady at Hearts as season 2024/25 approaches its eagerly anticipated business end. Neil Critchley is four months into his job as head coach and his impact is gradually becoming clearer. The team has a new identity, perhaps a new mentality, and certainly new momentum with 11 games of the Premiership campaign remaining.

Sunday’s resilient 2-1 victory at St Johnstone was Hearts’ seventh win in nine matches. The others were a 0-0 draw at Aberdeen and a 3-1 defeat against Rangers at Tynecastle. Critchley’s methods are impacting the club’s gradual improvement as he seeks to implement his specific approach. It has taken some time, but the fruits of his labour are now becoming clear.

Hearts languished in the Scottish Premiership’s relegation zone for the entire first half of the season. The aforementioned run propelled them to seventh place with games against St Mirren and Hibs coming in the next few days. They are one point outside the top six, and eight off third place. On the basis of recent results, European qualification is a realistic aim for a team which was not so long ago fighting simply to stay in the division.

The prosperity so far in 2025 augurs well. “Yes, six games to go before the split and I think we're a point off the top six now. So we're right there, we're competing where we want to be,” Critchley told the Edinburgh News. “Coming into the season, that's where we want to be - in the top six and trying to finish as high as we can.”

After constant midweek matches both domestically and in Europe during his first two months in Scotland, Critchley feels the reason for improved results is the less frenetic schedule. Extra time on the training pitch permits more opportunity for coaches to instil their ideas.

New Hearts identity is now becoming clearer

“When you first come in, you're trying to stamp your mark on things and get your message over to the players. It's not easy, particularly with the schedule that we were on and the run of games that we were on. We had some good performances, but we had some indifferent performances as well during that period, which is understandable. I think now it's more week-to-week. I think you see more of a consistent team or way of playing. The identity is a bit clearer and more consistent. We've obviously got the wins and the performances off the back of that.”

Sunday in Perth wasn’t a scintillating display, partly because of the sodden McDiarmid Park surface, but Hearts showed the required mentality to force a victory. Striker Elton Kabangu’s two goals proved decisive and there were strong performances from fellow forward Lawrence Shankland, midfielder Beni Baningime and centre-back Michael Steinwender.

“You need to show all types of qualities in the Scottish Premiership,” Critchley remarked on his team’s mentality. “This was a completely different game to Rangers last week and you need different attributes and we've shown that. It wasn't easy, obviously. The game was in doubt before kick-off, but we're obviously thankful that the game's gone ahead. I felt the mentality of the players, our character, our resilience, particularly when they got back to 1-1 was very good.”

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