Robbie Neilson tells Hearts players: Stop trying to score the perfect goal

Robbie Neilson has instructed his Hearts players to be more aggressive in front of goal as the head coach looks to end a three-game winless run with advancement past Livingston in the fifth round of the Scottish Cup.

The third-place side in the cinch Premiership were jeered off the park in midweek after losing to 2-1 Dundee, the league’s bottom club going into the contest, which followed the 0-0 draw against Hibs and 5-0 thumping at Rangers last weekend.

While shipping seven goals in two games has been an obvious concern, they’ve only netted once in their last three matches and Neilson accused his players of trying to walk the ball into the back of the net at times.

"I watched the game back and I thought there were a couple of key moments when we didn’t do things properly,” he said.

Hearts manager Robbie Neilson speaks to the media prior to Saturday's match with Livingston in the Scottish Cup. Picture: SNS

“The first half we did really well. Second half we had a lot of possession, but I thought sometimes we were searching for the perfect goal; waiting for that perfect moment and very rarely does that come, so you need to be a bit more aggressive and take a chance.

“We had opportunities to play that forward pass or take a shot and we were a wee bit ‘that’s not a good enough chance we’ll wait for the next one’ and that’s not how football works, so that was a disappointment.”

Both Michael Smith and Nathaniel Atkinson will be part of Saturday’s squad. The former missed the last four games due to back spasms, while the latter was absent from the Dundee defeat.

It remains to be seen who will start in the centre of midfield. Neilson has typically trusted Cammy Devlin and Beni Baningime as his central pairing when both are available, though Devlin sat on the bench for the full 90 minutes in midweek as Peter Haring took his place.

“Cammy has come over from Australia and he’s been brilliant for us, but I felt he was a wee bit up and down at the moment,” said Neilson. “He’s still a young kid. He’s played 17 of 18 games.

“We just felt with Beni coming back in from injury, he needed the game time and Peter brings a bit of freshness in as well, so it was a decision we made."

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