Steven Naismith explains why Hearts team have quickly bought into his methods

Steven Naismith is relishing the challenge of pitting himself and his Hearts team against the best Scottish football has to offer when Celtic come to Tynecastle this Sunday.

The league leaders dropped points for just the third time this season during their last league outing, a 1-1 draw at Motherwell, but have since underlined their strength with a 1-0 victory over rivals Rangers in the Scottish Cup semi-final to take a step closer to a domestic treble.

The second of the three trophies could be won in Gorgie this weekend as a Celtic victory will secure the league title even before Rangers play Aberdeen in a match which kicks off 45 minutes later.

Naismith has spent his week concocting a plan to try and not only stop that from happening, but to earn three huge points in the race for European football.

Hearts interim boss Steven Naismith will see his team take on Celtic this Sunday at Tynecastle Park. Picture: SNS

The Hearts interim boss is an admirer of opposing manager Ange Postecoglou. This was evident during the last game in Gorgie, where Hearts dismantled Ross County with a 6-1 victory which saw the hosts using inverted full-backs, something that's been a feature of Celtic’s play ever since the Australian moved to Glasgow.

It remains to be seen whether he’ll stick with such an approach for this encounter, but Naismith promises that, at the very least, his players will continue to play aggressively when they’re in possession as they seek to exploit any weakness in the away ranks.

“They have been consistently the best team for the two years in my opinion. The manager’s had a belief in what he does, to start with he took a lot of criticism and now you don’t hear any of that and it’s paying off, he has won trophy after trophy,” said Naismith

“As a young coach or manager you watch that and you inevitably take bits from that, you take things that they’ve done and styles of play in the games.

“It’s a great challenge, it’s an opportunity for me to come up against consistently the best team in the league over the last two years. As a team we’ll need to be wary of their threats but being at home we can cause them problems too.

“We’ve come up with a plan to cause them as many problems as possible. You need to identify their threats and how we try and stop it. It also goes back to the moments we need to make the brave pass, that helps us and then it gives them a problem.

“If you keep passing back the way the goalie will kick it long and it becomes a 50/50 fight. So no matter who we play, there are moments in the game where it’s our chance to dictate what happens, we need to be brave and do the right things in those moments and try and beat the press. From then our attacking play will be what we worked on. If you are not willing to be brave, whether it be Ross County, Celtic, St Mirren, Aberdeen – then it’s not going to give you the amount of attacking threat you want in a game.”

The emphatic win over County demonstrated the Hearts dressing room have quickly bought into Naismith’s methods and style of play since he succeeded Robbie Neilson following the former manager’s sacking. It’s only two years since Naismith was a part of that group himself and he believes that’s given him an advantage since taking over the role.

“The fact I was in a dressing room not that long ago definitely has an impact on that. I played with a lot of the players, I think that has helped me,” he said.

“The biggest thing I have been is honest. If you’re not going to be honest, then you lose more respect from people. The players are sitting there watching things play out. They know what’s wrong, what is good and what is not. And when you don’t call out what’s wrong they’re going to say you’re at it.

"So I have been honest with them all. If there is something I don’t like on the training pitch, I tell them. I’ll show them on the video. And when it’s good I’ll tell them it’s good. I know as a player it’s nice to hear that.

"Going through my career you were told more when something was wrong more than you are when something is right. So when something is good I’ll say it, because I know how it made me feel.”

Going from being a player to a manager can be a difficult transition, but Naismith reckons his personality and how he conducted himself as a player out on the park has primed him for such an opportunity.

“I think it can (come naturally), It’s an aspect of me, I am straight with people. Even as a player if it wasn’t good enough I would pull them up and make that point,” he said.

“We all want the same thing. If we all want to be successful, we need to be honest. If we’re all honest then we need to say when things aren’t perfect to try and make them perfect. And if someone doesn’t like that they are not going to survive in that environment. It’s as simple as that.

“And one thing I would say is players, when they go away from here, or when I am talking to them, understand it’s coming from a good place. That’s the way I try to work it.”

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