Still too early to talk about title race for McInnes as Hearts prepare for Rangers visit to Tynecastle
The Jambos gaffer discussed Celtic, Rangers, Motherwell and his own side when asked about the top of the Scottish Premiership table.
Hearts head coach Derek McInnes says it’s still too early to be talking about the Scottish Premiership title race with the league season not having even reached the halfway stage.
The Jambos currently sit top of the table, six points clear of Celtic who have two games in hand over the capital club. Rangers are a further three points behind in third while Motherwell are fourth and two points behind the Ibrox side.
All teams have played between 15 and 17 matches as we enter the festive period with not everyone having played each other twice just yet. After facing Rangers this Sunday it’s a trip to Easter Road for the Edinburgh Derby to round out 2025 for Hearts.
Hearts get set to welcome Rangers to Tynecastle but Derek McInnes still not thinking about Scottish Premiership title race
Speaking ahead of their match this weekend, the Hearts gaffer said: “I genuinely think it's too early to say anything about being in a title race, I genuinely think that. I think for us we’ve just got to maintain our work but it's tough games in this league and it's hard to show consistency.
“So many games are so tight, very rarely do teams go on winning runs and we've obviously had a strong unbeaten run until not so recently and then we've now just tried to pick up again and try to go on another unbeaten run and a winning run as long as we can. It's hard in this league because I genuinely don't think there's a lot between a lot of the teams, you see teams at the top they can easily drop points if they're not at it.
“I think there's a lot of good managers in the league, I think there's good players, managers get more aware tactically and things like that and I just think every game can be tough and that's why we're so pleased with the game on Saturday. We've navigated a tough fixture, Falkirk away with their home record on their pitch and Falkirk doing well, that's not an easy game for anybody and it wasn't easy but we got through it and now we need to deal with a totally different type of game.
“I do think there's a lot of teams jostling for that consistency and obviously ourselves and Motherwell that I mentioned there are probably happier we were lot at the minute from where we maybe were at the start of the season but we know how quickly that can change.”
Hearts gaffer taking ‘little blocks’ approach to game management as festive period approaches
The festive period is usually a hectic one in football, especially with the January transfer window just around the corner. However, this year the top flight clubs have a fairly straightforward time of it with Hearts playing Rangers this Sunday and then Hibs six days later on the 27th then Livingston on January 3rd.
McInnes said: “Not in terms of targets over 11 games but more in little blocks really, what we try and do, whether it's working towards an international break, a next international break and then playing through these festive games really to be honest. So we've got these next, we'd spoke about seven games to complete the second round of fixtures and if we can come through two rounds and we're still winning a round where we're at then we'd be really pleased.
“We're more or less two thirds of the way through the season and you're starting to look at that kind of closing part of the campaign and looking for those improvements. I still believe we're going to have to improve as we go but the good thing for me is I still think there's a bit more in our squad.”