Exclusive:What was said in the Hearts dressing-room, the decision on wingers and Islam Chesnokov

Hearts players were instructed to play without fear against Aberdeen on Saturday in an impassioned dressing-room address by head coach Derek McInnes. He wanted an aggressive performance featuring a high press and got just that in a 1-0 win at Tynecastle Park, which came courtesy of Claudio Braga’s first-half goal.

McInnes sent Hearts out to hem Aberdeen in their own half with direct forward balls to forwards Braga and Landry Kabore. He also wanted to test the visiting full-backs by encouraging left-back Harry Milne to attack, and using right-footed winger Alexandros Kyziridis on the right flank despite him normally favouring the left.

Hearts have now won their last three fixtures at Tynecastle with 1-0 scorelines against Hibs, Falkirk and Aberdeen. McInnes demanded a braver and more intense display at the weekend following the Falkirk victory. He left the match-winner from that game, winger Islam Chesnokov, on the substitutes’ bench and brought him on with only minutes to go.

McInnes explained to the Edinburgh News what he told his players inside the dressing room and his thinking behind the decisions on wingers. “Last week's game was a bit more tactical and on edge. Some aspects of our performance against Falkirk really pleased me, but against Aberdeen we wanted to play in a slightly different manner,” he said. “We wanted to get the crowd into it. We took a wee bit of a risk with the selection. We obviously went with two strikers and I'm glad that paid dividends with their combination for the goal. I thought the two of them were terrific in occupying defenders and running into spaces. Their output was absolutely unbelievable.

“We played Alexandros Kyziridis on the right side and Harry Milne higher on the left. That was just to play forward, switch the play, put the ball in Aberdeen's box, and we got more crosses on Saturday than we did in previous weeks. We need to play that way. My team-talk on Saturday was very similar to my team-talk for the first game of the season [also against Aberdeen]. Here we are, 28 games later, and something similar was required. It was about playing without any trepidation, playing forward, being confident in what we're doing. Having two strikers is really important when you are giving that sort of message.”

Chesnokov is a left-footed wide player who prefers operating on the right wing in order to drift inside onto his favoured foot. He played from the start against Falkirk but made only a brief appearance near the end against Aberdeen. “Islam was unlucky not to play but we didn't want to play with inverted wingers. We wanted to get on the outside, stretch Aberdeen and put balls into the box. I thought we did that really well,” added McInnes.

Hearts now have a two-week break between games as they prepare to travel to Kilmarnock for an 8pm kick-off on Saturday, 14 March. They had planned to spend this week at a warm-weather training camp in Dubai, but the USA and Israel attacks on Iran forced a cancellation of the trip as the region is no longer safe to visit.