'Bit of both': Inside Hearts' informed Celtic guesswork and Magnusson-McGregor tactic that worked a treat

The last time Hearts played Celtic, the opposition still had Brendan Rodgers as manager. Since then Martin O’Neill has taken interim charge and he made way for Wilfried Nancy, who barely had 48 hours to prepare for his first game. Rather than leave things as they were under O’Neill, he initially sent Celtic out in the 3-4-3 formation preferred when he was manager at previous club Columbus Crew. McInnes was alert to this.

“We understood that they were going to go with a back three, which is obviously a change and it's the manager's preferred system,” he explained. “We have studied the last two or three days, watching a lot of Columbus Crew and what they want to do. What they expect from their No 6s, what they expect from their 10s, what they expect from their wing-backs to play really high on that last line.

“So we felt well-prepared for that. It meant we needed to fill the middle of the pitch with bodies. Celtic have got a lot of good players in that central area, so we needed to make sure we were nice and solid through that part of it. We tried to play in the spaces between their outside centre-back and their winger because it's quite a big distance at times.”

Asked if it was instinct on his part or intelligence received from elsewhere, he said: “Bit of both. Bit of both, to be honest. We thought they would commit to that.

“It's the new manager, he wants to play his style, we understand that. And he's probably got the players to play it in terms of plenty of midfield options. But we were never really sure. So we picked a team that would be able to adjust to Celtic's normal shape and today. We didn't go with any wingers on the bench today for that reason. Really, because we thought they would be the shape that they were. So we started one winger because they needed us to try and play in the gaps. But tactics, shapes and all that, sometimes it's overplayed. I think it was just a lot of other stuff that got the job done today.”

Magnusson’s role key for Hearts

Character, desire and no little skill were significant factors, as symbolised by the performance of man of the match Cammy Devlin. McInnes also praised Devlin’s fellow midfielder Tomas Bent Magnusson. “We asked him to annoy the life out of Callum McGregor,” he said. “Run off him and try and get in the box and carry a threat.”

McInnes stressed that if Hearts can’t draw belief they can win the title from beating Celtic at their own home, they’ll never get it. “We had to pick ourselves up off the floor after Kilmarnock the other night, losing a late goal and a mistake,” he said.

“If we'd reversed that and won against Kilmarnock and drawn a game here, it would have been seen as decent work. But the fact that obviously Celtic's closest to us in the league and we've won the game, it's nice for the players to be rewarded for the work they do.”

As for the doubters, who were preparing to write off Hearts after just one win in their last six league fixtures, he said: “I actually don't care. I genuinely don't care what any of you say. Because we've never been as good as you've said. And I don't think we're as bad as people have said.”