In Sunday’s Scottish Premiership matchup against Rangers, Heart of Midlothian manager Neil Critchley believes that his team will maintain their stellar undefeated start to 2025 with the support of an ardent Tynecastle crowd.
Seven of the eight games the hosts have played since the new year have seen them go undefeated. They advanced to the quarterfinals of the Scottish Cup on Monday night after defeating St Mirren in a nail-biting penalty shootout.
In November, Rangers defeated Hearts at Ibrox by a slim margin of 1-0. But last weekend’s unexpected cup loss to Championship team Queen’s Park brings the Glasgow giants to the capital.
Even after over a week, this shocking fifth-round elimination has been in the news. Rangers manager Philippe Clement is under pressure to turn things around quickly, especially given Celtic, the league’s dominant team, may lead them by a massive 16 points at the start.
Crucitley, however, is sure that his Hearts team can step up and cause more problems for the Ibrox club since he is focusing on his team adopting the right mindset going into the match.
After replacing Steven Naismith in October of last year, the head coach of Hearts declared, “We’re in good form.”
“We can approach the game with confidence, knowing that we will be up against skilled players and a formidable opponent. It’s a thrilling game to look forward to.”
In order to continue our winning streak, we should be able to harness the enthusiasm of the audience and exploit their energy.
We are aware that we will need to be strong without the ball because they have highly skilled technical players who are able to handle the ball. They are also accustomed to playing in high-pressure situations because they are used to playing in big games with high expectations.
“We need to be well-organized and skillful without the ball, but we also want to try to outplay the opposition.”
“I think we had over 50% of the ball, which doesn’t happen often, especially away from home against Rangers, so it shows that we’re capable of doing that.” “But that’s only come through our defensive organization and how we approach the game. Our mentality has to be right, and if it is, then I’m sure we’ll give a good account of ourselves.” “The game at Ibrox, after our indifferent first few minutes of the game, we grew into it and then really took the game to them, and we pushed them onto the back foot, especially in the second half.”
Despite Cammy Devlin’s head injury an hour into Hearts’ cup victory in Paisley, Critchley is hopeful that the important midfielder will be ready to play against Rangers.
Since then, he has complied with concussion protocols. Although the 26-year-old has not yet resumed full training, if all goes according to plan, he should do so on Saturday.
Although Critchley recognized the significance of following the required protocols, he is still optimistic about Devlin’s development.
“We have to follow [the protocol], so that’s so far so good,” he continued.
After a while, you start to make progress after doing a little amount on the bike.
Following that, you begin to enter the field and engage in some running, semi-opposed activities, and finally, opposition.
He’s getting over it, and if he continues without any problems, he’ll be ready to train come tomorrow.
We’re definitely hoping he makes it since he’s been a pretty big part of our team and essential to what we’ve been doing.
