17 Dec 2019
Recent Form
Hearts are in freefall having gone just W1-D4-L7 across all competitions since late September, losing six of the last eight, while they failed to score in nine of these games in total.
The latest defeat came at the hands of St. Johnstone, who were bottom of the standings prior to winning 1-0, and to put that result into perspective, it was the Saints’ first victory on their travels in almost a whole year.
That was Daniel Stendel’s first game in charge since being appointed, but it was an abject display and it will clearly take the German longer to get his ideas across to his new charges.
Indeed, the attempt to press their opponents with an accompanying high line at the back didn’t pay dividends, and it would be a dangerous approach to take when facing Celtic, especially as Hearts’ squad lacks speed and mobility.
Meanwhile, zonal marking at set pieces proved their undoing in the end as the Saints registered their goal from a corner.
Regardless of whether the new man in the dugout decides to persist with high-intensity tactics or adopts a more cautious attitude for this clash, we would expect the outcome to be the same.
Celtic may have suffered a recent blip away at Cluj in the Europa League, but having already topped the group, Neil Lennon made nine changes to the team that beat Rangers in the League Cup final.
Excluding the result in Romania with a second-string side, Celtic have won 13 games on the bounce across all competitions, conceding more than a solitary strike in just one of those games.
Celtic To Win To Nil
Given how terrible Hearts were in the final third in their first outing under new management, with virtually no creativity from midfield, it’s hard to look past the win to nil at close to evens.
Both teams may have found the net in each of the four head-to-head meetings in 2019 so far, but only one of those came this season back in August, while Hearts are still struggling with various key absentees.
Since signing for the club in early 2016, Hearts have lost 51% of the games centre-back Jon Souttar has missed, compared to 35% when he starts.
Defensive midfielder Peter Haring, who joined the club in the summer of 2018, has contributed to a 41% win ratio when starting, which drops to 21% in his absence, while they’ve kept clean sheets in 35% of their games with him and in just 21% when he’s missing.
Further forwards, Conor Washington has only started three times since joining the club this summer, and interestingly it was he who scored against Celtic when they last met.
Perhaps most importantly, experienced striker Steven Naismith also remains sidelined, and since January 2018, they’ve lost 66% of their games in his absence compared to just 28% when he starts.
Even playing at home can’t really be considered an advantage for Hearts at this point, with the pressure of playing at Tynecastle clearly affecting the team.
Sean Clare was ironically cheered when subbed off and Stendel is already asking the fans for greater support. The return of key players and potentially new recruitments in January could turn things around for Hearts, but it won’t make one jot of difference here.
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