Steven Naismith insists Hearts must be flexible with tactics after their 3-5-2 got them three league wins on the bounce.
The Jambos boss bad preferred a 4-2-3-1 after taking temporary charge last season and stuck with that for most of this early campaign, before switching to the back three for an away league match at Rangers and sticking with it ever since. That resulted in defeat as did a semi-final against the same opposition but the shape yielded wins against Livingston, Motherwell and St Johnstone.
Despite its popularity, Naismith is not committed to a single shape, claiming that both will be required at different periods depending on the game. With Kilmarnock’s strong home form on the plastic, tomorrow’s game against them is an example of a game that poses a unique challenge.
The Hearts boss said: “The things we are doing in games are very similar whether we have a back four or a back three. The structure of the team, with the personnel available, suits us right now. It depends who you are coming up against, what system they prefer, and where we feel we can hurt them.
“The biggest decision when we go into a game is always, ‘How can we hurt this team? What do we need to guard against?’. That probably dictates what our starting shape is.
“It’s a starting point and it has worked well for us. It will change over the course of the next month. I’d imagine we will use both systems.”
Moving on to his former club Kilmarnock, he said: “It will be much the same type of game as the cup tie. We can’t play like we did last weekend against St Johnstone because the pitch there won’t allow it, but the last time we played down there we had a successful result with a back four.”
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