Neil Critchley provided an honest assessment of Hearts’ loss at Celtic Park yesterday afternoon.
The Jambos fell to a 3-0 defeat at Parkhead despite having the better of the game for the opening 15 minutes before Daizen Maeda found the net.
Hearts fell to pieces a bit after that and found themselves 3-0 down at the break. The fact that they kept the scoreline down in the second-half was signs of an improvement.
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Neil Critchley says Elton Kabangu tested Celtic’s Cameron Carter-Vickers
Critchley felt his side were dangerous to the Scottish Premiership runaway leaders at times and he picked out one player in particular he felt gave the defence the runaround in moments – Elton Kabangu.
The Englishman said: “It’s two powerful players, physical players, good athletes.
“I thought Elton got the better of him a few times down the side. We created some moments where we were getting the ball into the penalty box and creating threatening moments. We just didn’t capitalise on them.”
Critchley took the build-up to this one very seriously as fans would expect and had the same issue as many managers have and will when heading to Celtic away from home.
Celtic can be beaten as was shown by Rangers a fortnight ago but that takes a team being brave enough to attack and risk it all on the road.
Critchley always wants his squad to carry a threat but he was realistic about what Celtic can do to opponents.
Hearts’ manager will ‘live and die’ by his principles this season
And he says he will “live and die” by his principles as a manager.
“Look, It’s a big dilemma coming here,” he added. “You know you’re up against a top-quality team. Do you really go for it and know that what happened in the first half can happen? Or do you just sit off them and give them half the pitch and know that they might beat you anyway? Then it’s what formation, how do you approach it?
“I don’t want the players to lose belief in who I want us to be. In my opinion, as a coach, you always have to protect or develop the traditions of the football club. It’s always been built on going toe-to-toe, being on the front foot, being aggressive.
“We’ll learn from that. I want us to be that team and get better at being the team we were in the first half and doing that for longer, and doing it better and doing it against top opponents.
“That’s what we’ve got to strive for. That’s where we want to be and this is the type of teams we want to be playing against and competing against for longer every week. That’s my test as a coach and that’s where I want us to move forward as a club.
“The principles of how we play the game, I will live and die by that and protect those principles that I think represent the club that I think we should be.”