Kai Watson: Are Hearts Title Contenders?
After a heartbreaking final day of the season, the summer didn’t go particularly well at the beginning for Hearts. They lost top goalscorer Lawrence Shankland to Rangers before also losing Derek McInnes and, further down the line, Cammy Devlin.
Three massive parts of their success last season went to the side that they managed to finish above. Despite that feeling like a betrayal, the thought of Jamestown stepping in to find a replacement for a side that almost won the league started to excite Hearts fans.
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The man that was chosen for the job was Wouter Vrancken whose most recent role was at Sint Truiden, a team he unexpectedly managed to third place in the Belgian top flight. His attacking style was described as ‘chaos ball’ whilst off the ball he liked his players to press aggressively to immediately gain the ball back which was a departure from the more pragmatic style under their former manager.
They had a terrible start to the competitive matches though, a 4-0 humbling in Graz, which could have been more, was followed by a 2-0 defeat at Tynecastle to be knocked out of the Champions League at their first entry round.
Then came the first matchday of the Scottish Premiership and they faced an awkward trip to Pittodrie, despite looking comfortable for most of the game and being 1-0 up going into injury-time, they lost 2-1.
It wouldn’t get any easier as they got the worst draw possible in the Europa League qualifier in Portuguese giants Benfica. Hearts travelled to Lisbon and were hammered 6-1 despite a valiant effort. Things have picked up since that evening though.
That was followed up by a 4-0 dismantling of Dundee United at Tynecastle then a very respectable 1-1 draw with Benfica in the second-leg. A nice run of five domestic wins followed, beating Inverness and Stenhousemuir in the League Cup alongside St. Johnstone, rivals Hibs and Dundee in the league.
A 2-1 defeat in Falkirk felt like a reality check and they then had to rescue a late draw against Kilmarnock before the international break. Their response to that was a five star display last weekend that was as good as any team has played in the league the whole season.
Calvin Miller scored two penalties and got an assist taking his total this season to six goals and an assist in 16 matches. Josh McPake has also been in incredible form and got a goal against St. Mirren made it three goals and five assists in twelve, with seven goal contributions in seven Premiership matches (3G/4A).
James Wilson has three league goals and Braga has three goals and two assists, that front four is so dangerous and in brilliant form.
Their next league game is against Celtic this coming Sunday, after a tough tie against Nordsjælland on Thursday, and a win in that game would take them within two points of the league leaders.
If they win at Celtic Park on Sunday, do you think they would solidify their position as title contenders or even title favourites?
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