Blair Spittal reckons the international break could prove crucial in giving new Hearts boss Neil Critchley more time to get his ideas across on the training pitch.
Critchley has had a whirlwind start to life at Tynecastle, overseeing seven games in 23 days since taking over from Steven Naismith last month. Due to the demanding run, including Conference League matches against Omonia Nicosia and Heidenheim, most of the work at their Oriam training base has centered around either recovery or preparing for games.
But the Jambos boss now has some time to work more closely with the squad who are not away on international duty ahead of their return to league action at home to Celtic next Saturday. Hearts’ performances have picked up under Critchley but they remain second bottom in the Premiership and Spittal hopes a let-up in their schedule will help Critchley get his ideas across.
The midfielder said: “The international break will be important. I don’t think we’ve had a lot of time in terms of being on the training pitch.
“But it’ll be weird when we come back in terms of having that Saturday-Saturday build-up. In the first week or so in terms of building into that St Mirren game, there was quite a lot of information.
“After that it was sort of day to day. The manager doesn’t want to overload us too much but it’s been a good start. It’s all about how we can hurt the opposition. It’s all about being on the front foot, being aggressive.”