Hearts were represented in the WhoScored Premiership Team of the Week following their hard-earned home victory over Aberdeen. After heading into the international break with just one win from their opening four league matches, Steven Naismith’s men beat the Dons with a 2-0 victory at Tynecastle thanks to a goal in each half from Yutaro Oda and Liam Boyce.
Naismith was understandably in a positive mood after the win and believes this is down to the ‘reset’ his team experienced during their downtime during the recent international break.
He said: “It was a very good afternoon. In a way, we needed a mental break to reset and take stock. In the European games the performances have been good, but the challenge is when you go into the domestic games you have to win and we never managed that well enough. You get to work on some things on the ground that we felt needed to reset and figure out again.
“When we have that energy, we press right and we play forward, we cause problems for teams and it shows. The most important thing is that it was a collective thing, some of the substitutes that came on didn’t get many minutes but they did very well and had an impact on the game.
The three points moved Hearts one place and two points off the top four in the Premiership table and gave them something to build on as they prepare for this weekend’s visit to second-placed St Mirren.
Before we move on to the SMISA Stadium, let’s take a look back at last weekend as the stats experts at WhoScored revealed their team of the week and there are some very notable names among the eleven players selected.
WhoScored Premiership Team of the Week
GK: Zach Hemming (St Mirren) – score 8.17
RB: James Tavernier (Rangers) – rating 7.90
CB: Ben Davies (Rangers) – rating 7.64
CB: Luiyi de Lucas (Livingston) – score 7.71
kg: Stephen Kingsley (Hearts) – rating 7.65
RM: Daniel Armstrong (Kilmarnock) – rating 7.65
CM: Matt O’Riley (Celtic) – rating 7.96
CM: Cameron Devlin (Hearts) – rating 7.90
LW: Tom Lawrence (Rangers) – rating 7.60
ST: Kyogo Furuhashi (Celtic) – rating 8.11
ST: Kyle Vassell (Kilmarnock) – rating 7.66
