Whereas Wilfried Nancy at first would have been anticipating to take cost of a Celtic staff needing refreshed after Brendan Rodgers’ departure, the Frenchman’s mindset will now want to show to carrying on the nice work of interim supervisor Martin O’Neill within the 5 weeks since.
It was a 3-1 defeat by Sunday’s opponents, as Hearts loved a sixth straight victory and inflicted a 3rd loss in 5 for Celtic, that proved to be the ultimate straw for Rodgers.
Nevertheless, since his resignation the next day and the arrival of fellow Northern Irishman O’Neill as interim boss, there was a gentle change in fortunes.
The eight-point lead Hearts established that day to encourage hopes of a real title problem from Edinburgh has been surrendered – they usually threat ending the weekend three factors behind champions who would additionally nonetheless have a sport in hand.
O’Neill palms over a staff who’ve misplaced as soon as, away to Midtjylland within the Europa League, in eight outings since that ill-fated journey to the capital, successful their newest 5.
Derek McInnes’ leaders, in the meantime, have since then gained solely as soon as in six.
In Hearts’ defence, it needs to be identified that they’ve additionally solely misplaced a type of.
Nevertheless, a failure to attain of their newest two away video games exhibits the place their latest issues lie as they head to Celtic Park, the place they’ve additionally not discovered the online in three straight defeats since their final win there, by 2-0 in December 2023.
5 consecutive house wins since shedding to Braga within the Europa League ought to give Nancy confidence that he can get his reign off to a table-topping excessive.
Nevertheless, will he accomplish that by persevering with with O’Neill’s successful components, or instantly undertake the 3-4-3 formation he favoured main Columbus Crew to high three locations within the Main League Soccer standings in 2023 and 2024 earlier than slipping to twelfth this 12 months?
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