New Headline: McInnes Calls for 'Top Performer' Split to Claim Crown
[BBC] As soon as the final whistle went at Rugby Park, you just knew there would be days of overreaction from Jambos. I've heard a wide range of opinions from 'this defeat can be a good thing for Hearts' to 'we are definitely going to finish third at best'. We need remember that after finishing in the bottom six last season, Hearts top the table going into the penultimate weekend in March and have led the way since late September.
Derek McInnes' remit was to take us back to third place and he is on course to deliver. McInnes has attracted flak from fans in recent days and I understand the frustrations. The main gripe supporters have is we've not used the squad well enough in the second half of the season and I think that is absolutely fair.
The defeat at Kilmarnock was arguably our worst performance of the season and I think a lot of that is down to a combination of fatigue and players picking up niggly injuries. The drop off-in form in Alexandros Kyziridis is alarming. He should have been dropped a month ago.
I know McInnes appreciates his workrate and I guess that's why he's been deployed on the right, to protect Michael Steinwender, but we're nullifying his strengths. Kyzi playing on the left, cutting in, drives fear into opponents. We've got Sabah Kerjota, Islam Chesnokov, Alan Forrest and Rogers Mato all fit as wide options, yet we only appear to play with one out-and-out winger at times.
Mato is a strange one. We made a big push to sign him in January, with McInnes saying "he's ready to go".