Heart of Midlothian return from the international break looking to make amends for a terrible start to the season. Unfortunately, first up is the most difficult domestic fixture on the calendar: a trip to Celtic Park.
Hearts will take confidence from two victories over the Scottish Premiership champions last season, most notably the 2-0 away win in December.
Much has been made about Steven Naismith switching his formation to suit the opposition and, if those two wins over Celtic are anything to go by, a return to a back three is on the cards after a four-man defence was deployed against Dundee United.
Speaking ahead of the Celtic clash, Naismith said: “We need to defend well. You need to understand that they're a team that have loads of quality in every area of the pitch and they can hurt you in a split second.
“They want the game to be played fast, they want to take things quickly and in the final third they look for 1v1s and they've got good runners from midfield.
"So that defensive side of it, you need to be strong to give yourself a platform to hopefully hurt them.
“I think in the games against the Old Firm in general, we have in most of the games carried a threat. We've been good enough on the ball to create chances.
“The game we win comes from a free kick in a corner but the play before that was really good, it was really brave. And that's what we're going to need tomorrow.”
Craig Gordon seems to be the first-choice No.1 as it stands and Frankie Kent is one of the first names on the team sheet. As is Stephen Kingsley, who scored a belter of a free kick the last time the sides met at Celtic Park.
On which side of Kent Kingsley plays, will depend on whether Naismith selects Craig Halkett or Kye Rowles after the latter lost his starting place to the former before the international break.
Wing-back Gerald Taylor missed the last game with a slight knock but represented Costa Rica during the recent international window and, on the opposite side, James Penrice has been one of the few shining lights of the season so far.
Celtic flood and dominate the midfield, so a strong base will be required. Malachi Boateng is another new signing who has played himself into a regular starting position and he could line up alongside Beni Baningime who is fully fit again.
Should the Congolese be match fit enough after his return from injury, he will start. Naismith said both Baningime and Calem Nieuwenhof have been “a massive miss” so far this season.
Who plays alongside them in midfield could be one of a number of options. Cammy Devlin, who signed a new deal ahead of Saturday's match, is another who was dropped for the Dundee United game and it would perhaps be overkill to have him in alongside the aforementioned two in a back-three formation. More likely, is someone like Jorge Grant or Blair Spittal who can link midfield with attack.
Even if Hearts do set up in a defensive shape and approach the game tentatively, Naismith does not intend to park the bus for 90 minutes, hoping to snatch a goal at the other end.
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“In the short term we need to win a game, we need to get off the mark and get ourselves moving,” he said. “It's going to be the toughest game we've had all season.
“It'll be a tough game but it's one that I feel we can get a result. We did show that last year, which were similar circumstances in that nobody probably gave us a chance and we put in a good performance.
“We'll need that again this season, we'll need to defend like we did then and we need to have a threat.
“I say consistently again, the games against the top teams, you can't sit and defend for 95 minutes and hope to get a goal.
"We're going to need to be good in possession as well as out.”
If he has fully recovered, Kenneth Vargas will likely be tasked with reprising his role of playing on the shoulder of the last defender, looking to use his pace to get behind Celtic's high defensive line.
If he is not deployed as a lone striker, skipper Lawrence Shankland will play just off Vargas, dropping into the No.10 position to link play.
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