Robbie Neilson believes Hearts' next four games are pivotal for their season aims.
The capital club are bidding to bounce back from their defeat at Motherwell last time out when the host St Johnstone. They will be out to get their hunt for third spot behind Celtic and Rangers back on track with Hibs just five points behind in fourth. A midweek clash with Celtic and a Scottish Cup tie with Ange Postecoglou's men follows before Aberdeen round off a big month ahead of the international break.
The players have had a couple of days off and trained during their free week as Neilson challenged his side to get themselves going again. Talks with the squad took place after that defeat at Fir Park on things that can be done better with the Tynecastle boss looking for those things to be ironed out and implemented this weekend.
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Speaking to Edinburgh Evening News, he said: “The next four games are big – St Johnstone at home, Celtic back-to-back, then Aberdeen away before the international break. It's a big period coming up. The players trained last week, they will got a couple of days off and then it's the build-up to the game this weekend.
“We had a free weekend there but we just want to keep playing. We were disappointed with the result at Fir Park last weekend, but we need to look at it in isolation a little bit as well. The boys have been outstanding for ten or 12 games on the bounce. We just need to get ourselves back going again.”
On the defeat to Motherwell last time out, he added: “That's just what happens when you're at a big club. You are expected to win every game.
“We dominated the early part of the game at Motherwell but then stopped doing what we are good at. We stopped being direct with our play and stopped doing the things that have got us to this point. Ultimately, we paid the price.
“Now we look at it and say: 'What are we good at? What did we not do that we normally do? There are a couple of things we need to improve and we have spoken to the players about it.”
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