Levein is cool,calm and point collected
Hughes: Craig’s soft approach got us back on track v Dons
AARON HUGHES revealed last night it is Craig Levein’s softly-softly approach that is transforming Hearts.
He lifted the lid on the subtle changes which have already paid dividends just one game into the manager’s second spell in charge of the club.
Hughes and his team-mates produced their best performance of the season at Murrayfield over the weekend when only a wonder show from Aberdeen keeper Joe Lewis denied Levein a win in his first game back in the technical area.
Instantly Hearts were back to their old selves – organised, hard-working, imposing and dangerous.
Levein’s reputation as a fearsome character and strong disciplinarian has been cited by some as a catalyst for booting backsides back into line after the failed efforts of Ian Cathro.
But Hughes refuted that and insists Levein has been calm and quietly gone about transforming fortunes at the Edinburgh side.
He said: “It’s just the manager’s presence around the place. He hasn’t come in screaming and shouting and pulled the roof down. He has just been very clear, concise and to the point. It’s a subtle difference really. You know it’s just little things here and there.
“Getting that feeling of being hard to beat, making sure that at all times from a defender’s point of view, when we’re attacking we need to be on the front foot and make that first contact, so it stops them counter-attacking.
“It’s only been a couple of days but that’s how it has been so far.
“He definitely has a presence with his experience and what he’s done but with him being around the club anyway and seeing him day to day it’s just he is more hands on now than he was. So far so good.
“Since I’ve been here we’ve had the odd chat about being the more experienced ones and trying to help the younger lads along. It’s not anything new since he’s taken over.
“In my conversations with Craig since I’ve been here anyway that kind of thing has been brought up.
“Just having that experience and being older players means you have that responsibility anyway, just to help the younger players at times.
“It’s just one game but there are a lot of positives to take out of it, considering we’ve only had a couple of days. In fact, last Thursday was the only real day we had a chance to work on things after everyone came back from international duty.
“So the initial response from the lads to take on as much as possible was good and it certainly gives us a really good platform to build on.”
For all the enlightening aspects of the performance on the pitch perhaps the most noteworthy factor of the day was the reaction of the supporters.
Almost 20,000 Jambos packed into Murrayfield and responded to seeing the effort and commitment allied to some dangerous attacking play.
Despite the draw the Hearts faithful applauded their team off the pitch and that act was not lost on Hughes.
He said: “It was a good performance and that’s what we wanted.
“If you focus a lot on the result you maybe don’t know what you’re going to get. If you focus on the performance you’re more likely to get a good result. I know that sounds like a cliche but that’s what we spoke about.
“We obviously spoke about little technical details through the game but first and foremost we needed a good performance and we would have taken all three points had it not been for their keeper.
“That was the pleasing thing, not only that we defended well and got about but we created chances too.”