Levein owns the talent to turf out Celts

CRAIG LEVEIN grins as he addresses the precise lengths to which the SPFL have gone in order to make Murrayfield a neutral venue — right down to the setting on the SRU lawnmowers. Partly because he’s still slightly tickled by Brendan Rodgers making such a fuss over the state of the Tynecastle surface late last season, the Celtic boss branding it an ‘embarrassment’. But also because, six months on, the Hearts manager has a team who don’t need any turf tricks in order to mix it with Scotland’s champions. Smiling as he acknowledged SFPL efforts to level the playing field, Levein said: ‘The pitch size is the same size as at Hampden, which is fine. ‘The grass length — just to let you know — will be between 26 and 30 millimetres. ‘I am not worried about those types of things as much as I was last season. ‘I feel our team last season, when we beat Celtic, was based on running, energy and pressing. We are different this year. ‘A lot of the players we had last season could do that but could not do other things. ‘This time we have better players who can do better things with the ball. ‘It means we might have it a little bit more — or longer — than was the case last season. ‘For us being the team that was doing the chasing most of the time last season, the size of the pitch was important. Not quite so much this season.’ One week short of a year has passed since Hearts last played at Murrayfield, their temporary home not very far away from home. It’s fair to say that plenty has changed in the 51-week interval between a limp league loss to Kilmarnock, played out in front of just over 16,000 souls, and the eve of a Betfred Cup semi-final guaranteed to attract the biggest crowd Scottish football has seen since the 1990 Scottish Cup final. Levein, who stepped back into frontline coaching early last season following the dismissal of Ian Cathro, can testify to a wholesale transformation. ‘I have more faith,’ he said of his squad. ‘That’s because of the nature of player we have. ‘They are uncomplicated and hungry to be better. And motivation coming from within is always so much better than someone pushing or pulling or cajoling — or hitting you with a big stick. It’s never the same kind of motivation. ‘We have better players with a better mindset and we also have momentum, which we did not have last season, when it was all bitty — some good performances then it would go to the next week and we would be poor. ‘Last season was constant work just to keep us in the top six. It was about keeping us from heading into a tailspin. I always felt we weren’t that far away from that last year. ‘We were cajoling people all the time to get performances out of them. ‘A lot of young kids were involved and there’s the erratic nature of that — how they’re going to handle it. Not just playing their debut but playing four, five or six matches. ‘It was constant. There wasn’t a point where I could feel like: “Things will be alright this weekend”. There was always something.’ Tomorrow at Murrayfield, Hearts — who have sold more than 28,000 tickets — expect to play their part in a true spectacle. ‘I just can’t wait to see what it looks like with so many Hearts fans,’ said Levein. ‘There were about 28,000 people there when we played Rangers and the atmosphere was really good. ‘I’m just trying to imagine what the atmosphere is going to be like when there’s 60,000 there. It can only help us. ‘We would only have taken 10,000 through to Hampden for a 7.45pm kick-off. I feel this is more neutral than Hampden. ‘The thing for me is going into the game knowing we are not at Hampden with just 10,000 Hearts supporters and 40,000 Celtic supporters. ‘That feels good for me. The fact we aren’t at Hampden, where Celtic regularly play, feels good for me as well. ‘But we still have to do it on the field, so we will see.’