Hearts comments suggest Celtic will be kicked all over the pitch tomorrow; could backfire again

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It’s another weekend, it’s another Scottish Premiership player talking about picking up fouls and cards as a viable tactic to stop Celtic in their tracks.

This time it’s Hearts defender Alex Cochrane making it clear that his team will be right in the faces of the Bhoys tomorrow, picking up fouls and potentially cautions from referee Nick Walsh.

That’s despite the Edinburgh side picking up six bookings, two of them resulting in red cards, the last time the two teams met back in August, when Celtic won 2-0. Cochrane was on the receiving end of one of the dismissals.

He said in a pre-match press conference this week: “It’s one of those games where sometimes you have to take bookings against Celtic. If you give them too much respect, they can potentially walk all over you.

“From that game (in August), we stuck in there from the start to the end and we knew it was going to be tough. On Saturday we’ve got the crowd behind us, we know what Tynecastle is going to be like and we need to be fully at it and start at 100 miles an hour.”

Listen, I don’t have a problem with opponents setting out with an intention of intensity and physicality or harnessing energy from a fired-up crowd. That’s part of the game, as long as it stays within the rules. There’s nothing wrong with approaching a match with pride rather than inferiority.

But I can’t really say I’m enjoying the trend this season of players openly talking about going out to foul us before a ball is kicked.

Cochrane isn’t the first this term, with Kilmarnock player Rory McKenzie talking a couple of months ago about ‘making fouls’ to slow us down at Rugby Park. Funnily enough, it didn’t really go well for McKenzie and Killie that day either, as Celtic routed them 5-0.

That’s the thing about it. It’s a pretty regressive way of playing that basically admits you’re not going to get close to Celtic. It’s a losing mentality, it sets a team up to be beaten by the Bhoys.

Ange Postecoglou’s unit has shown that on the vast majority of occasions in Scotland, they can rise above these crude tactics and play their football regardless.

It backfired for Hearts in August, as it did for Kilmarnock. Hopefully, it does tomorrow too. We can’t say we don’t know what to expect.

In other news, Ange Postecoglou talks Celtic’s strategy as cash-rich teams show interest in Rocco Vata.