Hearts’ Champions League dream turned into a nightmare on Tuesday as they fell to a humbling 4-0 defeat against Sturm Graz.
In their first competitive match under Wouter Vrancken, just two of their eight summer signings started as the tie seemingly slipped out of their reach within an hour.
Many have made the obvious judgement that the seismic blows of losing Derek McInnes, Lawrence Shankland and Cammy Devlin to Rangers have left the Tynecastle club a shadow of the side which came so close to the Scottish Premiership title last season.
But they evidently also lost a key figure to Celtic.
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The Ross Grant effect sorely missed in Hearts’ 4-0 loss to Sturm Graz
Vrancken’s side fell behind within four minutes, when Jon Gorenc Stankovic leapt above Jamie McCart to score from a long throw-in.
Six minutes later, when Seedy Jatta hit the post unmarked from a corner, it became clear that a pattern was emerging.
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Just as they did a few minutes into the first-half, the Austrians scored from a set piece at the beginning of the second through Jeyland Mitchell.
Perhaps the most telling stat from the game is that Hearts conceded a whopping 1.40 expected goals from set pieces and just 0.87 from open play.
This ratio indicates significant issues defending set pieces and is a telling insight into how impactful they can be in the modern game.
Ironically, when Celtic faced Sturm Graz in Brendan Rodgers’ final home match before resigning last season, both of the Hoops’ goals in a 2-1 win came from corners.
Given their excellent record on set-pieces last season, it’s hard not to feel that the absence of Ross Grant is already sorely missed at Tynecastle.
Grant has been named as set-piece coach at Celtic following the departure of Gavin Strachan to West Brom.
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Ross Grant on Celtic’s set piece preparations
On introducing his set-piece work into Celtic’s pre-season, Grant said: “We started quite well.
“We started with more of a basic structure around what we wanted our defensive structures to look like, and a couple of attacking ideas to just give us more opportunities to make contact and increase the opportunity to score from an attacking sense.
“The players have been great. They have listened. They have challenged. They have asked questions. They have come up with solutions which they think might work a little bit better or slightly differently.
“It’s not really about me coming in here and trying to make radical changes to lots of things. It’s just about trying to give clarity to roles.
“A bit of simplicity. Just making sure everybody understands what they are meant to be doing.
“From an attacking point of view, trying to have a bit of creativity and innovation and use the talent that we have here to help with that, whether it be delivery, movements, aerial threats, and just try to bring all that together.”
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