Hearts head coach Wouter Vrancken has warned his players they will be playing into Rangers' hands if they let the emotion of Derek McInnes' return to Tynecastle affect them, insisting motivation must come from within.
McInnes makes his first trip to Gorgie since leaving Hearts last summer, when the club were still coming to terms with losing the title on the final day, and the atmosphere is expected to be highly charged. But Vrancken, who has been focused on managing a lengthy injury list and a demanding fixture schedule, said he has not spent much time thinking about who will be in the opposition dugout.
Vrancken: Motivation must come from within
"When you need those things as an extra motivation, I think it's not a good thing," said Vrancken. "When you're on the pitch, no matter who it is, when you were a starter last year or a sub last year or no matter what happened in your career, you have to want to play games, you have to want to win games.
"The motivation has to come from within yourself and not these extra things outside football. This is the sport you want, just put your energy in this. When you need those extra things to get motivated, then we have a problem in all the other games.
"There's always the noise that you have to cancel or have to avoid and just focus on what you have to do. Focus like we did already a few times. Focus on what you have to do on the pitch because we want to win the game. We want to take a result, even with the injuries."
New-look squad under Vrancken
The arrival of Vrancken has given a new lease of life to players who struggled for game time under McInnes, including Jamie McCart, James Wilson, Blair Spittal and Rogers Mato. Spittal is currently one of eight first-team players sidelined.
Vrancken doubts McInnes has any advantage from his knowledge of the squad, given the summer arrivals and the number of players now featuring who were substitutes last year. "I don't know, ask him. But it's a totally different style," he added. "I think there are a lot of players that are playing now who were last year's subs. Even the guys who were very important at the beginning of the season are out now or didn't play too much last year. So they stepped up this season.
"So I'm happy to see this. We ask different things, probably, him and me. So it's about analysing the game, how they are now and about them and about us."
Rangers in rich form
Rangers head into the match unbeaten in nine games, winning eight of them, and sit four points clear of Hearts in second place after a slow start that included an early European exit. Vrancken acknowledged the quality of the opposition.
"Rangers is a good team. Individual quality is enormous and the difference in budget and stuff like this is also massive. But on the pitch it's 11 v 11," Vrancken said. "I think they will come aggressive towards us in their way of playing. We have to be ready for those things. We have to analyse them but also be ready and try to have the solutions to cope with it within our qualities."
Even at this stage of the season, defeat could be significant for Hearts in their bid to mount another title challenge. "Each game is important of course and it's all early in the season. But when you can have three points then it's also a boost mentally, especially within the circumstances we're in now," Vrancken said. "Knowing that it can only get better then and we have more and more possibilities, that would be a big boost. But it's not decisive at this stage."
Milne out for the season
Vrancken also confirmed that defender Harry Milne's season is over after scan results showed he ruptured his ACL. The stand-in skipper sustained the injury in training on the eve of the Conference League defeat to Trabzonspor in Turkey last Thursday.
Vrancken, who is also without captain Craig Halkett, Blair Spittal, Tom Renaud, Oisin McEntee, Ageu, Stuart Findlay and Christian Borchgrevink, said: "Harry is unfortunate, his season is finished as it was the ACL. It was like we expected but there was a little bit of hope.
"It was hard I think for him. I spoke with him but he had peace with it he said. In the back of your head you know but we hoped a bit."
Vrancken hopes Milne will still have a big role to play off the pitch for the rest of the season. He added: "I hope so. I think it's first of all looking at how he handles the emotion of the setback or the news.
"He can help because he's a positive guy and in the dressing room he can still be in a main role. We saw it also with Halks and how important he is for the group and I think Harry can also do it. It's just a pity that we cannot have him on the pitch."
