Steven Naismith draws on Rangers Euro away day at Barcelona as Hearts continental blueprint
Steven Naismith didn’t have a shred of fear as he made a Champions League debut in the Nou Camp.
The Hearts boss wants his troops to adopt exactly the same approach when they hit Europe’s group stages. But Naismith is also aware the gruelling schedule is going to place big demands onto his unit. And the Tynecastle gaffer says the major task next term isn’t to increase a challenge on the Old Firm, but to cement their current status in Scotland through the continental challenges to maintain positive progression in Gorgie.
Naismith knows Europe is both a mental and physical test. But, looking back to his own playing experiences, he references facing Lionel Messi and Barcelona with Rangers 17 years ago and stated: “In terms of the belief, going into every game, I was like: What’s the worst that could happen? That’s probably the root of what gave me my success. I was up for everything.
“My first Champions League game was Barcelona away at a time when they were the best team in the world, and some are saying maybe in the history of the game. I never went into it thinking I was worried. I saw the opportunity in it and that’s the same way I have been as a coach. And then, going forward, if we’re playing European teams, it will be the same there.
“I found it hard [playing] at the start. When you’re a young player and you have not experienced it before, it’s full on. When you look back, you realise that. But you’re either a player that thrives on it and has that mentality that pushes you over the edge and makes you able to deal with it, or you’re not.
“When I was at Rangers there were quite a few of us who came in at the same time and experienced European football for the first time. And we dealt with it well, eventually. But then, if you become an international player, that’s the normal schedule. For us that’s the biggest challenge. We have a young team, we’ve risen to the challenges this season has presented us with. Next season is the next one.”
Hearts are upwardly mobile under Naismith, but, clearly, next season is going to be another test of that progression. Talk of a £5million group-stage cash injection aiding a bigger push at the Old Firm has been rife, but Naismith is wary.
In the past two seasons, Hearts themselves under Robbie Neilson and Aberdeen during Barry Robson’s tenure found it tough to maintain consistently high standards in the Premiership during the punishing period of the European commitments. Naismith sees the juggling act ahead and said: “That is probably the most short-term challenge we have. People talk about we need to close the gap [to Old Firm], we need to be challenging.
“Our biggest challenge is dealing with the schedule of being in Europe and competing in the league so that the next season you are in the same position. That’s the challenge. The No.1 goal for us at the moment. You can have one good season, get into Europe’s group stages, but if the next season you are in the bottom-six, there’s no progression there. That’s the problem.
“It’s not going to be easy, we are going to ask a lot of the squad because it is not just the quality of the teams you are playing and the fatigue, it’s the travel, the mindset, relentless nature of constantly thinking about football every minute of every day. That’s the part that’s the biggest difference for players. Normally they go week to week and you have time to spread out the detail.”
Naismith has the bonus of many individuals such as Craig Gordon, Stephen Kingsley and Lawrence Shankland having been through the balancing act the last time under Neilson. He said: “Yeah, exactly. And the squad needs to take a lot of credit because that season they were in a not bad place by the time they came out of Europe.
“That gives you a lot of confidence that we have an understanding of what’s to come. The way I work compared to Robbie is slightly different in that I have rotated a little more than he did. I feel we build a squad and we believe in everybody within that squad. We’ve shown that this season and that will be really important next season.”
Naismith accepts each day is school one for him at the moment as he builds his own skill-sets in the hotseat. For a first managerial job, Hearts is a stiff test and he’s had to come through some tricky times in stages. However, Naismith is growing with big results against Celtic, the third spot in the table and two semi-finals marking his first full campaign in the job down as highly encouraging.
He said: “For me, you’re learning all the time. There are loads of mistakes that are made, some get covered by a result, some don’t. Some are subtle and don’t have an impact on the game. That whole learning side is happening all the time for me.
“It’s our first year together, we’ve done a lot of good stuff. Our season as a while has been a very successful one. We’ll reflect on that at the end of the season and build into next season.”
