Hearts humiliated – but would Vrancken do anything differently?

Manager Wouter Vrancken focuses on individual errors by his players rather than his tactical approach after Hearts are thrashed by Celtic. "If Wouter Vrancken was given the opportunity to play this game again, would he change anything?" The question was posed by bewildered former Heart of Midlothian midfielder Andy Halliday after the Tynecastle club were torn apart by Celtic on Sunday. His suspicion is that the Belgian coach would not. Vrancken's side were two down inside 10 minutes. Four adrift inside 40. A fifth was conceded before the break. Two more found their net after half-time on what was a wretched day in Hearts' nascent title challenge. The Celtic Park scenes offered echoes of what happened in the opening games of his tenure – heavy European qualification defeats by Sturm Graz and Benfica as a wide-open, attack-minded side were torn asunder.

But it's how Hearts' new head coach plays – how the club want him to play – and a style which had underpinned a goal-laden run of 13 games with just one defeat. Afterwards, Vrancken spoke repeatedly of mistakes by players which cost his side goals. He did not, however, reflect on his own decisions. "We made a few individual mistakes," he told BBC Sport Scotland. "Two set-plays killed our game at the start. All of their goals were