Derek McInnes keen for Hearts to show they can cope with heightened expectations

Derek McInnes has challenged his Hearts players to show they can shoulder the club’s heightened expectations by delivering a strong performance against Rangers on Saturday.

New minority investor Tony Bloom cranked up the hype around the Jambos when he declared ahead of their opening Premiership match in August that he believed they had “a very good chance of at least being second” this season.

Hearts are currently joint top of the table with Celtic and six points ahead of Gers ahead of Saturday’s Ibrox showdown.

Asked if he felt they needed to produce a performance to back up Bloom’s bold words in Glasgow this weekend, McInnes said: “I think need is maybe not the right word, but I think it would be nice if we could go and demonstrate that.

“And that’s what we’re searching for. I think there’s been raised expectations. I think there should always be an expectation of a Hearts team and a Hearts player and a Hearts manager.

“And as I said when we came into the job, before Tony said what he said, we’ve just got to meet the expectations.

“We haven’t done that as a club for a bit, so we need to try and be at the very least that. And what is expected is a competitive Hearts team week in, week out, regardless of where it is.”

McInnes is adamant the result of Saturday’s game will not define whether they can challenge the Glasgow heavyweights or not.

“We’re four games in, regardless of the result,” he said. “If we win the game, then that’s only going to amplify (the hype) and everybody’s going to be saying a bit more of that.

“You can’t really affect what people think and say whether it’s good or not. If we lose the game, it’s not going to change either.

“We’ve got to just see it for what it is. It’s 90 minutes, we’ve got to try and go there and be as good as we can be. I think if we can get to our capabilities, we can get a result.

“I’m confident and the players have got to feel confident. I’ve got decisions to make on maybe one or two positions but regardless of what team we land on, I expect us to be really competitive. I expect us to be good enough to get a result and it’s important that the players feel that.”

Rangers have drawn all four of their league matches so far under Russell Martin, but McInnes has no doubt that they will soon improve.

“I think when you go to Rangers, you’ve got to have that personality and confidence and the arrogance about you that you think you can get a result,” he said.

“Because Rangers, despite a difficult start, they’ve got good players. There’s been significant investment into that team and I think in time that will prove dividends.

“In terms of the Scottish Premier League, that’s a lot of investment. We’ve just got to really concentrate on ourselves rather than being too focused on ‘they’re not quite at their best or whatever’.

“I think that’s the first step to losing the game if you concentrate on that too much. We’ve got to concentrate on ourselves.”