Wilfried Nancy says formation change was not a factor for losing start at Celtic after Hearts defeat

Wilfried Nancy played down the impact of his formation change after starting his Celtic reign with a 2-1 home defeat by Hearts.

The Frenchman started with Kieran Tierney in a back three in his first game as Hoops boss, with Sebastian Tounekti and Yang Hyun-jun playing at wing-backs and a four-man ‘box midfield’.

Daizen Maeda could not make the most of two good chances as Celtic dominated possession in the first half, but otherwise they struggled to carve out clear-cut chances.

Hearts went ahead two minutes before half-time when Claudio Braga took advantage of a static Celtic defence which expected an offside flag that never came.

The visitors grew in belief and doubled their lead through Oisin McEntee’s header from a 64th-minute corner.

Reo Hatate hit the crossbar, but a Celtic fightback never really materialised and Kieran Tierney’s stoppage-time reply came too late.

Celtic have generally played some form of a 4-3-3 in recent years, but Nancy claimed the connection between players was key rather than the formation.

“To be honest, in the first half we changed the system,” he said. “I would say in the second half it was the same system. After that, when we wanted to push, it was not the system that we started with.

“So for me this is more about how we can deal when teams are really low.

“So the centre-backs for example, when they had the ball, recognise the moment to play a little bit quicker, recognised the moment to play in between. The intention was here. These are now the nuances that we need to improve.

“This is more about how we can connect a little bit more. When we connected, we had opportunities to break them. But second half, we didn’t connect.”

Nancy added: “When we conceded the second goal, we started to put in cross and cross and cross. We needed to combine a little bit more, to attack the box with numbers because they are really good defensively with big tall guys.”

Hearts head coach Derek McInnes had a feeling Nancy would play his preferred formation and planned accordingly.

“We have studied the last two or three days, watching a lot of Columbus Crew and what they want to do and expect from their players,” said McInnes, whose side moved three points clear at the top of the William Hill Premiership.

“We felt well prepared for that and it meant we needed to fill the middle of the pitch with bodies. Celtic have got a lot of good players in that central area, so we needed to make sure we were nice and solid through that part of it.

“We tried to play in the spaces between the outside centre-back and the winger because it’s quite a big distance at times.

“When we did connect the game a wee bit, and it was too few and far between in the early part of the game, but when we played the pass that needed to be played, we gave ourselves a wee bit of encouragement getting up the pitch.”