Hearts' ability to ring the changes suggests lessons might have been learned

There was impatience in the summer as Hearts took their time to get their transfer business moving.

But, over the past week, they have shown that, despite having to wait, they have arrived at a place where there is strength in depth.

On Thursday, six of the men who joined up during the current transfer window were in the squad that bettered Rosenborg in one of the club’s most notable European nights in several decades.

Come Sunday, there was another new face in the mix as Odel Offiah made his debut as the Gorgie club progressed to the quarter-finals of the Viaplay Cup, with a comfortable 4-0 win over Partick Thistle. The fact that his inclusion in the starting line up was one of six changes and the team still breezed through shows promise.

Hearts' summer signings Kyosuke Tagawa and Alex Lowry celebrate after they combined to wrap up their 4-0 Viaplay Cup victory over Partick Thistle and book a place in the quarter-finals. Photo by Mark Scates / SNS Group

As did the influence Alex Lowry had on the match and the debut goals scored by Kyosuke Tagawa and Offiah.

The Rosenborg triumph took them within one round of another shot of Europa Conference League group games and the chance to prove what they learned from the experience last term.

Fighting on two fronts - both domestic and continental - they sometimes struggled to perform to their optimum on a metronomic basis, as they tried to assert themselves on the European stage, maintain a challenge in the domestic cups and compete in the Premiership chase to finish best of the rest.

Ensuring the calibre of the players throughout the squad was good enough was tough with so many injuries to key players last term. They had numbers to plug gaps but the disparity in quality was telling at times. But, they believe they have addressed that this year.

Time will tell - and there was not the positive bounce back they would have hoped for after the first leg of the Rosenborg tie when they were unable to find a breakthrough against Kilmarnock on league duty days later. But, given the Rugby Park’s side’s start to the season, that may not have been the disappointment it seemed at the time.

But on Sunday, the six changes did not significantly diminish the way they executed their progress plan in the cup, while also coping with managing game time of the squad.

“That's because we have recruited players we believe can come in,” said technical director Steven Naismith. “The reason they have come in today is not just because they didn’t play in the previous game.

“Everybody is starting to understand. It is not that there is one stronger team over the other. There are different games for different players and today the guys who came in brought energy, and hard work, and, especially in the first half, when we won the ball back, we were in good positions and we very rarely gave up an opportunity for them to attack us. They are a team that have shown that they have good quality in possession. That was a pleasing aspect of the game.”

That was largely down to players finding their feet. The full settling in period will take time but the past week has shown that the process has started.