Inside Neil Critchley's first Hearts day: black box, Andrew McKinlay defiance, what the analytics revealed

Analytics was the buzzword as Neil Critchley met the media for the first time as Hearts head coach on Tuesday.

The 45-year-old Englishman is the first recruit to emerge from the new £10million partnership between the Tynecastle club and Tony Bloom, the Brighton chairman and owner of Star Lizard, the much vaunted data analysis company which has been credited with playing a major role in the rise of the south coast club.

The appointment has been met with a mixed response from Hearts fans with concerns raised over recent sackings from both Queens Park Rangers and Blackpool - the former after only 12 matches in charge which yielded just a single victory.

But Hearts have placed their faith in Critchley thanks to a combination of the Star Lizard’s Jamestown Analytics algorithm and the human interactions involving CEO Andrew McKinlay and incoming sporting director Graeme Jones.

The role of the "black box", as McKinlay put it, featured prominently as he moved to defend the appointment of Critchley when put to him that the response to his arrival has not been entirely positive.

"Neil was the preferred candidate from an analytics perspective and also when we spoke to him it was very clear to us that he was the right person to work with us, to work with Graeme, and to work with the analytics," McKinlay said. "It would be very strange at the start of a strategic partnership if we didn't go into it fully and wholeheartedly so that's where we got to with Neil.

"You talk about this negativity, I'm actually quite encouraged by quite a lot of what I've been hearing and reading today since we made the announcement.

"I think that our fans, in fact I know our fans, will get behind Neil and will wish him all the best. I know on Saturday they'll get behind him. We all want to come together as one and I'm very, very positive. The fans, I think, will be too."

Neil Critchley is unveiled as the new head coach of Hearts at Tynecastle Park. (Photo by Ewan Bootman / SNS Group) | SNS Group

Critchley himself will now be tasked with proving the doubters wrong and backing up the software programme that helped him land the job by lifting Hearts up the table from their current position at the bottom of the Scottish Premiership.

"I think whoever was sitting here, it's always going to divide opinion," Critchley said. "When you've got a big supporter base like we have, then some people will agree, some people will be sitting on a fence and say let's give them an opportunity, some people might think differently. It could be anybody sitting here, but I've been given this opportunity and it's one I intend to give everything that I can to make this football club successful."

While Critchley enjoyed success in a first spell as Blackpool manager - winning promotion to the Championship via the League One play-offs - Hearts fans may be questioning how the analytics have led them to a manager who was sacked from his previous two jobs, and who was also dismissed as Steven Gerrard's assistant following an unsuccessful stint at Aston Villa. The answer, McKinlay revealed, lies beneath the surface.

"The main thing the analytics does is it looks at managers that have improved the players they've worked with," he explained. "That's its main focus, they have a track record of where they've worked with players, they have improved them. The great thing about that is it doesn't purely look at only people that have won. People might win something or might do something because they've got better players, for example, or they might have a better environment to work in. The analytics very much, and that's what we want, is someone that will improve players. I have no doubt Neil will absolutely bring the best out in our players. I'm confident, and I've said it previously, that we have a good squad of players, but they need the right person to direct them, and I think Neil will be that person."

Hearts chief executive officer Andrew McKinlay and new head coach Neil Critchley address the media at Tynecastle Park. (Photo by Ewan Bootman / SNS Group) | SNS Group

Reports last week had suggested that former Norway boss Per-Mathias Hogmo had turned down Hearts advances but McKinlay insisted that Critchley was the number one choice.

"We didn't negotiate with anyone else," he stressed. "There was a lot of talk. I've had every name thrown at me over the last two weeks. Neil was the only person that we negotiated with."

Critchley took Hearts training for the first time on Tuesday - "from seeing them this morning I'm more encouraged than I was beforehand" was his honest assessment having watched all of Hearts matches so far this season - six defeats and two draws in the league, a Premier Sports Cup exit to Falkirk and one victory in Europe.

His first task is to end Hearts' wait for a league win and build on the positive signs during Liam Fox's interim spell in charge that led to a 2-1 victory against Dinamo Minsk in Azerbaijan and an encouraging performance in a 3-2 defeat at Aberdeen.

"My immediate aim is to win games of football," Critchley said. "We are where we are and my focus is solely on St Mirren on Saturday. The rest will hopefully take care of itself in the future. There's plenty of points to play for and plenty of games and hopefully over the next coming weeks and months we can gradually climb and let's see where we can get to.

"They had a fantastic season last season finishing third and qualifying for Europe and that's credit to Steven and the staff. Obviously it's not gone the way anyone would have wanted so far this season and that can happen sometimes. It's not for the want of trying. I've had experience of that myself. But from what I've seen, what I've studied and analysed, and what I've seen this morning, even though it's only one training session, I'm encouraged by what we can still try and do this season."