Hearts Are Bossing The League With A 4-4-2. And It Isn't 2006

Derek McInnes (usually) rolls out a simple old-school formation, executed to perfection and with devastating scoring results, to the chagrin of data crunching nerds everywhere

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Here’s a sentence for you. Seven games into the season (which feels just about on the cusp of when you’re actually allowed to seriously look at the table), Heart of Midlothian not only sit top, but have scored more goals than both Celtic and Rangers.

Slight caveat: I write this in the aftermath of an Edinburgh derby that felt more like watching two rival school classes boot shite out of each other on a blustery lunchtime than, say, a professional game of association football. Anyway, while Celtic netted three times in their narrow Sunday victory over Motherwell before we Completed The Round™, Hearts have still outscored them by five goals.

Derek McInnes has, across this admittedly small sample size, made Hearts the best team in Scotland. That is one fact. More interestingly though, for both me and anyone who’d open an article with my name on it, he’s done it — usually — with a proper 4-4-2. Which is a more interesting fact because it’s not how football is supposed to work anymore.