Claudio Braga reveals the Hearts teammate who 'p****s me off because he's too good'

The conversation turned to his team-mate and captain Lawrence Shankland, with whom he drew level with on 11 goals for the season after his opener in the 2-0 win over Falkirk on Saturday.

"I feel really happy that I can compete with a guy that is the best goalscorer in the history of the league and compete in a good way," Braga said. "I think we don't really care. I told this the other time that we were tied also with eight goals, I think, and then he just ran away. Now I catch him, but we were happy for each other when we scored and that's really good. Hopefully we can keep this partnership and grow more with that."

The Portuguese front man - plucked by Hearts from the Norwegian second tier after being identified by Jamestown Analytics - has proven to be one of the signings of the season in the Scottish Premiership. But while he has become an instant hit among Jambos fans, the 26-year-old admits he is in awe of his Scottish strike partner.

"He p****s me off, to be honest, because he's just too good," he said of Shankland. "For example, I feel like I'm a more energetic guy and everything, but he makes things look easy, you know? And it's like, how do you do that? He's just really that good when it comes to the ball at his feet. The ball doesn't cry at all, so that impressed me.

"The things that I'm maybe worse at are the things he [Shankland] is best at, so that helps me a lot on being a more balanced player. I still need to learn a lot and I know sometimes I do stupid mistakes, but that's part of being a football player, I would say."

Braga and Shankland will likely spearhead the Hearts attack on Sunday as the league leaders look to become the first team to inflict a league defeat on Rangers since Danny Rohl took over in October.

Hearts go into the match with a six point advantage over Celtic at the top of the table. Rangers are nine points adrift, but like Celtic, have a game in hand over Derek McInnes' side.

A Hearts win would add further fuel to the notion that they are capable of winning the title this season. Braga insists, however, that no such discussions are taking place within Tynecastle.

"You look at the table, of course, but we are actually trying to push each other not to think about that, not to think about the title race, just because it's so many games.

"You probably know for sure that if you put that pressure on as a player or something like that, you'll have difficulty focusing on what you need to focus on. That is the next game and that's it.

"If we go to March or April and then we're first, then it's like a little bit different conversation. I think there we need to take our responsibility but right now it's so early and that will not be good for us if we bring that to us."