Neil Critchley makes Hearts-Celtic 'harsh' claim and reveals why he is yet to speak with Kenneth Vargas

Despite having the better of the first half against the champions, Hearts continue to suffer in front of goal, with Blair Spittal, Lawrence Shankland and Cammy Devlin missing good chances. Celtic regrouped at the break and scored four second-half goals through Kyogo Furuhashi, Nicolas Kuhn and Adam Idah (2), with Jambos replacement Musa Drammeh grabbing a consolation.

Hearts remain 11th in the standings, just a point ahead of city rivals Hibs, but Critchley took confidence from the team’s performance and highlighted some of the positives in the performance.

"I thought 4-1 was very harsh,” said Critchley. “I think if you look at the scoreline, it looks like a real beating. It was anything but, in my opinion I thought we were excellent in the first half. I thought we were the better team. When you're on top, you need to score. The first goal's massive and we didn't take our chances.

“And you need an element of luck and we didn't get that for the Celtic first goal. It's just pure luck. We've defended it really well. We've cleared it and it's landed straight at Kyogo's feet. Even then, Craigie [Gordon] saves it and it rebounds back to him. We're still in the game at 2-0. We had a chance to go 2-1. We didn't take it. So, loads of positives. I thought our organisation was good. I thought our structure was good. I thought we pressed well. And we went toe-to-toe with a very good team.”

Critchley admitted missed chances have been “the story of the past few games” but is not panicking over a lack of goalscoring threat from his team. "Well, I'd be more concerned if we weren't creating chances,” continued Critchley. “I think we take that as a positive that we created so many chances against Celtic tonight. I think we gave them an awful lot of problems. As many problems as any team I've seen them play, particularly the ones in the games I've seen. But, we have to score and we didn't. So, it's something for us to work on.”

One player who did find the net was Drammeh, scoring for the first time since joining from Sevilla in the summer. “Musa's been doing very well in training,” said Critchley. “We played a game here in the international break and he scored two goals behind closed doors here against Dundee. He's deserving of his opportunity. He came on at Rangers, he comes on today and he scores a brilliant goal. Fair play to Musa.

"He brings physicality and athleticism at the top end of the pitch. I know he can play down the middle or from a wide area. It's for me and him to learn where he's best suited. We're a little bit flexible in how we play at the top end of the pitch. What you do need is players of intelligence and understanding how to play our system, both in and out of possession. Musa's no different and the players are still learning that.”

Critchley also revealed that he has yet to hold talks with Kenneth Vargas, who came on as a substitute and received a smattering of boos following his comments earlier in the week about potentially leaving Hearts in January and the level of Scottish football.

Asked if they had spoken, Critchley responded: "No, because Kenny got back yesterday late, so I didn't want to speak to him before the game today because I didn't think I was right.”