Caley Thistle manager Richie Foran has told his players to rise to the physical challenge of facing Hearts on a ragged Tynecastle pitch this afternoon.
The condition of Hearts’ surface was heavily criticised following the Jambos’ 0-0 draw against rivals Hibernian in the Scottish Cup last weekend, with Hearts head coach Ian Cathro this week saying he will change tactics to suit the surface.
Foran is also prepared to mix it up and has urged his players to be ready to scrap it out with the Edinburgh side, with Caley Jags searching desperately for points to help them climb off the foot of the Premiership.
Foran said: “Hearts have got a lot of quality but I hear the park is in poor condition. I’m not sure if it’s going to be great so I don’t know if we’ll be able to pass the ball around.
“Brian Rice has had them watched a couple of times and the pitch is letting them down. If it’s a scrap, I want to come out on top.”
Foran travels to the capital with a depleted squad, with several players ruled out through suspension and injury.
The absentees make today’s task even harder for a Caley Jags side that has not recorded a league victory since October, and exited the Scottish Cup after a humiliating 6-0 loss to Celtic last weekend.
Foran has challenged the stand-ins to take their opportunity, adding: “We’re down on numbers with three suspensions and Billy King being out against his parent club. But there’s chances there for others, they need to take it and keep their place in the team.
“We’re going to Hearts hungry and disappointed by last week. We let ourselves down and let the supporters down, so we want to go down and get a good result.
“I lift the players sometimes and they lifted me on Tuesday with their training session. I gave them Monday off and they came back flying on Tuesday. I don’t see a big confidence problem – it’s not running through the team. We’re looking for leaders now and we’ve got enough of them.”