CRAIG LEVEIN faced perennial accusations of exerting too much influence on first team matters during the time he sat in the stands as Heart of Midlothian director of football, .
But, now that he has also returned to the dugout as manager, the 52-year-old admits he has been happy to devolve much of the responsibility for training to assistant manager Austin MacPhee and first-team coaches Jon Daly and Liam Fox, allowing him to adopt a watching brief.
The hands-off approach has worked well so far, with Levein having presided over an upturn in the team’s fortunes just two games into his second spell in the Tynecastle dugout.
Having racked up over 15 years of management experience, the former Cowdenbeath, Leicester City, Dundee United and Scotland manager admits he has learned to put his faith in his support staff.
“I’m different now to how I was at the start of my coaching career here,” said Levein, whose team will attempt to build on last weekend’s gritty victory at Hamilton when they face Partick Thistle tomorrow.
“I’ve got more trust in my staff, I don’t need to do absolutely everything.
“That has been quite a big benefit, to let Jon, Foxy and Austin do what they’re good at – and just keep an eye on things.
“It always is about man management. Years ago, I would have done absolutely everything.”
Explaining where be fits in behind the scenes, Levein said: “I’m always there at training, every day. I come into it on a Thursday and Friday, match day too.
“Pretty much the beginning of the week belongs to everybody else but I feel like Thursday, Friday and Saturday are mine.
“It’s not hard to be less hands-on. I think the director of football thing has helped with that.
“I’ve been standing back – and I feel comfortable doing that.
“We’re all working together, so it’s never a matter of me stepping in.”
The foundations of Hearts mini-revival have been built on making the team hard to beat and Levein admits the players are recording personal best fitness stats in training after Daly conceded the squad were not in the optimal shape under Cathro.
He added: “You work as hard as you can and I will support everybody to the end.
"For me it's simple. Our supporters expect the team to give everything they have got and if they do, and even if we lose, I will have no complaints.
“The players have worked really hard, their fitness numbers were the highest again on Tuesday.
“We’ve had some muscle injuries but we’ve had people exceeding their previous efforts so that’s a small price to pay for getting this team working.
"It is my belief that you have to do the work hard on the training ground - physically and not just the technical side - as that enables players to run harder, stronger and quicker than the opposition.
"Sometimes when you do that and don't play well you can still win.”
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