Dundee can’t expect tiredness to play any factor for Hearts this weekend as the two sides clash at Dens Park.
Since the last Dark Blues fixture at St Mirren, the Jambos will have played four games due to their continued involvement in European football.
Since the Dee went down 2-1 in Paisley, Hearts have drawn with Kilmarnock, beaten Rosenborg and thrashed Partick Thistle in the League Cup.
And they’ll face a crunch Conference League clash at home to PAOK Salonika this Thursday before thinking of their trip to Dens Park.
Dundee boss Tony Docherty, though, says the strength in depth at Tynecastle will see that any tiredness in the opposition won’t be a factor.
As No 2 at Aberdeen, Docherty had plenty of experience of the Thursday-Sunday grind when a team is in Europe.
“It can be demanding, particularly if it’s an away tie,” he said.
“This isn’t obviously, they are at Tynecastle on Thursday.
“It’s slightly easier in that sense.
“But looking at their squad, they have real depth and they can rotate.
“I don’t think it’ll affect them that much. Maybe just with players not having minutes but they’ve got the depth of squad to deal with it.”
Well-versed
Dundee, though, have left no stone unturned in their preparations for this clash.
After missing out on a place in the knockout stages of the Viaplay Cup, the Dark Blues had no fixture over the weekend.
That meant a scouting mission for Docherty and his staff.
“As a staff we’ve seen their last three matches and I’ll go see them again on Thursday,” he added.
“So we’re quite well-versed on them.
“They have a lot of games at the moment but we need to focus on ourselves. We know how difficult an opponent they will be.
“I was at their game against Partick Thistle and saw a strong Hearts team just swipe aside Partick Thistle.
“You could see their strengths.
“We saw them against Kilmarnock, Partick Thistle and Rosenborg so we’ve seen them at every level.
“We’ll do as much as we can. We realise how difficult an opponent they’ll be but we also realise how effective an opposition we’ll need to be so we’ll need to make sure we are at our best.”
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