Table toppers head to face the champions on Sunday but how different Celtic will look under their new boss remains a mystery.

Derek McInnes insists Hearts have done their research on Wilfried Nancy – but he’s still not entirely sure what to expect of the new Celtic boss. The Jambos head across the M8 for Sunday’s top-of-the-table crunch with a slender goal difference lead on the Hoops.

Nancy will take charge of the Hoops for the first time after being unveiled as Brendan Rodgers’ successor earlier in the week. And while McInnes and his analysis team have studied footage of the Frenchman’s Columbus Crew side, he admits he’s unsure how much he will change Celtic after just three days preparation.

The Tynecastle boss said: “We had spoken about that. We’ve got a handle of how he plays, a few games to watch. But how he changes, I don’t know. He’s certainly got a real shape that he wants to play, which is different to the shape they currently play.

“Whether he can impart that over a couple of days, who knows? I was kind of hoping he would be in charge for Wednesday night, so I’d have a better idea if he was going to change it. But we need to wait and see. We’ll find out Sunday.”

Hearts have won just one of their last six games since dumping Celtic 3-1 in Gorgie in what proved to be Brendan Rodgers last game as Hoops boss. Conceding a 90th minute equaliser at home to Kilmarnock on Wednesday was the latest blow in a sequence that’s seen them winless in four.

Hearts’ Alexandros Kyziridis celebrates

But McInnes, who will still be without injured midfield quartet Caleb Nieuwenhof, Eduardo Ageu, Beni Baningime and Finlay Pollock, has urged his side to remember how good they were against Celtic last time out.

And he said: “Listen, Celtic Park is always a tough game. It’s always a game that you look forward to. We’d rather go into it off the back of a win but unfortunately that’s not the case.

“But there’ll be a wee reminder to the players of how good we were here against them and what we did right in that game.

“There’s things here that we can fix. We’re not in a bad place.

“We could do with getting one or two back to where they were earlier in the season, clearly, but that’s what a season’s for.

“There’s peaks and troughs with every player. And we just need that wee bit more consistency at times.

“And I think when we got the consistency of selection, we got the consistency of results.

“We got some good results, but once injuries come and different ways of playing, you’ve got to consider everything.”