Second place ‘definitely there’ for Hearts, says Christophe Berra

The more optimistic among the Hearts support are thinking bigger than that, and Berra, a Scottish Cup winner with the Edinburgh team in 2006, has no issue with anyone in maroon and white who dares to believe in a title challenge.

“I think you can dream,” added the former centre-half who was capped 41 times for Scotland.

“We’re only six games in so there’s a long way to go. Maybe come and have this conversation at 30 games in, before the split.

“The manager’s not daft, he knows it’s a long season. He’ll be telling them to calm down, take it with a pinch of salt, enjoy it but let’s just take every game as it comes.”

Captain Lawrence Shankland scored both goals in the recent win away to Rangers and was on target again in Saturday’s 3-0 victory over Falkirk.

The 30-year-old is on seven goals for the season, while summer signings Claudio Braga and Alexandros Kyziridis have six and four respectively.

“There’s a very experienced manager who knows the league inside out,” said Berra of McInnes.

“For the last few years they’ve relied on Shankland a lot. He’s still contributing but they’ve also got players around him who’re a big threat as well and scoring goals. That adds to the fear factor especially when teams come to Tynecastle.”