Richie Foran thinks Inverness have improved their physicality
Inverness manager Richie Foran believes his team are better suited to facing Hearts than early in the season.
Caley Thistle were on the end of a 5-1 thrashing at Tynecastle in August as they suffered a third Ladbrokes Premiership defeat in their first three matches.
But they signed former Hearts and St Johnstone defender Brad McKay and target man Lonsana Doumbouya and have not looked back, only losing once in seven matches.
Ahead of the visit of Robbie Neilson's team, Foran said: "You've got to take your chances against the top teams but we needed a bit more physicality. We've got that with Brad coming in and Big Lons up top."
Inverness continued their resurgence with an impressive 3-0 victory at Motherwell on Wednesday, while Hearts were losing at Kilmarnock.
Foran said: "They're a strong side that will definitely finish in the top six. They have some really good attacking players.
"But we'll take confidence from scoring three goals at Motherwell and the clean sheet will give the boys at the back a lift too.
"Hopefully their confidence was knocked after getting beat in midweek. We're high in confidence and whichever team turns it on on the day will get the result."
The midweek results mean Caley Thistle could move one point behind Hearts on Saturday after moving into the top six.
Foran said: "I don't really concentrate on the table but you need to be winning your home games.
"The squad is looking really strong at the moment, which gives you a good headache every week. It was the lads that got that win at Motherwell, it's all down to them."
Robbie Neilson wants Hearts to show more attacking initiative.
The Gorgie side missed the chance to go second on Wednesday when they fell to a 2-0 defeat at Kilmarnock.
"The attitude was fine, I thought we passed the ball really well, it's just we didn't penetrate enough," Neilson said.
"I thought we were a little bit safe in possession at times.
"We looked at the stats and our pass percentage and retention of the ball was really good, but the actual forward passing wasn't what we were looking for.
"It's something we need to do better on Saturday."
It was another blank game for Neilson's strikers with Tony Watt, Conor Sammon and Rugby Park substitute Bjorn Johnsen only on one Premiership goal each after 10 games.
"It will come," Neilson said. "I have 100 per cent faith in all my strikers. They are good players, you can see that in training.
"Every team goes through little periods when they find it hard to hit the back of the net.
"When you look at the goalscoring record in comparison with other teams, it's really good.
"It's just we are spreading the goals over the course of the team as opposed to certain individuals, which in a way is a good thing. But you always like your strikers to get into double figures."
Hearts hit five against Caley Thistle in August but Neilson expects a far tougher test in the Highlands.
Richie Foran's side have only lost once in seven matches since an opening hat-trick of defeats and former Hearts defender Brad McKay and striker Lonsana Doumbouya have made a difference since joining after their Tynecastle loss.
"It's been a big turnaround for them," Neilson said. "We played against them here and they were very open and very expansive and we managed to penetrate quite a lot.
"I have watched their games recently and they have tightened up.
"You bring Brad in who is predominantly a centre-half and play him at right-back, which gives you more solidity in defence. And the striker up front gives them a lot of physicality.
"One of the problems when they played here, they didn't have that physicality. So it's going to be a totally different game."
Source: PAR
