Derek McInnes knows his Hearts side are not Barcelona, but he knows what his team need to be if they are to sustain a Scottish Premiership title challenge.
A chaotic 3-2 derby defeat at Hibernian consigned the leaders to just a second league loss of the season in their 19th match.
Despite responding with an attempted fightback, McInnes lamented his players not doing the basics well enough as they went three down at Easter Road on Saturday.
The Hearts boss says his side now “need to own” a “sore” afternoon in Leith, but he is not prepared to “lose all wherewithal” after a disappointing day.
“We get to the top of the league not by being Barcelona, not by being something we don’t think we are, it’s by doing basics well in games,” the 54-year-old told BBC Scotland.
“If you don’t do the basics well, it doesn’t matter how good you are or how good a run you’re on, you’re going to end up with a sore one.
“The second half we gave a much more familiar showing to what we normally do. I think it’s two defeats in 19, if we have two defeats out of the next 19, we’ve had a brilliant season, an unbelievable season.
“We’re not going to start losing all wherewithal at this moment in time. We’ve lost a game and we know the reasons why we’ve lost the game.”
