Derek McInnes lifts lid on extent of Hearts fitness woes as stars sent challenge to aid the walking wounded
The Hearts head coach has reacted to a win for his team in the Premiership versus Falkirk
Derek McInnes has insisted it’s up to his fit Hearts players to step up, after the Jambos watched his side defeat Falkirk 1-0 in their latest Premiership match, amid mounting fitness concerns.
The Jambos responded to defeat at Ibrox last week to clinch three points thanks to Islam Chesnokov’s first goal for the club. Next up is Aberdeen at Tynecastle but with Lawrence Shankland, Cammy Devlin, Oisin McEntee and Stephen Kingsley amongst those already out injured, Ageu pulled up in the warm-up, with the midfielder slated to start the game.
His thigh problem added to Beni Baningime missing out and goalkeeper Craig Gordon also has a shoulder injury that kept him out of the game. Centre-back Stuart Findlay also trudged off with injury near the end of the game and starting shot-stopper Alexander Schwolow battled illness to make this clash, as captain on the day Craig Halkett also struggled through this week. Calem Nieuwenhof and Finlay Pollock are others injured with several blows in the middle of the park. McEntee and Baningime could make next week’s match but the manager hopes others can fill the void left by others.
What is injury latest at Hearts?
He said: “We couldn't name the team because we tried to give Beni another 24 hours because we thought he would make it. He failed his fitness test on Saturday morning. We don't think it's anything too serious. I think he'll be fine for next week, but certainly we're hoping so. And then Ageu coming off was not ideal as well.
“Beni is the outside of his knee, he just slipped. We were doing boxes. We were hardly even into the session, to be honest, with the warm-up and then into the boxes before we were going to do the main work. It settled pretty quickly and he can sprint fully, he can do it. It was just a wee bit of discomfort when he was trying to change direction. We think that will settle through treatment this week and hopefully be available.
“We've got six central midfield players injured and it was far from ideal for Ageu and the boy is distraught because I thought he would have been playing in a position that suits him against a team who is more of a technical game rather than the hurly-burly of Scottish football sometimes.
“I thought it would have been a good game for him and that's why we went with him. He's got a thigh issue. He felt it when he was doing his shooting in the warm-up. So we'll just see how that is in the morning. We're in Sunday, we'll get him assessed. Probably need to get that scanned and see where it's at, but I can’t dress it up. It's a huge blow for us, obviously. I just always assume Stu's going to be alright. So I don't know. I think he's been toiling a wee bit. We are trying get him through next week's game, hopefully. He's not really trained this week and Halkett has been struggling a wee bit as well.
“So we're just trying to get him through these games and then he can do with that rest after the Aberdeen game just to settle everything down a wee bit. I'm hoping he's alright. Craig Gordon is his other shoulder from the one that kept him out at the start of the season. So I don't know where that's sitting currently. I don't think it's getting any easier, as we hoped on Monday when he first flagged it up, that it might get easier as the week goes on. We actually on Friday night had Alexander Schwolow out as well. With a sickness bug. He had diarrhoea and sickness. There was a bit to consider before the game but thankfully I spoke to Alex and he managed to get a decent night's sleep.
Derek McInnes on Hearts 1-0 Falkirk
“He's played and stepped up to it so we're really grateful for that. He's lost a bit of weight with the virus and he's obviously not been able to train. He's not trained really. I think he's trained once this week. So there was an element of risk with that. But I think he used his experience to get through and thankfully he wasn't too busy. I've got six centre-mids out. Stu is a, I doubt. Lawrence out. Craig Gordon out. I think there's about eight or nine maybe in total. The challenge is to the squad to step up.”
“Hopefully, as I say, we've only got three games now in the next five or six weeks. If we can get through next Saturday we can get a bit of respite and hopefully things will start to get a wee bit healthier. I think Oisin might be fine for next week.I think Beni might be fine for next week. But I think probably they're the only two that might have a chance.”
It’s a result that keeps the Jambos undefeated in the league this season at home, and top of the table heading towards the end of February. McInnes added: “I think we've had five or six maybe in the league, and sometimes these 1-0 wins are the bedrock of any success a team can have. I think that's been demonstrated in history. We spoke about a late game here, we lost a late goal against Kilmarnock, and we said sometimes 1-0 is enough. I thought we were the team that looked more likely to score a second goal in the second half. I thought our performance was far better and far tidier in the second half.
“The first half was, at times, a 20-25 minute period where we looked really anxious. I thought our out-of-possession stuff was good against Falkirk the whole game but our in-possession stuff needed to be better. Sometimes when you're used to playing with two strikers, it becomes a bit more obvious the right passes to make. The scarier moments came when we lost the ball in poor areas and Falkirk countered on us. We spoke at half-time about the need to communicate louder, more effectively, certainly more as well and I thought at times we were causing ourselves problems just by not using our voice. We needed to take the anxiety out of the game by being a bit more organised with our in-possession stuff, and stop giving them little sniffs of encouragement. So the goal comes brilliantly.
“I need to thank the fans, because in that little period in the first half, it would have been easy to make the team more anxious. I actually thought they were the opposite, I thought they were brilliant. I think they understand it. I think there's so many at Hearts who this is new to them, and I think they all recognise that role to play. It helped the team. We get the goals just before half-time, so rather than coming off to grumbles and all the rest of it, we get the goal in the game and we've got something to hang on to. I thought we were the team more likely to get the second goal.”