Hearts' attacking mindset, the Trabzonspor atmosphere and a fight for Mo Salah's shirt
Winger Sabah Kerjota knows what to expect in Turkiye
Sabah Kerjota advised Hearts to be ready for hostility at Trabzonspor and to embrace the UEFA Conference League challenge. After overcoming Rapid Vienna on penalties to reach the tournament’s league phase, the Tynecastle side want to progress to the knockout phase. They fly to Turkiye on Wednesday ahead of Thursday’s meeting at Papara Park.
Trabzonspor’s support is known for creating an intimidating atmosphere for visitors, as witnessed in Monday’s Turkish Super Lig win over Besiktas. Kerjota wants Hearts to seize their moment in Trabzon and believes they can get a result. “I haven’t played there but I'm from Albania so Turkish teams are... you always heard about them, but it's a tough game,” said the Tynecastle winger. “They have good players. They have Mo Salah, they have an Albanian winger too [Ernest Muci], and they won last week [against KuPS]. It's going to be a tough game.
“It's so difficult. We know that in Turkey, Trabzonspor, Galatasaray, Besiktas, they have one of the best stadiums in the world for the fans. But we play always against Rangers, Celtic and when the teams come to Tynecastle. it's the same atmosphere. So it will be a good game for us and hopefully we get some points. We won against Rapid in Vienna to get to play these games. So we are here now and we need to play like we are the same as them. So we will do our best.”
Hearts lost to Sturm Graz in the Champions League qualifiers and Benfica in the Europa League qualifiers before dropping into the Conference League play-off to meet Rapid. Kerjota expects Trabzonspor to be a comparable opponent to Sturm and Benfica. “Probably, they have good players,” he acknowledged. “I think Benfica is a little bit better because they have young players and they play in a better level I think, but in terms of the support they have and Salah, I don't need to say nothing after this.”
Pointing to Salah as one of his heroes, Kerjota added: “I think for every player of Hearts and every player in the world he is one of the best players. You try to learn from watching these players. Hopefully he's going to play a bad game Thursday, but we're going to do our best and we go there to do our game.”
Hearts drew 1-1 with Nordsjaelland in their opening Conference League tie last week, while Trabzonspor won 4-2 at KuPS in Finland. Players are confident lessons have been learned from the heavy defeats suffered against Sturm and Benfica to stand them in good stead for the test in Turkiye. “Yeah, for sure. We already learned about this, but like we saw last week, the European teams are different,” Kerjota pointed out. “So it will be for sure a difficult game. But if we play good, like we showed this season, I think that we can have a good game.”
It remains to be seen whether Hearts will stick to the attacking approach favoured by head coach Wouter Vrancken this season, or switch to a slightly more conservative style. Sunday’s 7-1 defeat at Celtic exposed defensive deficiencies and individual errors. “I think that the coach wants to do the same, generally,” said Kerjota. “He never wants to defend. We will try to do our game. After we will see if they are that good. But we will do our game for sure.”
There may be a fight for Salah’s shirt at full-time given his legendary status in football. Kerjota believes he has an advantage over some of his team-mates. “I already said to the Albanian guy in the national team [Muci]. Hopefully, we will see,” he smiled.