'He p****s me off, he's just too good' - Hearts hero Braga jokes about playing with skipper Lawrence Shankland
The striker spoke about being wowed by his teammate at training and in games ahead of this weekend’s match against Rangers at Tynecastle.
Hearts fan favourite Claudio Braga has joked about how much striking partner Lawrence Shankland annoys him with his natural football ability and the way he makes things ‘look easy’.
The Portuguese forward spoke to the press ahead of this weekend’s Scottish Premiership match with Rangers at Tynecastle with his trademark enthusiasm and cheekiness. He was full of praise for Shankland and his other teammates and reiterated just how much he is loving life with the table topping Jambos.
Braga even spoke about supporting the Scotland national team and his skipper as well as fellow forward Pierre Landry Kabore who recently left the club to join up with Burkina Faso for the Africa Cup of Nations. He described the ‘family’ feel the club has at the moment and how thrilled he is to see his teammates do well on the international stage.
“He pisses me off” - Braga jokes about Shankland’s footballing ability ahead of Rangers clash
“I feel really happy that I can compete with a guy that is the best goalscorer in the history of the league and compete in a good way,” Braga said about Shankland. “Hopefully we can keep this partnership and grow more with that.
“He pisses me off, to be honest, because he's just too good. For example, I feel like I'm a more energetic guy and everything, but he makes things look easy, you know? And it's like, how do you do that? He's just really that good when it comes to the ball at his feet. The ball doesn't cry at all, so that impressed me."
Asked about Shankland’s qualities as a captain, Braga added: “He’s a good one, because I think first you have the respect of everybody and that's very important as a captain. People look up for you and look up to you, I would say, and everybody looks up to him. He's a good guy, a good player, and then when you build that up and put a little bit of leadership there, you have a good captain.
“Yes [he takes responsibility], but I think as a team we all need to take responsibility. If you are playing at such a big level and you want to go more and more, I think you need to take responsibility for your own actions.
“Of course, as a leader you normally would take some responsibility, but as a team that wants to evolve and get better, I think individually we need to take responsibility for what we do, the mistakes we do. It can't go on only over one guy, so I think we try to do that as a team, to just push each other and even insult each other if we need to, in a good way on the pitch, and then out of the pitch we are friends."
Braga ‘really impressed’ by quality in Hearts squad that has helped him progress as a player
Braga also said he had been impressed by the quality in the Hearts squad when he arrived in Scotland. The standards set by the rest of the players at Tynecastle have helped him improve as a player, he believes.
"I feel like in the beginning, before I came here, I was kind of scared because my first training. I looked at the first touch and quality of the guys and I was actually impressed, really impressed. In the beginning I was like, it's going to be tough for me.
“Then as soon as you start playing with them and you start learning and taking some advices and also looking, oh, he's going to do this and I need to push myself to do better, that's really good because you kind of fit in the technique and the quality of the guys and then you want to keep pushing, pushing, pushing, and suddenly you are pushing others to have the same as you."
“I think the things that I'm maybe worse at are the things he [Shankland] is best at, so that helps me a lot on being a more balanced player. I still need to learn a lot and I know sometimes I do stupid mistakes, but that's part of being a football player, I would say. I'm happy actually to be with guys with so much quality that I look up for and they piss me off when I see that they are that good."
While Hearts will have both Braga and Shankland to call on this weekend for the visit of Rangers, they will be without Burkinabe international Pierre Landry Kabore. Seeing his teammates do well on the international stage is something Braga says he takes a lot of pleasure in.
“It's a very good opportunity for him. Everybody is happy for him because it's a national team competition, a big national team competition, and he was doing well in the national team.
“Hopefully he can keep doing well and get as far as possible with his country. I think it's everybody's dream. If I could go with Portugal also, I would go. I think it's everybody's dream to represent the national team. It's kind of strange because he's in mid-season, but he can't choose. I think he just needs to enjoy this opportunity and do as best as he can.
“We try to keep up with the guys that go to the national team. I was cheering for Scotland, hen I see Shanks scoring and Craig in the goal. I think we have a good family inside of the group and that's really important.
“I think we back up each other so well. That's probably the reason why it's working so well because outside and inside of the pitch we're actually really close. Like I told you, we have the freedom to insult each other at the end of training, nothing's going on.
“We're just pushing for each other. When we see people trying to do their best outside, especially in the national team, it's such an important thing. Everybody wants them to do alright."
Hearts forward hopes Portuguese countryman can turn fortunes around at Rangers
Braga has clearly been the best Portuguese player in the Scottish Premiership this season, despite Rangers having splashed a significant transfer fee to sign Youssef Chermiti from Everton. The Hearts man says he doesn’t know his Ibrox counterpart personally, but hopes he can show his quality at the Glasgow club - as long as it doesn’t come at the expense of the Jambos.
He said: “I spoke with him when he came in the game against us a little bit. To be honest, he's a Portuguese guy, I hope he does well, except against us of course. I hope he can go through this tough moment. I think for any player it's a difficult position to be in because the pressure is so big in the way of how much you cost and how much people expect from you. I think you just give time to him.
“He was a good player when he was in the Portuguese league. He plays for the national team under 21. He's a good player. You don't go to the national team if you're not a good player. It's about the moments, some players take a little bit more to get adapted. He's Portuguese so I wish him all the best."
On the Rangers match this weekend, and the importance the result could have on the Scottish Premiership title race, Braga added: “It's an important game, of course, for us. We play at home and we want to win.
“We want to have this momentum that we built also in the beginning of the season. Hopefully we can do it at home against Rangers to keep going with the momentum that we have.
“I wouldn't say we are thinking about how the other teams are behind us or something. I think if we keep thinking about how we need to do this to win and then we win games, then it doesn't really matter.
"You look at the table, of course, but I don't think we think and we are actually trying to push each other to not think about that, not think about the title race, just because it's so many games. You probably know for sure that if you put that pressure on as a player or something like that, you'll have difficulty to focus on what you need to focus on.
“That is the next game and that's it. If we focus on, let's say, Rangers, Hibs, Falkirk, it doesn't really help us, does it? So I think we need to try to push ourselves to take that away from what you think.
“Of course, we are doing a good season and right now is still halfway of the season. Like I said, it's like pushing that stress for us, bringing that stress for us as title contenders. I think the gaffer already said this, if we go to March or April and then we're first, then it's like a little bit different conversation. I think there we need to take our responsibility but right now it's so early and that will not be good for us if we bring that to us.”
Braga, unlike many of his teammates who have been around the Scottish game longer, has never tasted defeat against Rangers or Celtic. After wins at Ibrox and Celtic Park this season, he’s hoping to keep up that record.
"I think it's not that often that happens and that's amazing that we can show that we are not only winning games theoretically easy, because on the paper it may be easier, but on the field it's different. For example, against Falkirk it was very bad conditions, very difficult game to win and thank god we did it.
“Of course, people look at that game as a little bit more difficult just because of the history. I think we are doing well and prove ourselves that we can keep that level and can win against teams that are in Europe."