Hearts manager Daniel Stendel looks at changing formation to stop leaking goals

Daniel Stendel is considering altering Hearts' formation

Daniel Stendel is reluctant to drop Hearts goalkeeper Joel Pereira but is considering a change of formation to stop leaking goals.

The German manager could put a new system in place against Falkirk in the Scottish Cup on Saturday, but Pereira is likely to remain as goalkeeper.

The Manchester United loanee apologised in the dressing room after Wednesday night's 3-2 Premiership defeat by Kilmarnock at Tynecastle Park, which returned Hearts to the bottom of the league table.

Stendel watched his side concede three goals for the second match in succession and spoke with coaches Jorg Sievers, Dale Tonge and Andy Kirk on how to remedy the problem.

He has used 4-4-2 and 4-2-3-1 formations since taking charge of the Edinburgh club two months ago and may try something different.

"We spoke after the game about what we can do. We need the confidence to trust in our defence," he told the Evening News. "Not our back four or goalkeeper, as a team we need more trust that we can defend better and not concede easy goals like the last two games.

"We will have some more options in defence with Michael Smith and Aaron Hickey back maybe in the next week.

"Maybe we need to talk about the formation. We think about a lot of things we could do and we look at options. I said to the players that I think we all need to think about Wednesday's game and what we can do in the next few games to defend out goal better."

Questions were raised about Pereira after the Kilmarnock match and last weekend's 3-3 draw with St Johnstone. Stendel said he is not yet ready to take the keeper out of the limelight.

"It is not only Joel. He knows about the third goal [on Wednesday] and he apologised in front of the team but I think this was not the reason that we lost the game," explained the manager.

"We all know he can play better and he can win games for us. It is important he keeps his confidence. The last two games were not his best but Saturday is the next chance. We need all the other players to change the results."