Hearts update on latest ace struck by injury as Wouter Vrancken gets honest over 'embarrassing' Falkirk loss
The Hearts head coach has reacted to a shock afternoon in Gorgie.
Wouter Vrancken has labelled Hearts’ 5-2 loss to Falkirk in the Premiership as an ‘embarrassment’ - with the club handling yet another injury blow.
The Jambos shipped four goals in a shock first half and controversially had a Claudio Braga strike disallowed when 2-0 down. They conceded one more after the break before the Portuguese striker and Sabri Guendouz scored consolations. Having already lost Calvin Miller, Tomas Magnusson and Stephen Kingsley to injury in the past week, Malachi Fagan-Walcott’s muscle issue makes it 12 Hearts players currently out.
Falkirk move into third and push Hearts into fourth as head coach Vrancken offered no excuses for his side who now enter a fortnight’s international break. He said: “This is an embarrassment, the first half for sure. Always doubting, always doing things half-half, in possession, out of possession, everything, and such easy goals again.
What happened during Hearts 2-5 Falkirk
“When you give those easy goals, like we said already, then you cannot win a game. Every, for sure, the last game also, the circumstances are different, but in Thun, for example, you come behind directly, same here, but it's childish goals and cannot happen on this level when you lose your man like this in the first one, and you have a simple counter on the set-piece. We showed the images, discussed it with them, same situation, pretty much the same situation.
“And the third one, you lose the marking, you just step forward instead of staying in the marking. Those simple things, they are the basics actually in these situations. It's crazy, crazy, and everybody, me, staff, players, have to take responsibility in those things. This is ridiculous.”
Providing an update on Fagan-Walcott and how confident he will be in a form upturn after the break amid one win in eight, Vrancken responded: “I'm pretty confident in this, especially when we get numbers back, because this also makes me a bit angry, because now we lose Mal again. Hopefully it's not too bad but still we had to replace him there. He was one of the guys who was good in the game, and in the last games he actually had a really consistent, good level.”
Youngsters Matthew Gillies and Leart Kabashi came into midfield for Premiership debuts, and Vrancken highlighted the duo as two positives, but admits it shouldn’t take their arrivals into battle to up temp. He explained: “The second half was better I think. The youngsters changed it, and I think there's also a bit of a lack of leadership at this moment. Because when you see youngsters coming in and raising the vibe or the positivity in the team, and the quality of the team, it's good for them because they took their moment. It's good for us to see that they can do it. So this is for them for sure, individual, really good. But at the other side it's also not good that those guys have to lift your level and these things.
Wouter Vrancken on Hearts 2-5 Falkirk
“I think it would be good to have some personalities back to keep it strong. We always know, in these moments, you also see how difficult it is in these situations. The only thing I'm happy about is the two youngsters who did a great performance.
The Hearts head coach was also asked whether he would have to simplify his attack-heavy style to avoid defeats such as this one in future. He responded: “Depending on who's coming back, because I think there are players out with a lot of technical awareness who can do these things. And OK, you don't have to blame every player here, because also a lot of players have to play a lot of games and have their reasons, like we said already before.”