Hearts have headache to solve with star man as Zander Clark's confidence addressed
The talking points from the Jambos’ big win over Livingston
We pick out three talking points from Hearts’ 2-1 win over Livingston on Saturday to put the Jambos provisionally top of the table:
The hallmark of winners
Hearts clearly aren’t the finished article yet. Head coach Derek McInnes will freely admit that just four games into the Premiership season. He was disappointed with the way his team played in the first half against Livingston, conceding what he felt to be a “cheap” goal and lacking intensity.
But what Hearts have shown in three of their four league matches is resilience and desire to bite back. Against Dundee United at Tannadice, they battled to win 3-2 with a last-minute goal from Stuart Findlay. At home to Motherwell, they recovered from trailing 3-0 to get a 3-3 draw and against Livi, they rallied in the second half and Alexandros Kyziridis netted the winner in the 91st minute.
Hearts woke up this morning top of the league. Now, nobody is getting carried away, despite the ambition of investor Tony Bloom to have Hearts champions at some point in the next ten years. But winning games like this is a trait only successful teams show.
The Jambos know they need to start matches better, but by digging deep, they are racking up points when previous men in maroon would not have done so.
The Kyziridis conundrum
Greek winger Kyziridis was the hero in West Lothian. He came on at half time and within two minutes had set up Claudio Braga’s leveller with a pinpoint cross. He was direct, ran at opponents and added a zest that was missing in the first half.
His coup de grace was the winning strike, showing fine composure to curl the ball beyond Livingston keeper Jerome Prior after the ball was fed to him. His celebrations with the 6000-plus visiting fans were naturally pretty exuberant.
Hearts have an array of options out wide when they don’t play 3-5-2. As well as Kyziridis, McInnes can call upon Alan Forrest, Sabah Kerjota and Pierre Kabore as bona-fide wingers. Blair Spittal and Kenneth Vargas can also do a job there.
Kyziridis has mainly been used off the bench by McInnes. Many Hearts fans will want him to start, given what he brings to the team. Whether he has done enough to be selected against Rangers at Ibrox in two weeks’ time remains to be seen. He is the sort of player who has super-sub tendencies.
Is there a goalkeeper issue?
Zander Clark may have the Hearts gloves by default due to injuries for Craig Gordon and Ryan Fulton, but he has not been especially convincing this season and looked a fraction slow in reacting to Lewis Smith’s opening goal, which while well-struck was from distance.
Hearts are expected to add experienced goalkeeper Alexander Schwolow in the coming days. The German has more than 200 Bundesliga appearances and appears to be strong competition for Clark, who now heads off on Scotland duty for the World Cup qualifiers.
McInnes was pressed on Clark’s part in the goal and whether his confidence has taken a hit. “I've not seen the goal back,” said the head coach. “My first feeling, I'm just disappointed that he [Lewis Smith] has got a free hit at our goal. I need to look at it back. But I'm here to support all the players.
“Some players will be more confident than others and that's the way it goes. It's peaks and troughs for them. But a lot of people are still working for their best form. So we'll enjoy the win and there won't be too much critique on individuals.”