Lawrence Shankland discusses Hearts' lack of goals and his own scoring issues this season
Like his team, the striker has found the net difficult to ripple
Rewind a few weeks and both Hearts and Lawrence Shankland couldn’t stop scoring. The 2023/24 campaign ended with the Edinburgh club hitting the net eight times in their last three games as Shankland famously claimed 31 club goals for the season. Now, four games into the new season, the Edinburgh club’s only goal remains Frankie Kent’s consolation header in a 3-1 defeat at Dundee. There is no cause to panic yet, despite what some people might tell you, although the situation does need addressed.
Thursday night’s Europa League play-off first leg against Viktoria Plzen in Czechia was the latest fixture where Hearts drew a blank. Shankland rasped the palms of Plzen goalkeeper Marian Tvrdon twice and fellow forward Kenneth Vargas was also through on goal on a couple of occasions. Alas, no-one is able to break the cycle right now. Shankland is not overly concerned.
He addressed the subject of goals, or lack of, in typically relaxed manner. He has seen all of this before at the age of 29 and is used to an element of hysteria when he goes two weeks without scoring. When you are as prolific as the Scotland internationalist, sometimes people take more notice when you don’t score - as unfair as that may be. Shankland is confident both he and Hearts will remedy the issue.
The captain spoke about his team’s performance in the 1-0 defeat in Plzen and looked ahead to Sunday’s Premiership visit to Motherwell. “Away from home, the first 15 minutes can be a bit wary [in Europe],” he explained. “You are sizing up opponents, you aren't used to what you are playing against. It's different in the league when you play teams all the time. You need to size them up a bit and we did that.
“We settled into the game pretty well, finished the first half strongly and we made a couple of good chances. We were threatening and we had a couple of shots that made the goalie make saves. In the second half, Kenny had a half chance going through as well and we just didn't manage to get the goal - which has been a wee bit of the story in the last few weeks. That changes at some point and I'm sure the momentum will change.”
Speaking from a personal perspective, Shankland said his situation mirrors the team’s: “Aye that's it. The good thing is you have shots on goals and, as daft as that sounds to other people, to a striker you are making goalies make saves. There will be one point where one sneaks past him. My second shot in particular goes through a few bodies and he actually does well to save it. It's positive for the team that we had opportunities and I think there's a bit of hope going into next week’s second leg.
“Losing 1-0 is disappointing, obviously. You get so close to a draw, which is a good result away from home in Europe, then you know you have a right good chance to go through going into the home leg. That is still the case but we made it a wee bit hard for ourselves. It's at that point now. You are trying to get a result, you do so well for more than 90 minutes and then you concede. It's a bit of a sickener. The overall feeling is that we have a right good chance to go through next week.”
As captain, Shankland did approach Daniel Oyegoke following his stoppage-time own goal which handed Viktoria a 1-0 advantage for the second leg. “There's nothing to say to him, really,” said Shankland. “He's got himself in a defensive position and it has just bounced off him. I said to him it would probably be worse if he got caught up the pitch and the guy taps it in. I told him he needed to be there to defend.
“He will obviously be down but I don't think there's anything to be down about in terms of what the boys think. He is there to try and do his job and he's just unlucky with the bounce of the ball. Trying to read the bounce on that pitch was hard at the best of times. It wouldn't surprise me if it took a dodgy one.”
Shankland also issued a strong response to claims by the Czechs that Hearts time-wasted too often in the Doosan Arena. “It's part of the game, I'm sure they'll be doing the same this week,” he replied. “It's managing football and I wouldn't say we were time-wasting or diving. I think boys were genuinely going down with knocks. Of course, that is frustrating and I think their crowd probably turned up expecting them to just run over the top of us and they didn't. That adds to the atmosphere and they get a bit frustrated about that. I wouldn't say we were time wasting, we were playing the game and managing it away from home like we should.”
Shankland’s header in Trondheim last August gave Hearts a priceless goal in the first leg of their Conference League qualifier against Rosenborg, who won 2-1 on the night. Hearts won the return match 3-1 at Tynecastle to progress. This Thursday is a similar situation as Steven Naismith’s team look to overhaul Viktoria’s one-goal lead.
“In terms of the result, aye, it’s similar, but it's obviously a wee bit of sickener that we've not come away with a draw,” admitted Shankland. “The objective is to come here and build. It's a bit of a cliche but you're still in the tie and you're going back there. I've seen their manager saying they saw the first leg as hugely important because they are not used to the atmosphere. Hopefully our place is rocking next week and we can get at them from the start.
“It's a different game. Away from home you need to be structured, be organised and I feel we are really good when we are like that. The team takes confidence from that organisation and being in a solid block. I think, defensively, we were solid throughout, we lose the one at the end but apart from that it was a good performance.”
After three straight defeats, there is clear motivation for Hearts to earn three points at Fir Park on Sunday. Shankland acknowledged that three losses in a row rankles with the players at Riccarton. “It does and of course you want to win games. Again it flips, we go to Motherwell at the weekend where we're expected to go and win. That needs to be the mindset of the boys, it's going to be games coming thick and fast - whether that be in the Europa League or in the Conference after next week.
“We're going to be playing Thursday-Sunday for a good bit. It comes down to mentality, you need to be ready to suffer at times. The Sunday games will be difficult, there will be games you don't play your best and you need to try and grind out wins. You'll be fatigued but if your mindset is right and you're ready for that challenge, then you can stand up to it and get points in the league as well.”