Wouter Vrancken won't burst into tears over Hearts injury situation as he provides update on new blow to star
The Hearts head coach has reacted to a big win over Dundee in the Premiership.
Wouter Vrancken insists he won’t burst into tears over his midfield injury concerns at Hearts after options were further reduced with injury to Blair Spittal.
The Jambos prevailed 2-1 against the Dark Blues on Sunday thanks to a dramatic 97th minute Sabah Kerjota winner. Steven Pressley’s team were ahead through Bradley Fink, suffering injury woes of their own after Joe Westley and Finlay Robertson were stretchered off either side of the interval, and they had Zan Besir red carded late into the second half. Claudio Braga has already levelled up from the penalty spot after VAR spotted a handball by Dundee’s Owen Bevan and Kerjota’s low effort sparked bedlam inside Tynecastle.
It moves the Jambos eight games unbeaten across all competitions and into the Premiership’s second spot behind leaders Celtic, prior to their Premier Sports Cup last eight meeting with Championship leaders Stenhousemuir at Ochilview next Friday. Already missing Tom Renaud and Ageu, Spittal picked up his lower leg injury that will keep him out for an extended period during Thursday’s Edinburgh derby win at Hibs, starting duo Tomas Magnusson and Laurent Mendy left as the only natural midfielders for head coach Vrancken in his matchday squad.
What midfield options do Hearts have?
Yan Dhanda remains at the club but is not in their European group for their Conference League campaign with competitive chances limited since returning from a loan to Dens Park. 18-year-old midfielder Leart Kabashi has been signed from Grasshopper Zurich too but head coach Vrancken, who also missed a possible option in McEntee for the second half due to injury, says others must step up.
“We didn't have any extra options,” Vrancken said. “We could push Oisin forward, for example, that was a possibility. But at half-time, he felt something, and then we had to take him off. This option was gone in the second half. We kept pushing. I'm also happy that the subs could make a difference again. This is a thing for the club. I think we're really thin there, from my perspective.
“The other thing is, a guy like Ageu, of course you want to have him as soon as possible, but we cannot skip steps. At any moment you bring him in, we have to look out for him, of course. But we cannot rush with him, that's for sure, because otherwise we take too much risk with the player and that's something I for sure don't want to do. But yeah, OK, we have to solve it. Other guys have to step up. We have Oisin, who was also great at midfield at the beginning of the season.
“So yeah, we'll see. It's a pity, but I'm not the guy who's going into a corner and starting to cry about these things. We just have to move on, and we have other players to step up, and we have to fight for points, and for quality. So this is what we have to do.”
On McEntee, Vrancken added in an injury update over the Irishman when asked if it was minor: “I think so. I think so, but with Blair, I didn't think it was that bad. I'm not a medical expert, so I always have to be careful with those things. It looked okay, but like I said, it's not now. Such things you can never discuss directly after the game.”
Hearts 2-1 Dundee assessed
The Jambos boss says it was important for his team to maintain momentum from a 3-1 success at Easter Road against Hibs. Vrancken added: "When you win such a derby, and you lose this weekend, you bring focus again on the negative. You lose the emotion of the derby a bit. I'm really happy to see that we stayed in the game and we kept pushing to get what we deserved and at the end they did it. We have to improve in ways to win such a game like this a little bit easier because we made it difficult for ourselves.
“I was not happy with the first half, of course. I think we were too much looking at the situation instead of taking it on. We didn't show enough conviction. One long ball in the back of defence takes you behind against a team that focuses there on a lot of defence and went into the second half with five in the back. I have to say that second half was much better. We showed conviction, we won all second balls, we won our duels, we showed guts, we did more in possession. I think we could move the ball faster than we did in the second half. That could create more possibilities, even more possibilities because I think they didn't create anything except the goal they made. At the end, happy to see them getting what they deserve.”
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